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?

It just annoys me when it seems to be implied that people of the past were more virtuous regarding food and exercise. Most people around me seem very conscious about what they eat and do their best to be physically active. I know people who have trained for marathons and lost no weight.

The only people I have seen lose a significant amount of weight are those who have followed Very Low Calorie meal replacement diets or have followed very restricted, completely carb free diets. They can't sustain the diets long term, however.

Lol my diet was shocking.

Who remembers Cremola Foam?? What was IN that?

We didn't have takeaways. We had 'carry outs'. Occasionally.

Well it wasn't available at any cinema I ever went to.

God knows where Dave Allen's local Odean was.

How I hate the word 'grazing'.

When did that actually become a 'thing'?

Grazing basically means eating all day long, so why not just say so?

Ice cream and sweets were treats for children and apart from Milk Tray were not marketed to adults till the 1980s

Slim-Slim-Slimcea Girl!
Anyone remember that advert for incredibly thin white bread called Slimcea which basically shrivelled up like paper if you put it in a toaster?
There was definitely a lot of diet stuff around but looking at the 70s photos we've got, I'm not sure that anyone really needed it.

One thing I do think, looking at the children I teach now, is that there are many more overweight children these days than in the 70s, and the one child in each class who seemed to be labelled 'Fatty' was in hindsight just a bit on the plump side when compared to the most obese children now.

IME 70's was definitely not healthy! although snacking was unheard of and 3 meals a day was 'law'.

Dinners were things like mince and dumplings, sausage, egg, chips and beans, beef/chicken dinner (mash and veg), corned beef stew, leek and bacon pudding, shepherds pie, hot pot. As children we always had a properly home cooked meal for dinner, nothing from a freezer.

Breakfasts were toast with real butter, or bread dipped in the bacon fat - aka drippin sarnie!

"Remember the slim life you're living" hope - remember it well!

I was a sturdy teen and particularly fond of a chocolate devil's food cake I could only buy in one place, about half a mile from where I lived. This was a destination treat I looked forward to.

I can now buy the same type of cake literally anywhere. A corner shop, a supermarket, a petrol station. At work the same cake is brought in by colleagues in shop-bought and home-made form, and not for any reason or occasion. It's just a million times easier to source calories.

Lack of central heating - keeping the body warm is the largest use of energy.

I had chips a lot, we ate what was available, no luxury foods, my Dad grew potatoes, chips were easy for my Mum to cook, I was slim.

I remember the first 'TV dinners' and was given them once in a while when I was off school sick, a portion of meat in gravy some mash and some peas, maybe a blob of stuffing. But I do remember the Vesta dry curries in a box, that rattled and were reconstituted with boiling water, those really were the first ready meals, think they were more 60's than 70's though.

We always had white bread apart from the odd Hovis, I think it was cheaper and we had to be careful with money.

I had to walk to school until Secondary when I then had to walk to the bus stop and if I missed the bus I had to run to school. We didn't have a car, not many of the neighbours did either.

Yes, caroldecker we only had a gas fire in the living room but I remember when the CH was installed, and it was only used once in a while as it cost too much to run it, but we did have hot water on tap instead of boiling a kettle to wash up the dishes.

Ncbecauseitshard :The only pasta I saw was giant spaghetti that didn't fit in the cupboard

Does anybody sell that anymore, I want some!

My dad was really particular about what we ate, even back then.

He banned our grandparents from buying us sweets and chocolate as treats every weekend. We weren't allowed meals like egg and chips, burgers and chips etc. He grew almost all the veg we ate.

My mum was a good cook. We had pasta in the seventies and she used to make a curry thing with mince. DH said MIL did it too. It was really nice. We ate a lot of casseroles and stews. If we had sausages it was with potatoes and veg. We never had chips at home until oven chips came about because my dad was a fireman and he'd been to too many fires caused by chip pans.

My parent's best friend owned the local chippy so occasionally we'd have fish and chips. We'd always go to the Berni Inn for our birthday and sometimes just for a treat.

Our parents weren't strict about us playing out. We'd be out all day. My mum had a car so occasionally we had a lift to school, most of the time we walked. We had bikes, a scooter and my dad made us a go-kart. All the kids in the street would be out. We seldom went in people's houses to play

Less restaurants
Child free pubs
No takeaways or very few
No drive through
No fast food except fish and chips
Less snacking
We had to clear our plates and didn't eat between meals

I think because we had a diet higher in protein in fat (compared to carbs) back then. Then came the eighties with all the low fat low salt diet crazes, which are only just now being disproved.

We lived on bread and jam or bread and marg (weren't allowed bread marg and jam as too expensive)
Free school dinners during the week, chippy on a Saturday and Sunday lunch at my grans, usually fairly cheap cut such as brisket or a rolled shoulder
Agree with other posters - no central heating, cleaning and laying coal fires, walking to school, no couch potato leisure activities, no remote controls, cycling instead of driving, no eating out
Our diet had no ready meals or processed foods
Portions were much smaller, a tin of beans was between 4 of us, now I would serve between 2!

I think I had two Chinese takeaways in my life before going to university in the eighties. We didn't often have convenience foods, but thinking back to the ones we had, I know I'd buy twice as much now to feed the same number of people. I'm not sure eating less = eating more healthily. Family meals were cooked from scratch but most vegetables were boiled to buggery.

Am I the only person wondering how big this spaghetti is that it can't fit in a cupboard?!

I think posters have all nailed it but as well as portion sizes, I think it's choice. There's been studies showing that people will eat more when thers more choice.

I'm quite flummoxed at how big a thing cooking shows are

Also has the availability of cheap meat got something to do with it?

Hmmm between us all I think we've cracked it!

We should summarise this thread and send it to the Dept of Health ...

I think it's because food is just so much better. Tastes loads better, lots more variety, etc. Not necessarily better quality unfortunately.

Any food you want, all year round (no more of the weeks and weeks of beige coloured root vegetables for the whole winter). My family barely cooked pasta, curry had raisins in it, everything was home cooked.

Also, no snacking. If you did it was a biscuit or an apple.

Yes everything was cooked from scratch & 1 meal no choice.Also there wasn't the domination of one particular supermarket as such & the High St still had a wealth of local businesses like green grocers,fish mongers, butchers etc.Pop was a luxury for days out/Xmas.There wasn't 24hr TV then either,just 3 channels with of course a limited amount of programmes for children,early morning til about 10 then 3 no later than 5.30ish.We all actually had friends who we did meet up with thru all weathers & would be off from after breakfast til lunch,then back in for dinner then out again,we cycled to places and didn't expect lifts nor would we be given one.
I think that this is the difference.

Has anybody mentored the low fat, high carb diet ideal?

I remember into the 80s that if you ran out of food on a Sunday you'd be hungry till Monday if you lived where I lived. Shops were shut.

We'd have fish and chips on a summer day trip. Crisps in luchbox on school trips twice a year together with the thrill of a can of Lilt!

We were ordered outside if it was dry.And tbh there was no daytime TV or much to do indoors with friends.

No car so we walked a lot, at the very least to and from the bus stop.

No snacks, no substitution at dinner. My mum was extremely empathetic as she did only give me a small portion of liver and onions as requested!

Hobbit I love liver & onions it's one of my guilty pleasures for a ME night but like you I wouldn't want my DM's version! Yes to shops closing too,It's become a 24/7 world hasn't it?We managed then why can't we now?