To think people looked and felt better back in the old days vs now?

[wildernesswild]

Currently watching videos of Olivia Newton-John (rest in peace ) and I always notice people born years and years ago, maybe in the 60s/70s/80s look amazing then and now, no fakeness, I'm always told by my grandparents nobody really back in the day was majorly obese or had any mental health issues. Even the men groomed themselves and dressed amazingly.

What do we think contributes to our issues these days? Is it social media, processed food, unrealistic standards? I'd love to hear everyone's opinion

I don’t know how true this is really. I don’t think people were naturally more beautiful, most people will have been average looking just as they are today. Black and white images are more flattering and cameras weren’t as high quality so there’s that too but perhaps you just quite like the style so link that to people looking more attractive?

People had less societal pressures than they do now for sure because obviously social media didn’t exist and people barely travelled so only knew the people in their local area. Less comparison I guess and less sense of individuality perhaps so most people just followed the same style/ path in life in general.

Obesity has always existed but less people will have been obese because A) less people owned cars so walked more and B) a lot less junk food available so people ate better. Plus let’s not forget lots of women stayed at home so had more time to cook from scratch then. Nowadays people work high pressured jobs and cba coming home to cook a gourmet dinner.

People might officially have shorter weeks now, but that's because most are pressured or expected to work beyond their contracted hours, usually for no extra pay. The price of housing means most people can't afford to buy near cities and large towns so commutes have become much longer. Add to that the amount of time at home that people spend checking emails and answering work calls.
The day of the 9 to 5 job with a 30 minute commute either side having gone.

What? Of course he exercised - gymnastics, boxing, swimming, other sports - and tanned/groomed. He'd been a circus acrobat as a kid. Just because the PR claimed that it was all just natural genetics and a bit of walking, that doesn't mean it was (and going by some of his relationship preferences, it would have been expedient to gloss over elements).

Actually look at the photos. Same with pretty much every Hollywood star - they wouldn't have got work without it.

I was born in the late 1960’s literally no one was overweight. There was one girl and one teacher who were at my school and that was it.

I first travelled to the states around 35 years ago and people there seemed enormous. I remember going in to a store and seeing giant clothes. In the last decade I have seen people as large as those giant clothes that I saw all those years ago.

Yes I remember we used to be amazed at how overweight a lot of American tourists were. Then McDonald's, Burgerking etc set up outlets all over the place, soft drinks became a fridge staple and not something you just had at parties, eating between meals became normal, microwave meals became a usual dinner, you could dial out for pizza, Chinese etc any time you wanted, and going everywhere armed with snacks for the children was encouraged.
The Americans no longer stand out.

Your grandparents are right about the obesity. Some of the huge people we get used to seeing these days would have had people staring in the street when I was a child and people who were considered overweight back then would pass as normal now. I am 60 so I was a child in the 1960s/70s. One of my friends used to be unkindly referred to as fatty and the school nurse told her mum she needed to lose weight. When I look at our school photo from 1970 she looks like many of the chunkier children today and wouldn't stand out as overweight.

I think serious MH issues were hidden from view because the sufferers were often institutionalised. I had an aunt with epilepsy who spent much of her life in institutions. Other MH issues were referred to as "suffering with his/her nerves"

As to the fakeness, I think a lot of today's beauty is more homogenised. Someone up thread talked about teenage girls looking more groomed and better looking today than in 70s and 80s. Maybe so but it sometimes seems they are all trying to conform to an accepted type.

The Internet certainly has a lot to do with it. Teenagers when I was young mainly had just each other to look at as examples of good looks. Sure there were pop stars etc. on TV and in magazines but you only had to look around you to see most people in real life didn't look like that. Hence there wasn't as much pressure to have perfect make up, glossy straightened hair, immaculate nails etc. Girls today must feel under more pressure to "glow up" or whatever the phrase is. No wonder there is more anxiety.

Society has changed so much. Some good, some less so.

For instance, we used to do a lot of things that were pointless really simply to be “polite”. We’ve dropped some of those things because life is more hectic now.

Culture around food has changed immensely. Eating between meals was a no-no. Soft drinks were only found at parties. Pudding on a Sunday. Stuffing your face is now a “you go girl” moment; in the past it was taboo. Women eat and drink like men now but in the 80s my Dad got a bigger helping

People think they can guzzle soft drinks now because of sweeteners yet people are getting bigger to the point where they are struggling to move.

I don't know... Maybe people born in 60s looked good back then, but they are people who are currently 50-60 something. Do they really look that good? Many of them are also overweight etc.

Ah, this makes sense. Yes, I can agree with that.

