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AIBU?

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Original poster

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

461 replies

Destinysdaughter · 14/01/2017 22:12

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?

OP posts:
Archduke · 14/01/2017 22:24

The point about sweets is a good one. My children get sweets on a pretty ad hoc basis (which is my fault), we only ever had sweets on a Saturday morning and that was a 1/4 of a Creme Egg or a few penny sweets to share with my brothers bought on the way home from a Saturday morning shopping trip (walk) into town, lugging bags of shopping home for mum.

user1484317265 · 14/01/2017 22:24

There is nothing unhealthy about dripping, or jam sandwiches. Food was real, no trans fats, no fake sugars, almost no ready meals etc. More exercise and less snacking.
It's not a difficult question.

JennyOnAPlate · 14/01/2017 22:24

I wasn't born until 1980 but I never ate a single takeaway throughout my entire childhood. We ate out once a year (on Christmas Eve) at the local pub.

ghostyslovesheets · 14/01/2017 22:24

to be fair though it was a bit shit - very beige and all those bloody power cuts and ladybirds Grin

BackforGood · 14/01/2017 22:26

How odd. A MN thread where we are all agreeing Grin

I too was going to say lot more walking everywhere and you only ate 3 meals. It still surprises me how much some dc 'snack' constantly.

Not saying it was healthier all round though - I had a lot of sun burn in the 70s, we didn't have seatbelts in the back of our cars , and so on and so forth.

hairypaws · 14/01/2017 22:27

I was born in 1070 and I was one of the biggest at school, still struggle with my weight. Looking around at my kids school friends majority are slim so I don't think things have changed too much really.

bertsdinner · 14/01/2017 22:27

I grew up in the 70s. Convenience food did exist but was not as common, a lot of food was cooked from scratch. Takeaways were an occasional treat, my parents sometimes got a Chinese on Saturdays but this was rare. Snacks were less frequent, I did get sweets but only once or twice a week.
I think food must have been more expensive (relatively) back then.Treats were less frequent.
I think portion size was smaller.

hairypaws · 14/01/2017 22:28

1970 not 1070!

megletthesecond · 14/01/2017 22:30

More active.
Smaller portions / plates.

beanfilledfish · 14/01/2017 22:30

i wonder if i was living in an alternate 1970s I ate sweets everyday and biscuits just not chips and crappy burgers

Original poster
Destinysdaughter · 14/01/2017 22:31

Actually I wasn't really BU, I was a kid in the 70s but am interested as to what's changed since then and why it's such a problem now. Had pop, crisps, sweets etc but had a mile and a half walk to school every day and never are out.Wimpy or fish and chips were a v rare treat, even on a day out

OP posts:
BikeRunSki · 14/01/2017 22:33

Lower levels of car ownership and central heating. Higher levels of manual labour.

Lots of playing out.

Wimpy was a once a year, vsvlmto school treat. Now there's a MaccieD on every corner offering instant hot food at low prices, and you don't even have to get out of your car.

A coffee was a mug of Maxwell House, not a Starbucks latte.

The women were all on amphetamines. Wink

Original poster
Destinysdaughter · 14/01/2017 22:35

*ate out

So is there anything we can learn from this or are we all doomed...?

OP posts:
BikeRunSki · 14/01/2017 22:35

I think smaller portions too. The plates and bowls my parents got as wedding presents in 1969 are about 2/3 the size of those we got in 2000.

OverByYer · 14/01/2017 22:35

I was watching TOTP 1983 the other night, Wham were on and DC Lee and Shirley were tiny.
The audience were all slim.
I think we've all become bigger so gradually that we haven't really noticed.

DowhatIwanttodo · 14/01/2017 22:35

The diet definitely wasn't healthy.

I remember jam on white bread if I was hungry after school then meals like egg, beans and chips. The deep fat fryer was in use every day. The pop man came on a Friday. A treat was something from the chip shop once a week or so. Loads of penny sweets on a Saturday morning at the cinema.

But we had a roast dinner on a Sunday, probably lamb chops and veg another day, no ready meals, no takeaways, no eating out in restaurants, no coffee shops, no McDonald's.

Also as a child I played out literally all day, only coming home for tea, and we would wander for miles or ride our bikes all around the town.

natwebb79 · 14/01/2017 22:36

In my family the adults all smoked like chimneys and ate sugary foods. Most of them have some form of lung disease and a plate of false teeth in their 60s now. They were much more active though. My dad ran a marathon with a quick pit stop for a pint and fag at the half way mark in '79 😁

RitaCrudgington · 14/01/2017 22:36

People in the seventies weren't healthier - they died at far younger ages. What they definitely were, was slimmer. Both factors are probably related to the prevalence of smoking, amongst other things.

Ncbecauseitshard · 14/01/2017 22:37

Ready meals were foul, vesta curries and fray bentos pie so not at all appealing as an alternative to home cooked meal.
The only pasta I saw was giant spaghetti that didn't fit in the cupboard.

The only takeaway we had was fish and chips on holiday in the summer. We ate out occasionally, country pubs that served basket meals. I was skinny and couldn't hold weight until I was 16 and ballooned.

AnnPerkins · 14/01/2017 22:37

Power cuts and ladybirds Grin

TheSpottedZebra · 14/01/2017 22:37

Even in the 80s it was normal to see fruit juice as a starter on a menu in places like Bernie Inn. A small glass, too. Now, we mindlessly consume calories through snacking, and portion sizes, and expend fewer of them by being more sedentary.

Also, the norms creep up. So the new normal now would have been quite chubby for then.

TheSpottedZebra · 14/01/2017 22:38

I have blatantly taken 'healthier' to mean thinner. Blush

Original poster
Destinysdaughter · 14/01/2017 22:39

So we need to bring back smoking to cure obesity? Well since its costing the NHS much more, not a bad idea...Grin

OP posts:
SugarLoveHeart · 14/01/2017 22:39

What I hate now is a four pack of chocolate bars for a pound. BOGOF deals. Special Offers. It makes people buy more shite when shopping. Then it's in the house... One nice bar of chocolate (old Dairy Milk) would be so much more satisfying than a giant Oreo Bar / new Toblerone. Cheap nasty food, in large quantities, is not satisfying. It's no longer a treat. Same as having Christmas / Easter goodies on the shelves for months... I think we're hooked on crappy supermarket foodstuffs! When we went shopping with my mum, the shops just didn't stock all that shite...

TheSpottedZebra · 14/01/2017 22:39

On the positive side, industrial disease has fallen hugely. Cars are so much safer. Those Elf and Safety Police have really done a good job. Smoking is obviously down too.

Are we drinking less, on average? No idea.