To wonder why we were a thinner nation before we all knew so much about food.

[Bumblebumble123]

Isn't it funny that in years gone by, people didn't have the knowledge about food they have now. Peoples diets weren't dictated by calories or grams of fat or carbs, they were dictated by hunger. Yet now we have an obesity epidemic.

Is educating people on food counter productive? Would we all be better to scrap the info and start listening to our bodies?

I don't know the answer. I just find it odd that we know more than ever about food yet the nations waistline is getting bigger.

My mother was 93 when she died and she was obese. She wasn't obese all her life though it was probably an effect of the medication she was on. She had dementia. MIL otoh was obese most of her life but had dwindled away to almost nothing when she died aged 91.

This is interesting

www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/features/why-being-overweight-means-you-live-longer-the-way-scientists-twist-the-facts-10158229.html

People moved more before most jobs revovled around computers, before kids had so much technology they played in real life rather than virtually and fast food outlets weren't on every street corner and so cheap

This might be a bit left field, but I was reading about the effect of gut flora on weight, and I did wonder if the increased use of antibiotics, both for illness and when they used to be fed, as standard, to animals, has affected our metabolism in some way. Also, what effect have all the chemicals we inadvertently consume had on us? I am especially thinking here of plastics.
I have a cook book from the 50s with suggested weekly meal planners for each season. It is so much food! Four meals a day, and both lunch and dinner are what I would call a main meal, of the sort we (at home) only eat once a day . Of course it is designed for households with either a housewife or an employed cook, but the poor person producing it would have been preparing food for hours a day .
My dad used to slice up mars bars, but in the 1950s they were about twice the size they are now.
We did have labour saving devices in the 70s, it wasn't the dark ages at all - dishwasher, automatic washing machine, cars. We also used to go out for curries, Chinese food and pub meals. Things weren't that different then. And before McDonald's there were wimpy bars - much maligned, but we enjoyed a visit.

I agree with all the comments here
Food today is just too easily accessible, the damn stuff is everywhere
As a nation we've cut back smoking and the toll is there to see, public places have banned smoking, so we stay at home and just snack ourselves to oblivion
It's crazy to think my generation ( just..I'm not that old yet) grew up on dripping cakes with salt, lard for cooking. Butter on everything, full fat milk!! You wouldn't dare touch half of that today, yet back then we were all so bloody skinny

No doubt about it, we've turned into grotesquely slobbish nation. To lazy to even wash our damn cars, to idle to step out of the car at the drive thru!!

I'm thoroughly ashamed of what we've become as a nation. Shame on us for not having the willpower to say no, that's enough thank you.

It does seem to me that these days especially for young women if you are not skinny you are obese. There seems to be no aceptable middle ground.

I really don't think there's a doctor out there that would agree with that.

1.Portion size - dinner plates are much larger now than they were in the 70s

1. Eating between meals.

1. Constantly being bombarded with things to eat either through ads or food programmes.

Lots of posters have said they were hungry as children, is that how it should be?

Clearly not all the time, but before a regular meal-time, yes I think so.

I admit I developed a snack habit a few years ago, and would start 'feeling hungry' before a usual mid-morning coffee and cake. I had to wean myself off it, and hang on to dinner/lunch time. It didn't take that long, maybe a fortnight, and I noticed the feeling went away, and I enjoyed my dinner/lunch far more.

PS, I still refer to a mid-day meal as dinner, but know many call it lunch.

Threads on here where someone starts a topic about "What you ate today" are an eye-opener. And the volume of food that people eat at lunchtime at work says a lot - portion size for 2 people not one.

Our local gym is always packed, but the "workout" a lot of people do is so sedentary, but they kid themselves because they've shown up at the gym it means they've done exercise. Mostly it comprised fiddling with mobiles, putting on music, texting and selfies to stick on Facebook to show how good they are etc.

And then a Costa coffee and chocolate brownie on the way out

The fast food industry have been doing an assault on people's will power for the past decade, everywhere you look it's junk food, fizzy drinks machines and snacks, snacks, snacks.

I agree portion sizes, snacking and too much sugar.
I don’t think people know more about food now. They might know different things, but how many people know how to cook tripe, heart, head cheese? A lot of people still seemed to believe the low-fat nonsense, despite so much evidence to the contrary.
I grew up in the fifties and though we had a more limited selection of dishes, my mother and grandmother (both of whom worked outside the home) could produce good, tasty meals from fresh ingredients.
My father was delighted when curry ingredients appeared because he had been in India during the war and my MiL who had grown up in Egypt would walk miles for an avocado.
As others have said we were regularly told not to eat between meals, not to take more than we needed and not to be greedy.

People eat way too much.

I'm just looking at WWII rationing - a weeks rations could easily go in one day - 4oz of tea ? 4 oz of bacon, I mean thats only 100 grammes - thats one rasher 1 egg - a week ????

[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rationing_in_the_United_Kingdom]

WorraLiberty not talking about doctors but the perception of size amongst young women. You can be a healthy weight at or near the top of the healthy weight range for your height but many young women would see that as fat. The fact that is that if you are a medium to large frame you should be near the top.

I agree that portion sizes are crazy. When I visit elderly relatives, the portions they serve feel tiny in comparison. Many calorie counts are misleading too. A package will say 'only 100 calories!' but in small print it'll be four servings in one pack. I'm certainly guilty of being greedy and eating way too much.

