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?

Interesting thread...really fascinating to see those pics of Marilyn exercising.
Agree with so many of the points made.
In the 1970s we were allowed one bottle of fizzy drink on a Wednesday because that was when the supplier trundled around in his lorry.
On a Saturday night we had an Italian ice cream cone from the cafe and a bag of KP nuts between the four of us kids.
As with so many other people our consumption changed in the 80s when my DM was back at work full time and could go into M and S and buy prawn crackers and almond biscuits...
As PP said social norms played a big part as well. It was forbidden for us to eat in school uniform (although of course we did...just surreptitiously and not as constantly as nowadays)
Last point..it's not just the availability of food - it's also the way alcohol is on tap everywhere. As I recall in the 70s you had to go to the pub or an off-licence...now it's absolutely standard to throw a few bottles in with the rest of the supermarket shop. I know if the only place I could get some strong drink was at the offy I would be consuming far fewer units.

People commenting that the average height was much smaller in the 1950s, a uick google says average for women in 1950s was 5’3. Average now 5’5. Surely 2 inches in height shouldn’t mean A massive difference in inches/weight??

I agree on the size of plates. I inherited some old dinner plates recently, they’re the size a side plate now.

I can definitely remember DM wearing a girdle in the 1960's. Might only have been for nights out rather than every day but still...

Oddly enough it never occurred to me it might be something expected of me as I got older but I was still shoehorned into some pretty ghastly outfits in the name of femininity. I can remember wondering why boys got all the comfy, practical clothes even then.

people saying snacking was unheard of - I don;t agree with that at all - elevenses and tea (4 pm) were things - the difference is that they were eaten sitting at a table and not on the hoof.

I would say eating on the street or on the hoof is the real difference, and what is eaten (choc bar rather than bread and butter, for example). But eating between the 3 main meals is not a new thing and I wish people would stop saying it is.

Big companies like Unilever, P&G, Mars, Nestle etc and other food behemoths pay new product developers millions of pounds every year to create the most tempting morsels money can buy.

I agree very strongly with this. The more sweetness they can add to food, the more addictive it is. They are very very clever. These companies are killing people.

I'm actually tempted to spend 2019 living off war time rations. I grew up thinking rationing was awful and that people were starving but actually rations made a lot of people much healthier because for the first time in their lives they had adequate nutrition. I know the available food dwindled as the war went on but if you look at what people were eating it was a decent amount of healthy fat and a moderate amount of protein and some healthy complex carbs ideally supplemented with home-grown veg or foraged fruit. The only sugar really came from jam/preserves.

MadamBatty - I think the children in our families got the height later nearer 15-16.

The men often ended up heights of 6ft plus - though women in our families did tend to be slightly smaller than current generation.

To clarify, when I talked about my granny's purported 18" waist in her teens I was talking about the 1930s not the 1960s.

I went to the V&A and found the corsetry and tiny Victorian and Edwardian dresses made me feel slightly ill, to think of how women contorted themselves. I'd rather see a little rounded tummy any time.

Who cares? It was decades ago. This is now.

Even women with quite a few children
Eh! What does this even mean?
I have 8 DC and am very slim and athletic. It always baffles me when people trot out this nonsense - I gave birth to 8 babies - I didn’t eat them FFS! And I didn’t spontaneously lose my capacity to understand a healthy diet once DC#4 popped out.
In answer to your sensible comment, people on the whole were slimmer possibly because there was less convenience and processed food therefore far less hidden sugar and fat.

My parents used to live in the ussr during that period. There was a general discussion once about how much thinner everyone was there. My father eventually decided that a lot of it came down to lack of food and lack of cars. His father waited six years after paying to receive his car and it was pretty much impossible to buy ready to eat food without it being disgusting/unhygienic. For people who weren’t well connected even buying food to cook st home was difficult. Food scarcity was a real issue so most of it was done before it even reached super market shelves. In his first three months in Australia he gained 5 kilograms trying out all the capitalist wonders the country had to offer. The only reason I am fat is the availability of sugar. I don’t eat that much but have an addiction to sugary things. I have to ban my husband from bringing them home and make sure my bank account has just enough money for train fares etc before I go out. And ready meals are a huge problem. I don’t tend to eat them because they are disgusting and would rather just not eat but for a normal person who doesn’t want to go hungry but doesn’t have time to cook ready meals which are full of sugar and salt etc must be a real temptation.