What do we think contributes to our issues these days? Is it social media, processed food, unrealistic standards? I'd love to hear everyone's opinion

How about plate size?

Seriously. In my kitchen cupboard I have the dinner plates we use every day and which were bought within the last five years. I also have some dinner plates I bought when I was first setting up my own place in the mid-1980s. (Must have been robust as I still have all six!) The modern dinner plates have a diameter about an inch bigger than the 1980s plates.

Until recently I also had a plate my mum gave me when I first went to University. It was one of the ones I remember us using as a dinner plate from my earliest childhood so presumably my parents got it in 1950s/60s. This was smaller again, not much larger than the sort of tea plate we now use as a side plate or for a snack or something.

If the increased size of plates reflects the size of meals then no wonder more of us are overweight.

it started a long time before social media. The trajectory, coined diabesity, had long been predicted as fast and convenience foods packed with sugar and additives became the norm. Combined with the change in lifestyle from living and working locally to lengthy commutes.

Well I was born in the 40s. Teenager in the 60s, loved every single moment of it. I'd go back in a heartbeat, not the pressure there is to day about fitting in, wearing labelled clothes. We were much more grown up as well,I was commuting into London at the age of 15.
You soon got sorted out by older people if you misbehaved.

I dont recognised what people are saying about bad teeth etc. we had regular checkups.
Definitely a much slimmer population, we walked everywhere, young people just didn't have cars at the rate they do today.
I feel sorry for kids today, social media has a lot to answer for and I worry for my teenage grandchildren.

You should have grown up in the 60s and 70s when there was more pollution and everyone smoked everywhere.

the pollution from vehicles is far worse now than back in the 1960s& 70s just the shear numbers of vehicles on the road is killing prematurely 40000 people a year in the uk

You soon got sorted out by older people if you misbehaved.

that was when we had a society

now if you tell off someone’s child the parents go ape

@ivykaty44 · Today 12:13
"You soon got sorted out by older people if you misbehaved.
that was when we had a society"

i didn't see much stopping of bullying, sexism, homophobia, ableism or racism. In fact the adults around us would perpetuate them. Anti social behaviour went worse in the middle 80's, drug use was taking off etc.

Watch old episodes of Top of the pops and children's Saturday shows which featured real kids in the audience. They wasn't better looking and smelt much worse. People's experiences are going to differ depending on the income group that they grew up with. Likewise the north/south divide existed even then.

Meant to add that it's strange that the GPs claim that depression wasn't around. Raymond Briggs who's just died spoke about his life long depression, as do many others. A lot of women didn't leave the house. Compared with today, lives were very home/family based and it wasn't seen as a bad thing if a wife didn't want to go out. Princess Diana spoke about the overdosing of women on valium. Women were still being put into institutions in the 60's.

Lots of women were on valium.
It is true mental health was not talked about in public as there was a great stigma, but a GP should know there was lots of mental health problems all the same.

Most people didn’t need either glasses or contact lenses. I presume “most people with poor sight”.

Bad teeth not surprising as the NHS was only 30 years old. People in their 40s had lived through a war and years of rationing.

School photos in the 60s and 70s show a huge majority of children were slim (and a greater diversity of female hairstyles)

People looked older than their years, my mum and dad at 40 looked ancient, grandparents even more so.
People had worse teeth, fluffy hair, bad skin etc. ONJ was an exception!

More people wear glasses now. There is evidence that as a baby, child and teenager, you need a lot of exposure to natural light to get good sight developing.

That's the worrying thing. I know loads of people who were fit/healthy/thin in the 70s and 80s who are now obese, diabetic, heart problems, etc and many have died aged 50-70.

Considering that there are so many obese teenagers and 20 somethings already today, are they even going to make it to 50? Or are we going to see the age of contracting diabetes/heart problems, etc just get earlier and earlier with even earlier deaths more commonplace?

I always think young people look better now than they did in the 50s 60s and 70s, hair and skin looks healthier, but makeup and 'beauty' procedures have gone too far.

Is it perhaps a lifetime of plastic surgery?

My grandparents looking back dressed for the 80’s but it was so frumpy looking compared to now, they were early-mid 40’s when I was born, my grandad had white hair, wore slacks & shirts all the time, my nana wore long floral skirts & blouses, I’m getting to a similar age & I’m wearing jeans & t-shirts, nice dresses etc but I suppose my grandchildren will look back in years to come & probably think the same I do.

I was looking through old pics of my mum at my age as well & my kids said she looks so much older than I do & she looks better in her 60’s than her 40’s!

I was thinking exactly this.