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.

We were a family that divided mars bars too. It was actually a “Topic” that my brother and I craved. We could get one every Saturday. The rule was, one cuts, the other chooses!

csrol

I do remember getting dressed in bed as a kid as it was freezing cold with a two bar electric heater but come on no one shivered quite that much

Why my Nan had used to do that for us kids. Basically fat on toast. It was yummy

We were all skinny

My mother used to tell a story about when my dad brought home a colleague for dinner one evening. She managed to put a reasonable meal on the table for them. My sister (aged about 4) was swinging out of my dad's chair eyeing up the food. He asked her what she had for tea - she replied 'the skin of a rasher and two salty mushrooms'!!! It has gone down in family legend!!

lola kids tell it as it is

Families also had tiny fridges, no freezer. There were no huge supermarkets with 1000s of choices of international food

@LovingLola That's a mouthwatering description!

Haven't read the thread - but would just like to say - fast food, processed food, ready meals, takeaways, calorific snacking - just wasn't a thing in the 70s.

I still remember the adverts for - it has, I believe, been credited as the first "fast food at home" - but now look at us.

Anyway - it's hard - we're bombarded with so much FOOD.

Meals used to be about sustenance, fairly nutritious though. Meat and 2-veg. Not particularly tasty by today's standards. We used to talk about the meat. I'm quite old. Not that old, but I remember this with parents and grandparents.

But we were really skinny. Actually my kids are skinny, and eat junk. I worry it'll catch up with them though.

By the way, on the basis of that advert, me & my brother nagged my mum to get Smash. Of course it was horrible.

Power of advertising - mum said she could really tell we wanted to like it.

Fundamentally it's because calories are easily come by compared to any point in the past combined with a less active lifestyle than any point in the past. Everything else is distraction. Thereare variations in how people's gut transit affect absorption but as a general population we eat more and move less.

Of course my Dad wasn't being cruel chopping up a Mars bar. He genuinely though a Mars bar was too much, too "sickly" for one person to eat.

I ate a lot of sweets: penny chews every day walking home from school, I've got lots of fillings. I didn't get big quantities, like a whole Mars bar, at one time though.

Actually, I still find the idea of eating a whole Mars bar in one go quite unpleasant.

My grandma also use to cut up a mars bar - into about 8 pieces. We'd all get a slice of mars bar.

Fascinating thread! I’m an anthropologist, and this stuff is my bread & butter (scuse the pun).

I’ll add this to the mix: the mixing of cultures, and the dilution of the majority culture have had a huge effect, I reckon. Not good, not bad, but relevant.

Where one culture reigns supreme, the norms around food are understood by everyone and anyone who does different (or overindulges) is pulled back into line by their society. These ‘norms’ generally balance out over time, so that the food that is eaten and rate it’s eaten at and portion size seem to all contribute to a ‘workable’ and ‘fairly healthy’ lifestyle for that group.

Nowadays everything is up to the individual. When they eat, how much, alone or in company, the type of food. No one pulls you up anymore, no one monitors your rate of physical work/exercise, no one has any influence over (or interest in) your diet. Your Thai PILS know to stay out of your business, cos their kid married a Norwegian and who are they to advise or have an opinion? No neighbour raises eyebrows at what they can smell cooking in your kitchen, or can presume from what you eat at your desk that they can judge your life. You could be eating 4 doughnuts for morning tea, but running a marathon and chowing down on quinoa salad all weekend. 50 years ago, there’d be a ‘caring’ intervention, and likely affect your career.

Generally I think this new way has had huge benefits to society. We aren’t tied to a weekly shop, a single culture’s food, etc. We don’t have to swallow and retch at stuff that our society insists we eat. We love to have global food at our fingertips, delivered ready-made, on our timetable. Or indulge our love of cooking whenever we get the urge (and can afford it). Or be able to tailor diets with regard to allergies, preferences and intolerances.

Downside is, now we’re used to getting what we like, not what we need. We justify what we do very easily. We get cross at being judged for our choices. We think willpower will save us, but we drown that voice of moderation out before it opens its mouth. We know our workday and household responsibilities have increased from the oldendays (like, 50 years ago), so we need the ‘play hard’ part to reward ourselves with.

Thousands of calories a day are sneaking into our diets. Healthy foods are falling off the top of the food pyramid, rather than providing a foundation.

Obesity was always going to be a side effect of these new freedoms, wasn’t it? Everyone can do everything now. Curry for afternoon tea? Cool. Chips & beer for dinner on Friday? Why not, you’ve earned it. The only repercussion (ill health) might only be felt years into the future, so why not do, eat, drink what feels good today?

I don’t say there’s universal agreement on this, but the power our elders had over our diets is long gone. Now we’re all acting like kids in the candy shop, it’s not surprising our insides (and our teeth) are suffering.

Apologies for the long post, I got a bit excited!

Food is more plentiful than it's ever been in human history. It tastes good, and the vast majority of people just don't have the willpower to not eat.

I pretty much think it's as simple as that.

We need a lot less food than we think we do, because we're nowhere near as active as our predecessors.

When I was young, ONE chicken fed 6 children and two adults. Lots and lots of fresh vegetables to go with it and usually dessert . Apple pie made from the apples from our own trees. Apricot jam, plum jam. Again the fruit from our own trees.

Nothing to eat between meals and only water and milk to drink.

Christmas day we had red cordial.

