was everyone slim in the 1950s/60s

[ambereeree]

I've been watching old films and it seems that everyone was slim in the 50s and 40s. Even women with quite a few children. Is this reality or just in films?

You can't conclude that the deaths at a younger age from heart disease are just due to diet and smoking. There have been a few medical advances since then!

I'm not really talking about the deaths from heart attacks as clearly that is related to medical advances. More people had heart attacks at a younger age in the first place.

I went to the Bronte house a few weeks ago and they had some of the clothes they used to wear on display, they were tiny!

They were laced into tight corsets to fit into them.

Yes maybe Dungeondragon but lots of people are now on statins and BP medication to prevent heart attacks. My FiL died at 76 from a heart attack. My DH has been on BP medication since the age of 50.

Delia Smith's cookery course is on iplayer now, dating back to the 80s. It's really interesting to see how unappealing the food looks - very plain. I think that food over the intervening period has been pornographised and our responses to it are very strange. Back in the 80s you ate to live and now we live to eat.

There were pizza restaurants and burger chains and curry houses around in the 80s you know.

Back in the 80s people certainly didn’t eat to live. People had started to venture out for pub meals & there was plenty of Indian restaurant, Chinese & Italian eateries. Food at home had changed & people were making more adventurous meals

I have Delta's complete cookery course and tbh I find a lot of the recipes too rich for every day. But That's true of a lot if celebrity chefs.

Serendipity the use of full butter, milk and plenty of cream was very common in the 1980s & 90s

Butter and cream and full fat cheese are still in use in this house, along with semi skimmed milk.

A big difference in the past was the lack of cars. When I was a child in the 60s hardly anyone had a car. We did as it came with the job but wasn't really used for much family stuff. So people walked, even if there was a bus you had to get to the bus stop. Or they cycled. Hence slim but not skinny people, they were slim but exercised so not skinny or overweight like now.

The Brontes clothes and shoes are truly tiny iirc. Charlotte was four foot something.

Eating patterns and food did start to change in the '80s, because working class people started to be better off financially. People could start to enjoy life more, going out for meals or for coffee, just as part of the week rather than an ocassional treat. Also being able to buy different ingredients, fruits and vegetables, spices so that cooking and eating actually became enjoyable rather than having to force down the millionth portion of mashed potatoes because you knew that was all there was till the morning.

Yes maybe Dungeondragon but lots of people are now on statins and BP medication to prevent heart attacks.

They aren't on statins unless they are identified as having a high risk of cardiovascular disease which is usually older than 50s nowadays. As for BP medication, that was around in the 1960s (beta blockers). The point is that people weren't at low risk of cardiovascular disease so the idea that diets were so healthy isn't true.

I would still say that DH and I at 70 odd have had access to a lot more preventive medicine and monitoring than our parents.

Marilyn Monroe was pregnant when she was filming Some like it hot. Her waist was usually 22 inches.

As I and other posters have said before, those measurements are misleading because actresses in the 1950s wore heavy-duty corsets, and their dresses were cut accordingly. Those measurements are from Marilyn's dresses, not from her actual waist. Her actual waist measurements would have been about 3 or 4 inches larger - still slim but not tiny.

Lots of 50s dresses weren't corsetted.
Corsets sound very painful!!

Can't remember the 50s but I can - just - remember the late 60s and certainly the 70s. And yes - people were slimmer. Not everyone of course but in general they were significantly smaller. I look at old evening dresses from the 70s and I can't believe we wore them - clothe sizes are very much larger now.
The main difference I remember is that snacks and nibbles were not really around- apples yes, biscuits not so much. Portions were smaller as well.

Thinking of my school there was never an overweight child in my class - of course there must have been some in the school but very very few.

And yes there was much more walking - I had to walk a mile to pick up the school bus. It would have been no bother for a parent to pick us up from the bus stop but it just did not occur to them.

This reads as if I think they were the good old days. I don't - no way. Things are so very much better now.

Well yes I was born in the early 50's rationing was still around. We ate smaller portions, no sauces or processed foods. No breakfast cereals except cornflakes. All kids had school dinners which were basic. Tea time things like banana sandwich. Most meat was served with two veg desserts were for sunday only. When I was 35 I still had an 18" waist. Gone to seed now have a 28" waist (but I am 66). Old habits die hard. Fav dinner is egg n chips.

Ambereeree haven't you notice the women in films today are all slim :+)

When my mum married in 1953 aged 30, she had a 22 inch waist, but after 4 children, she ended up the same shape as I, her DD, have always been.

My grandmother, aunt and mum weren’t slim. Grandmother died at 88. No weight related diseases.

Most people were smaller and slimmer because they didn't have all the snack foods we have (they didn't exist). It was school lunch (I've never eaten semolina with jam since!) and a home cooked dinner. Most of the prepacked foods and snacks came in the late 70s and 80s. My MIL used to make a huge leg of lamb do 3 dinners (DH wont eat lamb now!). People walked more and didn't have a car or only had one and housework was more physical with less time saving devices. Also rationing went on until 1953 so everyone was pretty thin from that too.

Food was simple. You cant overeat on that. Tey to cook plain food- very soon you will be slim.or pleasantly chubby if have any bad genetics /illnesses etc but NEVER - obese or morbidly obese! The amount of junk that goes into people is unbelievable these days. Not sure why do they do that to themselves - nevermind the slim physiques - just the quality and quantity of foods people consume these days is truly shocking

Lots of 50s dresses weren't corsetted.

The ones from which the 'measurements' of actresses like Monroe or Loren certainly were.

I can wear my Nan's dresses. I am 47. I'm a size 10. She mostly made her own.
When we look through family photos, I can spot "my" body. We are all short, stocky, muscly but not fat. My nan, my great gran and most of the relatives. Going back to early photography. I'm 50. There's certainly a family type. We all look more or less the same regardless of diet. If i alter my daughters photos to black and white she'd look the same.

I bought a vintage 1970s M&S skirt from eBay a few years ago it was a vintage size 12! I’m a current size 6 and it fits! The waist is 23 inches! Sizes have increased so much I’m a size 4-6 now which I was as a young teen but I’m definitely bigger than I was then!