to consider my grandma’s theory on why we’re all fatter?

[bagelbreath]

My grandma swears up and down that although food and movement are obviously big factors to the massive weight gain of the country, heating is also very important.

While she lived in a cold house, wore stockings and dresses year round, and spent a lot of time outside, we all sit toasty in our well heated and insulated houses. Her theory is that it took lots of energy to stay warm then vs now.

Is it crazy? I kind of think it makes sense

I think there might be something in it. Plus, the lack of modern conveniences meant people were working harder in the home - even down to having to sweep out the fire every day, bring in coal, etc.

My mum used to have every Monday off school to help my grandad with the laundry as her mum was ill. It was a full day of absolute graft, carried out barefoot in the back yard.

We don’t even have to lift the remote to turn the telly over!

Definitely portion sizes too, as kids we would have a little tiny pack of jelly tots to eat but the kids these days eat a family size bag to themselves.

Hmmm, also now I’m thinking back, the only times I saw my Grandmas sit down was for meal times and for an hour by the fire in the evening after all the dinner chores were done and everything laid out for the morning. Meal times include afternoon tea when friends and family would visit. They never sat down for hours at a time as there was too much to do

There is some research on it (haven’t been able to find it just now) - and it’s a trick of some French women to underdress for the weather to keep cold and burn more calories.

Oh come on.

More channels on the TV than you can count.

The internet.

People driving because they think a 40 minute walk is too long, or they're going to dissolve in the rain.

Huge portions of food at mealtimes and constant snacking in between.

Junk food outlets cramming up every town centre, everywhere you look.

Said junk food outlets delivering to our doors so we don't even have to get off our arses.

Those examples are just a tiny part of why we're all fatter, but if your gran thinks it's down to better heating, let her crack on 😁

The temperature of your house won’t be making that much difference to your calorie burn. And she said herself that they wore warmer clothes indoors, so their heat loss was less, which would cancel out at least part of the higher energy need.
The biggest factors in rising obesity since she was young are sedentary lifestyles (a lot fewer people have manual jobs and we tend to use cars when they would have walked & carried shopping home), and the increased availability of cheap, calorific food that we eat in much larger amounts. And they didn’t graze on sugary fatty snacks all day either.

I think it is partially true but I also think it is true that people walked more, there was a max of one car per family usually used by Dad to get to work so SAHM walked to shoops and back and school runs, unless you got a school bus you walked to school and back evn in the rain, unless it was really bad weather young kids played out physically, you walked to meet friends after school
generally it was 3 meals a day maybe for kids a wee snack after school or for adults the odd bisucuit with tea
junk food was a treat not a daily occurence
I think just the sheer amunt of walking made a difference not necessarily fast walking no worries about being out of breathe just lots more movement

When I was young in the 60s food was quite basic - meat and 2 veg. Small pud.

Now it's never plain, everything has sauce/butter/pastry/other tasty addition so every meal is a treat rather than basic calories to give you energy.

My Grandmother was stout and sturdy, yes, fat, but lived to 103. She was a farmers wife though, and they therefore ate a lot of meat and game, with lots of fat, their own butter and and milk (non pasturised), fresh bread, cake and biscuits. However, they also lived most of their lives outdoors, so fit, and no labour saving gadgets for them. They lived in a non-heated farmhouse, just fires and the aga, and an outside toilet. Everything they ate was fresh though, and basic. They were hardy souls.

Yes she's right in principle but the effect to which it does actually affect weight gain or loss is relatively negligible.

I don't think so. My office is super cold and there are a lot of overweight people.

I read an article a few years ago about a research station at the South Pole and what it was like to live and work there.

They had their own chef and the food was great, and plentiful, but they said they had all lost stones because of the cold.

My old biology teacher used to recommend sleeping with less blankets (pre duvet days!) to lose weight.

I doubt the calorific expenditure is that high, not enough to justify cold sleepless nights.

Keeping moving would keep you warmer though, so

👍😁

Oops. I was trying to say that if you were cold, you might hop up to keep moving and warm yourself up which would use more calories too.

I agree about portion sizes too. Dinner plates and pudding bowls seem to have become much bigger recently!

Lots of very thin people by next year
Nobody can afford the heating anymore

It’s multi factorial and your Nan is right. There is much more…

Yes it’s true. It’s one of the reasons children in fuel poor households are smaller in height.

I am sure I have read somewhere that the average man or woman actually eat less calories than they did in 1940, activity levels were much higher especially in traditional manual jobs.

Many people eat utter crap- watch the hordes get off planes at Newcastle airport at the end of holidays. In the middle of the night they walk out of the arrivals channel and 50% go straight into Greggs to buy carrier bags of hot , greasy crap at 3am.
This week I have been working in a secondary school and at the end of the day (3 days) have gone to the local Co-op at the request of the manager because he thinks the kids misbehave. I didn't think they were badly behaved but I was horrified to see what teenagers were buying at the end of the school day to eat on the way home- family packs of crisps, boxes of 10 flap jacks, 10 chocolate cornflake cakes, packets of 6 croissants, 6 muffins, big bottles of fizzy drinks. Not to share, each. I walked back with a group of boys one afternoon part of the way back to the school and they told me they buy something like that every day on the way home and eat it all before they get home. I was astonished.
I am 43. We NEVER had takeaways delivered when I was growing up. My dad went and collected fish and chips occasionally on Fridays for our tea but that was it. I never had a takeaway until I was at university. I have still never had a Macdonald's. People order delivered food all the time now.

You might want to do more research!

www.businessinsider.com/cold-temperatures-could-lead-to-weight-loss-2018-3?amp

time.com/5025694/does-being-cold-burn-calories/?amp=true

Intuitively it feels as though it would be a factor. Also my granny cooked a lot of meals that were meat or fish with two or three veg. And fruit for pudding. Relatively healthy if you look at the nutritional breakdown, and no processed snacks.

They moved more and are less. Hard physical Labour, long working hours, walking more, walking to work was more common. Or walking to catch public transport.
In the home there was less household appliances, washday was just that, a day devoted to washing. The day my mother got her first washer, after either doing it by hand or using the local wash-house was like all her dreams came true. It was a single tub with an electric wringer. Fill it with water, let the water heat up add detergent, clothes then let the paddle thing in the middle go to work, drain the water out, fill back up with cold, rinse, rinse again and the each garment through the wringer one at a time. If you put too thick an item through it, the pressure thing would disengage, fly up and hit you in the face. Or it took your hand through if you weren’t quick enough to move them out of the way.
Everything was line dried.
Today there’s more food choice, outlets, fast food, more office based work.

It's everything. Processed, calorific foods, sedentary lifestyles, warmth. Even easier housework; vacuums etc. And most people do less housework than 1950s women did.