We live in such a 'treat' culture too. Oh I've had a bad week, we deserve it, life's hard et etc. Get to Frankie and Benny's for a burger or whatever. Costa for a latte and a slab of cake.

And people CBA to cook. Even simple stuff like sausage, jacket spud and beans or whatever is too much for some people, it's all convenience food.

My mum was a 9.5 stone after I was born but that wasn't seen as thin, just normal. She ate pie and peas most nights for tea but walked miles and wrestled with the twin tub every day!

90% of people will pick a cheese and onion pasty over going home and cooking lentil and veg soup, yes.

They know the pasty is unhealthy but they still do it.

Skittles really interesting post! Resonates a bit as I always used to be more sedentary, ate what I wanted when I wanted, there were always cakes at work etc - and then I moved to a country with much more emphasis on exercise and being outdoors, and into a department where everyone does some form of sport or exercise multiple times a week. This prevailing culture has resulted in me taking up exercise multiple times a week as well and now got me into adventure racing, which I'd never have done in the UK. I'm probably healthier in my 40s than I ever was in my 20s and 30s.

I think part of the problem is the rise in cheap processed food, coupled with the fact that most families need to have both parents working. Unless you are super organised, this means that you pick the children up from afterschool care, race home and have to throw some sort of hot meal on the table without much time. Obviously processed foods are easier to turn to in this situation.

There was also the low fat message pushed in the 80s, which resulted in lots of sugar being added to food instead. It's easy to see something labelled 99.9% fat free as healthy, without realising that it's probably 25% sugar instead (or sugar and artificial chemical sweeteners, which cause problems of their own).

Finally - high fructose corn syrup. There was a glut of it so it got added to lots of processed foods as a sweetener, made them cheaper and got rid of it into the bargain. Win win for the processed food industry and lose lose for the people buying food with it in.

A load of people will pick a meal in a pub or curry house, in the evening, having already had a calorie laden day.

So - a bought lunch at work can be laden with calories - burger, sandwiches and crisps "lunch deal" bung in a fizzy drink or a choc bar. Snacks, cakes, cappucinos, then a meal out. With booze as well.

A meal out when I was a child was practically unheard of. It just literally never happpened. Nothing we ate at home would be anything like, say a dominos pizza. No MacDonalds - I do remember having a birthday party at Wimpey when I was about 10 - and it was china plates and real cutlery.

Food is so instantly available and gratifying now - I'm not surprised half of us are obese. (pretty much)

Rationing during ww2 was taken so seriously I remember reading of a woman taken to court and getting a hefty fine for throwing away bread.
So that was the legacy for my parents generation.
We were poor but we were well fed. But i was always trying to get hold of sweet stuff which was given sparingly.
And yes I too only had milk and water to drink.
I've never had bread and dripping or that stomach lining stuff.

There's a girl in my dd's class who is overweight which is sad as she's being bullied by some of the kids because of it. Her parents are quite large too so I suppose a lot of it's genetic although their lifestyle doesn't help either. They drive everywhere even though they live a 10 minute walk from school. After school snack is always crisps or junk never fruit or healthy food. I think her parents should take responsibility here as she's 6 & wearing about 9/10 clothes & being bullied. It's really sad to hear about it unless there's an underlying medical condition her parents should help her lose weight.

I think it's a huge element of we moved more. Even in the 70's everything was effort.

But I also wonder about the artificial stuff in processed food. The never ending quest for cheap low cost food. I'm also sure companies are deliberately mixing fats and sugar to make things more-ish.

Mr Cadbury please just put the price up and give me decent chocolate and bin your palm oil?
Mr Barr please just let me pay the sugar tax and I'll enjoy my occasional Irn-Bru rather than reducing the sugar & adding junk.

Thinking about what Skittles said about society impacting us as a group.

I live in the USA. Known world wide for its obesity problem.

Except in the area I live in it’s not that obvious.

The children in my kids classes are all slim. My neighbours and friends are mostly slim.

However we live in a very prosperous area. There’s lots and lots of emphasis on children playing multiple competitive sports. Lots of pools in backyards.

A large proportion of the adults we know train seriously in at least one sport (mostly tennis, cycling, running or triathlons). Family trips skiing, kayaking or hunting are common. Older people play golf or walk.

There’s also lots of SAHMs so more time for home cooked food and for adult exercise. Lots of emphasis on women being not just slim but fit.

So in this very wealthy place were there’s lots of emphasis on sport aren’t that many overweight people at all.

Travel few miles to a poorer area and suddenly there’s far more obesity. Less money for food, less money for sports, less time for both.
Less ability to access health check ups, physio etc too because health insurance is so expensive.

It’s easy to imagine that being slim could become a luxury.

I think you could be right about income levels affecting weigh and fitness. The UK seems to have similar issues.

We didn't think about food much. We ate all our meals at the table as kids in 60s and 70s. My dm decided on all meals and there was very little snacking except on Sundays when gps gave us money forr the shop. We had all our own veg and my dm baked brown bread every day. We never ate white.
My dc help themselves from the fridge as teens ..not as smaller dc. They eat whenever they are hungry while we ate at mealtimes that was it. While we still have meals at the table they snack in front of the tv later and at weekends.
We also spent every minute outdoors and only came in to eat.

Cigarettes aren't just an appetite suppressant - they actively increase the calories you burn for a while by a not insignificant amount. Pretty handy, if you don't mind the cancer and COPD etc.