To think that people were thinner

[Elfina]

In the past in the UK, up until about the 80s because food was less 'interesting'; less variety, seasoning etc so because it didn't taste that amazing you'd just eat your full and no more?

[Pipbin]

donna I've got to say I don't know any children who drink that much pop, or have sweets that often. I think that's a common misconception and not the norm, tbh. In my experience, anyway

I see children who are given sweets every single day when they get picked up from school. Not just once a week or on a special day, every day. And it's not just one or two children but a large proportion of the class.
I also know primary school age children who have 'energy drinks' in their lunch boxes.

And while I mention them, when did lucozade stop being something you had when you were poorly and become an everyday drink?

[TalkinPeace]

kaumana
except that mens sizing is vanity sized too .... as the "waistband" is often measured at hip level which is often below men's paunches
and the chest measurements leave buttons gaping

[lljkk]

People eat (on average) a lot fewer calories now than they did 40-50 yrs ago. This so consistently agreed upon it's got a name, something like the obesity-calorie paradox. So the only other explanation is the right one: we don't exercise as much as we used to.

[EmilyAlice]

Interesting question. I think that although the choice was much more limited, good food still tasted delicious. From my childhood (fifties) I remember boiled eggs with bread and butter, roast chicken (very expensive and a rare treat), my mother's trifle and strawberries and cream.
My MiL had spent her youth in Cairo and she walked miles to get avocados and aubergines when they first appeared.
I think that we wouldn't have been allowed to over-eat and leftovers were always kept for the next day. The Sunday roast always lasted three days, hot, cold and shepherd's pie or similar (we quite often still do this).
I think it has got much easier and cheaper to over-indulge now.

[Oneglassandpuzzled]

I don't think it's exercise (or lack of). It's snacking and too much central heating.

And women drinking more.

[ComposHat]

But is that vanity sizing by measuring at the hips or merely a reflection of the fact that most jeans and trousers are now cut to sit on the hips rather than the navel as they did 30 years ago?

[BalloonSlayer]

"If the argument about sizes getting bigger was true then I don't see how I would have gone from a 10 in 1980 to a 14 in 2010. Surely I would have stayed a 10. This one really befuddles me to be honest."

Nearthewindmill were you really a size 10 at 9 stone in 1980? I was 7 stone and a size 10 in 1980. I am 9 stone now and still a size 10. My DD is the size I was in 1980 and she is a size 6.

[bakeroony]

Oh yes, we're all a lot warmer now! Think of all those calories we're not burning off through shivering/the body generally working harder by being a bit cooler.

I wonder if there's any studies out there about us (adults and children) getting less sleep than in decades past. Less sleep disrupts hormones affecting appetite regulation (leptin?), and the hormone which tells us when we're full. And of course, I for one crave sugar when I'm tired.

[Tryharder]

I was thinking about this the other day.

When I was growing up, women generally had big hips and bums but were slim elsewhere. They tried to lose weight by eating low fat.

Nowadays, a lot of young women are fat around their middles and arms but quite slim on their legs and hips. Our body shapes have changed!

[bakeroony]

Our body shapes have changed...what's causing this?

You'd think with all the estogen we're ingesting that we'd be getting big hips and bums, not the other way round...

[wowfudge]

Just thinking about this some more, is it also likely that the traditional filling foods loaded with fat and carbs were designed to fuel people doing more manual type work, rather than people in sedentary jobs who are burning fewer calories?

[NearTheWindmill]

it befuddles me too balloon slayer. I wonder if it's a build issue. I have a teutonic frame - broad and big boned but not much fat (in my 20s/30s at least). I think the 10 issue was not waist (that was tiny) but my broad hips and thighs. I never fitted a 10 btw - a 10 was too tight and a 12 hung off. I always though M&S should have made an 11

[LaurieFairyCake]

Body shapes have definitely changed to apple and not hour glass - I'm putting this down to younger women getting a lot of their calories from empty carbs and from prolonged exposure to extra hormones in food from a young age.

I'm 42 and was not exposed to much in the way of empty carbs or hormones and even at 3 stone overweight I don't have a muffin top or developed an apple shape. My proportions remain hourglass at 43, 29, 42.

[fascicle]

Tryharder you've just described two different body shapes: the 'pear' and the 'apple'. You don't morph from one into the other.

lljkk I've heard similar. Certainly that no more calories are consumed here now, compared to several decades ago. So it must be down to calories spent - more exercise (or at least movement); more non-desk based jobs; very few screens; lack of remote controls; fewer cars per household; fewer short journeys made by car; more walking; colder houses etc etc.

As for this no snacking business - I remember eating plenty of snacks in the 70s, including having 'supper' just before bed (in addition to tea/dinner). At primary school they sold snacks like crisps during break and at secondary school - they sold all sorts of lovely buns and cakes.

[bakeroony]

I'm so glad someone else had "supper" before bed too! Sometimes I think my DM invented it as a bedtime bribe!

For those who think snacks and junk food weren't common in the 70s, have a read of Andrew Collins' "Where Did It All Go Right?" - a lovely biography of a boy growing up in the 70s, with some wonderful descriptions of the food!

[gandalfcat]

My Aunts all stayed skinny through the 70s by practically living on tea and ciggies - not something to recommend!

[ouryve]

I have, changed, Fascicle. At 23, I was a size 14, with 26" waist and 39" hips. I was a classic pear with all of a 34" bust.

2 decades and 2 kids later, I weigh just a few pound more and I'm a 14, with 31" waist and 37" hips. I'm a top heavy apple, with a 40" bust.

[BoulevardOfBrokenSleep]

I'm actually quite amazed, looking back, how fat the people they allowed on the TV then were. Someone mentioned Carry On above: here's the still from that infamous Carry On Camping scene

There's no way the woman in the blue leotard or the black and white bikini would get hired as actresses nowadays. Don't you think? Maybe after liposuction, fake tan and fake boobs....

[CheesyBadger]

Funny you should post this today - I was thinking exactly that when watching old Keith Floyd footage this morning. There was a Barber shop quartet of young lads on there and they were all so slight, as were the chefs.

I think it is a combination of lifestyle and diet, less manual jobs and playing out. My grandad spent most of his boyhood in the woods, working on farms, building when older. He was always lean and rosy and looked the image of health. Food was simpler, exercise was life not the gym... like my mum always says 'Eat until you're full and hoover with enthusiasm!'

[bakeroony]

ouryve, I have those measurements near enough - 27" waist, 39" hips, 30" bust. I'm a size 8 top and 10 bottom!

Sizes have definitely changes.

[bakeroony]

Boulevard those extras probably never went to the gym - they're definitely less toned than what we're used to seeing on TV!

[iklboo]

My gran, great aunts & both great grans were very large ladies.

[ComposHat]

Yes iklboo almost all the older women from my childhood were large too. Massively so in some cases. I wonder if your background was similar to mine?

These were all women married to men who worked at the pit, born in the decade after the first world war. Certainly in the early years, their husband's earnings had been erratic and small and all would have had memories of being desperately hungry through the depression as children

Far from it being a sign of embarrassment being large was a status symbol and a physical manifestation of wealth. To be thin was a sign of poverty.

[Pipbin]

One thing that got a small mention earlier is smoking.
I remember the 80s where everyone smoked.
I wonder if people smoked rather than snacked.

As for supper. That was what we called our main evening meal in the south, but DH is from the midlands and he remembers having a bit of bread and cheese before bed as supper.