BigKiteflying there’s no difference in my family height wise from 1950s to now. Variations amongst individuals, men & women shorter & taller then their parents from teens up to 80s.

They were rationed, that probably helped.
They worked on the land a lot too, women did quite heavy labour during the war.
Even in the 50's before mod cons women housework was much more elbow grease than today.
We also didn't have the huge amount of grazing on snacks as we do now, it was 3 good meals a day, made from rations.

In addition to less food just about every lady wore a roll on or girdle to hold in tummy fat . I can remember my mum getting me one the moment I left school, fit sporty and weighing about 8 stone . Friends used to wear two on a night out

@sayhellotothelottlefella it’s really common for women to gain weight during pregnancy and having young children will make it difficult to loose weight, especially for people whose metabolism slows down when sleep deprived. Many women also end up being pretty much woke farmers for their children and struggle to find time to exercise. Having children is definitely a contributing factor to a lot of women’s weight gain.

@madambatty it died actually make a huge difference. My grandmother was about 167 cm, my mother about 171 and I am 177. We were all the same size in our youth but with about 5kgs difference between my mother and my grandmother and a further 5kg difference between me and my mother. It makes a particularly big difference when you look at extremes. My weight can vary up to 10kg without a noticeable difference. But on a short person 10kg is the difference between slim and fat.

People were much slimmer. Not only were there no coffee and cake opportunities every five yards but people walked or cycled everywhere. When I was a child in the 50s very few people owned cars, there were no gyms, everyday life provided plenty of exercise.

I gave birth to 8 babies - I didn’t eat them FFS!

Yes, I agree that middle class kids are healthier now than they were in the 80s when I was at school.

At my children’s school crisps, sweets, biscuits, cakes and chocolate are all banned in packed lunches. Most children have a sandwich or rice or pasta salad some fruit and some vegetable crudités. When I was at school nearly all children had a sandwich, a bag of crisps, a penguin and maybe a piece of fruit.

But that's just one meal. A lot of kids eat loads of crap, you only have to look at trolleys at the checkout to see that. And they don't get any exercise, they get driven to school and aren't allowed out to play. Obese children aren't healthy whatever they eat for lunch at school.

but middle class parents aren't filling their trolleys with all that stuff.

I look at what the (MC) young women at my work have for lunch - barely a sandwich in sight. In my day a packed lunch was a sandwich, packet of crisps and a yoghurt. They are much much healthier than I was at 25, and I come from a home where ready meals were nowhere to be seen.

Alcohol consumption has also risen since the mid 40s when it was standing historic low of 3.5l p.p. p.a. it now stands at about 9.3l. Although this figure masks that more people drank but in far lower quantity in the 40's. There are now about 20% teetotal adults... This means the average per person figure is about 20% higher if you remove the non drinkers. For the drinking population annual consumption has been relatively static since 90's

There are regional variations too... Nw, Wales, Scotland and Yorkshire all recording the higher consumption

publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200910/cmselect/cmhealth/151/15106.htm

Additional figures from the ONS
A glass of wine is about 200calories.

It might come as.a shock but not everyone is middle class. And it's pretty much every trolley that I see. I know every child whose parent is on MN has a sugar free, low fat diet, meanwhile in the real world ...

I think there is an element of truth in what you say about young middle class people eating very healthy. DS and DD are in their early twenties and they don't seem to eat any rubbish at all. DH and DS(12) are the ones scoffing the odd biscuit in our house. And even then it's very occasional. My older ones aren't even that keen on homemade cake.

Agree the snacking is a major factor.

If snacking was banned everyone would remember what hunger feels like, eat proper meals with a lot less crap

And I have posted my theory on here before, but I reckon everyone thinks they are craving food, when actually they are craving nutrients. Meat and veg fills you up much more than a big bowl of plainish pasta.