To not understand why the 70s were so much healthier considering the crap we ate?

[Destinysdaughter]

I'm currently reading the thread about what was considered normal in the past, cooking with dripping, jam sandwiches etc and am curious as to why obesity was so rare in comparison to now where it's virtually an epidemic?

Fresh fish such as tuna and cod were cheap in the 70's and 80's as was a lamb or beef joint. They are considerably more expensive now. Also I've not read the whole thread, but maybe we are more time poor now with more mothers working and kids at after school activities that didn't exist in the 70's and using convenience foods for a quick meal.

Fresh fish such as tuna and cod were cheap in the 70's and 80's as was a lamb or beef joint. They are considerably more expensive now

They were never cheap. I think they are relatively cheaper now. Certainly they were not things we could have even dreamed of buying then, wheras now you can get them in the supermarket relatively inexpensively.

Obviously people are generalising here but you need to remember that your experience my not reflect other peoples, and may or may not have been the norm.

Lamb and Beef may be more expensive now, but chicken is dirt cheap, and in 1970s it was really expensive.

The reason fish and chips is a national dish is because for much of the time it was a staple part of peoples diets. For an active person, fish and chips is a really healthy meal. And the fish was fresh cod/haddock.
It was, compared to income much cheaper than now, we can't afford it now!

I don't remember ever seeing fresh tuna though. Tuna came out of a tin.

and frozen veg may not be the tastiest, but they have always been low in salt and sugar.

You lived in a different 1970s to me steppemum if you don't remember eating much convenience food. I still remember the horrors of tinned potatoes, "Smash" and other tinned/powered veg, corned beef and the really horrible frozen pizzas and cheap ice "cream". The UK wasn't known around the world for its terrible food for nothing.
I certainly thought the pre prepared meals from the 1980s onwards e.g. M&S food were a big step up.

Lots of mothers worked then too, and it was when convenience foods really took off.
Some of you might have been eating lamb and fresh veg made by your SAH mothers, but some of us were eating Findus crispy pancakes with smash and tinned peas.

big assumption and stereotype there user, my Mum worked full time.

No assumptions from me, I clearly said some this way, some that way. That was the point.
I wasn't even responding to you, but obviously to the person who said but maybe we are more time poor now with more mothers working and kids at after school activities that didn't exist in the 70's and using convenience foods for a quick meal

User Coke does have different amounts of sugar in different countries.
www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-3255034/Coca-Cola-Pepsi-brands-differ-sugar-world.html

It might have have had less sugar in the past.

User
McDonalds for instance, far far lower is salt, sugar, additives than it used to be
McDonalds wasn't in the Uk in the 1970s or if it was not until the end. WImpy's was the place to get a hamburger, and it was a much rarer way to eat. The only usual take away was fish and chips.

Yes, I know. But that isn't what we are talking about, and it did not have less sugar in the past.

And please don't use the DM as a reference for anything!

Don't worry that was from Action on Sugar. The point was it is possible there was less sugar,.

McDonalds wasn't in the Uk in the 1970s or if it was not until the end

Could you please check this stuff before you post? A simple google will tell you that McDonalds opened in London in 1974, by the end of the decade there were a hundred.

No, it was from the Daily Mail. That is what the link is.

And no, it is not possible.

I don't remember many families eating smash or tinned potatoes. Vegetables and fruit in season was cheap. People and children were more active, fewer families had more than one car. There was less snacking between meals, which could be why, in spite of having a home-made pudding every evening, my own children were not (and still aren't) overweight.

I lived in the 1970s and Macdonalds was not a staple part of life. In the few busy southern towns I knew even by 1976 there were no Macdonalds.

In the USA they had long been everywhere, as they are now in the UK.

I know the picture I linked was from the Daily Mail, but the source the DM used as illustration was from Action on Sugar.

I don't remember many families eating smash or tinned potatoes.

"Smash" was hugely popular. My school even used it for a large proportion of dinners (yuk).

I lived in the 1970s and Macdonalds was not a staple part of life. In the few busy southern towns I knew even by 1976 there were no Macdonalds.

I'm sure that everyone on mumsnet would say that Macdonalds aren't a staple part of their life now though....

That's the trouble with this thread. Everyone is talking about what they ate or did in the 1970s and assuming everyone else was the same. However, when talking about today they are talking about what they perceive other are eating/doing.

I don't remember many families eating smash or tinned potatoes

Oh well the people telling you that is what they ate must be wrong then. And the easily found stats on the huge rise of sales of convenience foods must also be wrong'

People, stop being so arrogant. Other people with different lives exist now, and they did then too!

Ok not a staple for people on Mumsnet.

Eating take aways like Macdonalds, pizzas, Kentucky fries chicken, and there muse be more chains, is more prevalent now than it was in the 1970s. Perhaps eating foods from these places, more frequently, has had some impact on the rising levels of obesity in the population in general.

Except people ate on average 800 calories MORE a day in 1975 that they do today. All evidence suggests the leading cause of the rise in obesity is lack of exercise rather than food intake, which is lower on average.

800 calories MORE

how do you know?

I don't remember having treats in the house, such as crisps chocolate or fizzy drinks, unless it was Christmas, Easter or a birthday.
A trip to the ice cream van was a real treat. We had a chip shop take away about once a month.
I'm sure my parents would have loved to drink at home, but just couldn't afford it. We would have drink in the house at Christmas, but that was the only time really.

My childhood diet was basically - egg and chips, beans on toast, casseroles, cornflakes and sausage and mash. Oh and lots of jam butties.
Not much fruit, as that was a bit of a luxury too.
Not the healthiest diet, but no big portions. I used to walk all of the time as often didn't have money for bus fare. Bus fares were much cheaper back then but we were just really skint.

I think in 2017 many people don't know what their calorie intake really is.
I try to tally my calories through the day, but I think it's difficult now as so many of us have takeaways and are regularly eating out.
I think their is a bit of denial going on as well. It's a bit like a smoker saying they have 10 a day when they go through at least one box of 20!

My sister never takes alcohol into consideration when she is totting up calories. It seems that it doesn't count, as it is fluid..

[[https://www.nutrition.org.uk/attachments/144_Food%20availability%20and%20our%20changing%20diet.pdf 40th Anniversary Briefing Paper:
Food availability and our changing diet, British Nutrition Foundation report]].

^Table 8 highlights how total energy intakes, estimated from household purchases, peaked in the 1950s at 2660 kcal per person per day. This has now fallen, in line with declining levels of physical activity (see Section
4.3), to 1750 kcal per person per day.^

I was born in late seventies but my mum hated cooking so I was definitely brought up on crappy convenience food; smash, cheesy pancakes, chips, sugary cereals... I have always been thin but that must be genetics. Looking back I don't think my diet was healthy but I was always very active.