It also feels like everything in life revolves around food. Meeting a friend? You go for coffee and cake, with a latte and cake easily racking up as many calories as a full meal. Seeing a movie? Popcorn and a fizzy drink soon add up, and it's hard to break that mindset.

On the radio programme I mentioned they interviewed researchers who said that they'd found that people eat fewer calories today than in the past (I can't remember exactly when they were comparing us to but I think it was 1950s). They couldn't believe what they'd found so redid the research only to get the same results. They put it down to lack of daily activity- not "exercise" but walking, housework, running around after kids. They pointed out that many women are now in sedentary jobs that they drive to. Many of the more physical jobs no longer exist.
I can believe this. I know people eat big portions and food is very available but lots of people do watch what they eat a lot of the time. As someone upthread mentioned, certainly a lot of sugar was eaten in the past.

If you want to see just how fucked up we are about food start a thread on MN
Call it

AIBU to give my kids pie and chips with peas once a month?

Sit back and watch the replies roll in.
'Thats fine'
'I wouldn't but if they like it...'

THEN...
It all starts going mad.
You WILL get someone telling you feeding your kids that food is akin to child abuse.
You WILL get someone telling you the exact nutritional value of every single element of that meal, which bits are carbs, fats, sugars and protein and each sub section of each. They will do this by writing 10 paragraphs of pseudo scientific text and go on to deny they have an eating disorder.
Someone will tell you that pie and chips and peas has ZERO nutritional value.
Someone will tell you its fine but how about swapping the pie for quinoa, the chips for slow roasted aubergine flakes and the peas for pureed avocado.
Someone else will claim that peas are basically 99% sugar.
Someone will tell you that they only eat pies and they run 20 marathons a year and everyone on the thread is a pathetic snowflake.

This will go on for 27 pages.

I bloody love a food thread on MN.

Sausage and Mash and Frozen Baguettes were two of my favourites.

All veg were boiled except chips for a treat.As a child we didn't have rice unless it was in a pudding.Pasta was not a thing.We walked every where.We didn't have central heating so sitting for hours at home was not a thing,no daytime TV.Walking to school to save bus fare for sweets.

but no doubt people can come up with a long list why the omelette isn't a reasonable expectation for most people.

^

This with bells on.

Lots of people just make excuses.

I'm another one who lives abroad and finds it shocking when I go back to the UK how much cheap food there is, how its everywhere and there's this expectation that you have to stuff your face at every opportunity.

Four chocolate bars for a quid?! WTAF. Not surprised folk are fat.

Interesting thread.
I've been living abroad in a Western European country for just over 10 years. When I first arrived I noticed a really big difference to the UK - ie. there weren't huge displays of sweets at checkouts; there wasn't a coffee stand (with massive muffins) on every street corner; people didn't eat out that much; they'd go out for walks in the great outdoors and take a small picnic with them.
The size of people was also notably different - they were much slimmer than I had been used to in the UK. They were also a bit snooty (I'm sorry to say) about how fat Brits are and how unhealthy our meals are. I found this a bit offensive to be honest as some of the traditional meals here aren't healthy at all either but portion sizes are smaller than the UK which makes a big difference.

Over the last ten years I have noticed things changing here and I think this is what happened in the UK as well - it just happened a decade earlier. Suddenly, everyone is jumping on the bandwagon of making money out of flogging food to people. Food stalls are popping up everywhere; there are more fast food places opening; portions are getting bigger; ready meals are appearing in shops etc.
Whereas you used to go for a walk and you would have to take your own food, these days there are places to eat opening up all over the countryside. These are being heavily marketed to tourists - go for a nice walk for a couple of hours and feast/treat/spoil yourself with delicious local specialities (all packed with fat, sugar, carbs).
The locals are getting in on this and eating enormous meals at lunchtime whereas just ten years ago they were eating a cheese sandwich, a piece of fruit and maybe a small wafer biscuit - and drinking water out of a stream.
I think in 10 years time we will also have an obesity problem here.
It is hard for people to resist food when they are constantly bombarded with descriptions of how delicious it is; adverts on TV and smells of baked goods and coffee as you walk through the subway station.

"1950's you had a rather chubby Diana Dors"

I watched a series whefe a famy lived lime a middle class Edwardian family for a week. The amount of food they had to eat was staggering, they couldn't really cope with it. The catering student acting as their cook couldn't cope with the cooking either.

according to t'internet. Diana Dors was about a size 12 (us 8) and about 9 stone 12lbs (about 5'6 tall), Not really chubby though I think she spread in middle age which isn't uncommon.

Last week in the snow I walked to local convenience store for some milk.Just the one carton,not stockpiling!In front of me in the queue were 4 people with baskets stuffed full of crisps, chocolate and snacks.Every shop now prominently display these right by the till.I'm partial to a bit of chocolate now and then,and recently bought a creme egg each for DH as a treat ( and discovered they are not very nice)to be told by the cashier it's cheaper if you buy a pack of 5.I hesitated.No thanks I just want two.She looked at me as if I was mad.Marketing of junk food.People leading more sedentary lives.When I first started work the car park at the hospital was almost empty early morning,most caught a bus or walked.And also portion size,eating out,plus restaurants jumping on the bandwagon to sell extras and upsizing.

closeronline.co.uk/entertainment/soaps/great-british-bake-gbbo-obesity-michaela-strachan/

OFGS! I love watching bake off and I don't really eat cake or biscuits - chocolate is another matter though...