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?

I guess a lot of food was plainer, but we were foodies in the seventies and our favourite writers were Jane Grigson and Elizabeth David. We sought out different ingredients and gave a lot of dinner parties. We experimented with whole food and did a lot of French and Italian recipes.
I am always quite shocked by the "what did you eat in the 70s threads" because it bears no resemblance to how we and our friends fed our children. I don't doubt the truth of people's memories, but I find the sweeping generalisations ridiculous.

I too would interpret " you ate an apple," as describing circumstances known to the poster. In this case their family eating habits.

I like a vox Pop personally.

I did had some cracking food in the 7Os but on the other hand suffered under the regime of regular liver and onions. And too much potato. And hungry on a Sunday if you'd failed to buy enough food. ( You refers to my family!)

*What I've found problematic is the tone, the othering, and the language used to describe "people nowadays".
People nowadays aren't any different to people in the 50's and 60's, in fact, many of us are in both of those groups.It's social and financial trends that have contributed to an obesegenic enviroment that we're discussing on this thread. Not sure why you would find that 'problematic'.

Well my point is that people are essentially no different - certainly not morally worse because they're bigger. Have you not picked up on any of the sneering tone some posters have used though? That's what I find problematic.

As far as the colloquial use of "you" goes, that may well account for some of the sweeping generalisations... but not all.

Noefgingidea:

I agree it's an obesogenic environment.

these days people tend to trawl from Greggs to Subway to McDonalds endlessly... then they go home and start stuffing all over again

An example of the language used to describe people of today.

I know some posters don't like it when people analyse things and 'overthink' things - but language reveals a lot about our prejudices and attitudes. This rose-tinted "things were better back then [insert vague era from Britain's glory days" attitude is not helpful.

It's not just one person's memory though, is it? Many posters who lived through these years seem to share similar memories and experiences, and in any case, it's quite well documented as part of our social history.

The replies on this thread are probably more reflective of the people who interested in this thread and not necessarily what actually happened. Regardless, just because someone doesn't remember eating between meals for example it doesn't mean that they are correct and it certainly doesn't mean that everyone else did the same thing. Also, just because someone overeats now and is overweight it doesn't mean that everyone else is the same.

It's not relying on false memories to state that people ate a lot less junk food - the concept barely existed - and that food was generally a lot plainer and less plentiful 40 or 50 years ago.

My family ate a lot of things like fish and chips, and also lard so whilst not the same as "junk food" today, not exactly healthy.

Also dripping on toast (yuck!)

Ooh overthinking.

I feel crushed.

There was a poster "They Are Healthy Because They Eat Lard". 😀
Actually not entirely untrue as a low-carber. Interestingly in the fifties my Mum would diet by cutting out bread and potatoes. She did eat Ryvita though.

Also I don't about anyone else but we couldn't take our our lunch to school.
We had to eat what was prepared for us, or like me, go without!
I remember my mum constantly being told that I wouldn't eat my school lunch. I never felt hungry either. There wasn't an alternate for me, I could go home for lunch but that was out of the question because I lived too far away from school to walk home and back at lunch time.
If we went on a school trip, mum would make me for corned beef and picalily sandwiches which I loved, yet she says I used to only eat one quarter and bring the rest home, that was all I ate and again it never bothered me.
We did have a local bakery but cream cakes were very expensive so an absolute luxury.
We did eats sweets though cos you could buy them by the quarter and they cost 4p for a quarter from the shop near school.

Who are these people who ate lard? As far as I remember lard was used for frying( none of that greasy oil they use in Italy) or in pastry (still is).
I remember my friend's mother dieting; she had Energen Rolls with the consistency of screwed-up cellophane.

I remember as a teenager being aware of my weight/size and I was never big, I weighed 8.5 stone at 18 yet still wore a size 12, 5 foot 5 inches.
I think there was pressure on women to be thin. My mum used to diet too as did her sister and she was very thin, a size 10 which is probably the equivalent to a 6 now.
I seem to remember never wanting to be above a size 12 as anything above that was regarded as 'fat'. This might have been just within my family, I don't know and like I said this would be the equivalent of around a size 8 now.
Every one on tv was thin. I wanted to be in Pan 's People and then Legs & Co who danced on top of the pops.

Completely agree with this. There is a thread running here atm the called what did you have for tea in the 60s/70s and everyone is laughing at how uniformly disgusting the meals they ate were. Lots of rose tinted bull on this thread! Saying that we ate better in the 50s in the sense of less snacking, fewer ready meals etc isn't saying that food was nicer in those days, just that it was easier to stay a healthy weight.

Growing up in the provinces, there wasn't a lot of variety. Even pasta (apart from macaroni cheese) was a bit "exotic". (On the other hand there were more varieties of fruit available - eg plums - Purple Pershore, Yellow Egg, Czar, Early Rivers, Marjories Seedling.)

I only remember lard in pastry. We used dripping for frying. Bread and dripping was a staple for some poorer families I think.

Growing up in the provinces, there wasn't a lot of variety. Even pasta (apart from macaroni cheese) was a bit "exotic".

Yup. I remember Delia Smith saying that when she started out on her career, olive oil could only be found in the chemist's, for unblocking ears! Now even a small branch of Tesco will have several varieties.

I think we forget just how much our food culture has changed in a relatively short time.

Energen Rolls with the consistency of screwed-up cellophane. I remember those! Totally devoid of taste and improbably light.

I think a lot of the bull is the description of food in the sixties and seventies as universally dreadful. It really wasn't. There are crap cooks in every generation.

I found it easy to be thin until about 1981 as food quite often was horrible. Especially at school. Chocolate bars were nicer though.

There's an interesting perspective on this on a TV prog called 'worlds best diet'. Forward to the UK and they compare now with 1950s (although I think their take on an average UK family is distorted). Its on you tube.

This rose-tinted "things were better back then [insert vague era from Britain's glory days" attitude is not helpful.

I think you're projecting a tad.

Nobody - well, very few people - is saying that things were 'better' decades ago. The discussion is about whether people then were slimmer than now - which is true - and posters are explaining why that was the case. They're not saying those times were 'better' - for the most part they weren't, and the food certainly wasn't great. It's much easier to eat a healthy, varied diet at a relatively low cost than it was 40 years ago. But by the same token, variety of food and the fading of taboos about what, when and where to eat means that it's also much easier to get fat these days. Which is the point of the discussion.

I am certainly not saying it was 'better" in the fifties and sixties, but It was perfectly possible to cook and eat well. It was harder to get some foods (my MiL used to walk miles to get avocados),
It is much easier to get the ingredients now.
The thing I notice when I come to England from France is that there are far more people grazing, food outlets are everywhere and portions are much bigger.

If you don't think there was even a hint of sneering in that post I quoted, then I'm amazed (and it certainly wasn't the only one).

I don't think anyone's saying the 1950s and 60s were better as an era. That's not what I'm arguing. But some people do love ro celebrate the past and their past selves. It's part of the "we're all going to the dogs" mentality that has been around since the dawn of time.

Part of this thread is about people glorying in how disgusting and greedy people today are. Not all of it. But it's there.

Absolutely puzzled. Take this:

“these days people tend to trawl from Greggs to Subway to McDonalds endlessly... then they go home and start stuffing all over again”

If ANYONE does this, it’s an extreme minority. Referencing it as commonplace is false and sounds hysterical