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

Very true. I also remember this.

I read something about everyone needing 5000 calories due to having to walk everywhere back in the day. There wasn’t the easy availability of sweets, kids played out in the street more-I was biking, climbing trees, walked a fair distance to school.

The fact the colder UK has much higher levels of obesity than many hotter Mediterranean countries makes that theory unlikely though.

I think a much more significant factor is the fact that some people get in their car virtually every time they leave the house, and never walk anywhere. And in a wider sense the planning laws and developers that have allowed places to exist where you’re basically forced to use your car to get anywhere. Neighbourhoods with a ‘walk first’ ethos rather than a ‘car first’ ethos would make a big difference I think.

I was born in 1960. Pasta was rare pre 80s, pizza was rare, milky coffees and hot chocolate with double cream and marshmallows were rare. McDonalds didn't arrive throughout the UK until the early 80s - there was an occasional Wimpy bar. Tex Mex wasn't around. Food just wasn't as yummy. A cream cake was a rare treat. I have no recollection of chicken portions.

Family meals that I remember consisted of Sunday roast, meat pies, stewed Mince, meat puddings, an occasional stew or boiled chicken stew from an old boiler, bacon and egg pie and chops - lots of chops with boiled potatoes and veg, notwithstanding liver and bacon, braised hearts and things like pressed tongue (boak), poached haddock with an egg on top, grilled plaice and occasionally fish cakes. It was good healthy food but often not mouthwateringly so.

Puddings were fruit pies and custard, jelly and ice cream (which usually came in a block), rice pudding, tapioca pudding, blancmange and a trifle on high days and holidays. Very little veggie stuff. Chips might have been made weekly in the chip pan to go with cold meat on a Monday.

Plus we all walked and cycled more.

However, I also remember taking sweets to school and nobody raised an eyebrow. There also wasn't the availability of fizzy drinks and I don't think I ever remember my mother or grandma reaching into the fridge or cellar for a bottle of wine in the way that has become routine nowadays. A sherry perhaps on occasion. OTH I recall almost everyone having two sugars in their tea.

I just don't think food tasted as good and there was nothing like the prevalence of cook books. I say all that coming from a family with European roots and a wider palate than most Brits.

I think people on average had much harder physical lives in previous generations.

My mother had four children and did the washing, - clothes, sheets, nappies, everything - laboriously, using a poss tub and a mangle before starching and ironing the bejabers out of stuff when it was dry. Rugs were put over clothes lines and beaten, ranges scrubbed and blacked (and doorsteps scrubbed and "donkey"). All meals were prepared and cooked from scratch, most of the shopping was done on foot at local(ish) shops and markets and carried home.

Men tended to have very physical jobs, too - I'm from what used to be a shipbuilding and coal-mining area - most men worked at the docks or down the pit. It was heavy work. Now I think a big proportion of the population spends their work day sitting down - at desks, phones etc.

Leisure activities were also more active, even if it was just walking to a football match to shout at the ref - people weren't sitting all night in front of the tv, eating snack food without even realising how much stuff they were putting into their mouths (and I am as bad as anyone - I'm not judging).

Of course, one job we didn't have was walking the dog. You just opened the door in the morning, out he went, and came home when he was hungry for his dinner and to spend the night.

We did eat tinned fruit, but apples, oranges and bananas were always in the shops. We bottled fruit and made jam. Strawberries and rasberries came from the garden, blackberries from the hedgerow. I still do quite a lot of this. Think we had quite a lot of fruit really!

I'll rely on that theory if my willpower starts to flag when trying to resist putting the heating on, thanks OP.

8 of the most obese countries in the world here. I don't imagine there's much shivering going on...

Nauru - 61.00%
Cook Islands - 55.90%
Palau - 55.30%
Marshall Islands - 52.90%
Tuvalu - 51.60%
Niue - 50.00%
Tonga - 48.20%
Samoa - 47.30%

I've put my heating on. If I hadn't I'd just go to bed early every night so I'd be moving LESS.

Eskimos aren't traditionally thin though are they?

Sorry, posted too soon.

They've always been hot countries but they haven't always had an obesity problem.

So I really don't think temperatures make a jot of difference.

"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"

That was when you were visiting though. When she was only cooking for your grandad she probably wasn't that busy in her retirement.

I don't think I ever remember my mother or grandma reaching into the fridge or cellar for a bottle of wine in the way that has become routine nowadays.

I think alcohol is a massive contributing factor.

Isn’t it because they’re all quite isolated but small islands, so they have to rely heavily on imported processed foods?

That’s been my theory too for years OP so yes from me

If you ever watch a film, documentary or book describing eating out in post war Britain you would be amazed at how small plates and portions were. (Even accounting for rationing)

A common starter used to be a glass of orange juice, or a slice of melon.

I was looking at the calories on the menu at a chain pub recently and was shocked to see some of the starters were over 1000 calories each!

@CryingInTents they've always been the same so I doubt it.

There is probably some truth in what your grandma says but the top and bottom of it is that people are overweight because they eat too much. Simple really!!

I’m mystified now then, why have the numbers increased?!

Even in very warm countries where no heating of any kind is ever required, people have still gotten fatter. I think Mexico has one of the highest obesity rates in the world.

We walked 1.5 miles to school and back each day. It was rare to get a lift.
Snacking was almost unheard of in 1970's..If there was a 'Snack', it was a slice of bread and butter with marmite, none of the sugary stuff or crisps. {At least not in our house} We were all whip thin.

It's definitely a factor biology wise. If you are cold your metabolism increases to generate more body heat. If you are sat in a warm room you don't lose as much body heat to the environment. However, there's also other factors like how you crave more energy dense foods in winter to balance out the fact you are burning more calories to keep warm. Whereas in summer your appetite decreases and you eat more salads etc because you don't need as many calories to keep warm.
Your body shape is also important. Tall skinny people have a bigger surface area to volume ratio which means they lose more body heat - good in summer, bad in the cold. Whereas in colder climates it's beneficial to be rounded with a smaller surface area:volume so you don't lose too much body heat.
It's a very complicated, multifaceted issue but ultimately if you don't burn enough calories through exercise (or keeping warm!) compared to what you eat then you will put on weight.

All those saying they never saw their grandmother's sit down, whilst I agree with that, I leave the house at 8am and get home often after 8pm doing a mentally challenging role but admit I sit on my backside all day and have a parking space 50 years from my office! First thing I do when I get home isnto pour a glass of wine.

Grannie, however, drove a tractor, rode almost every day and mucked out stables. She did not however cook much but loved sweets, cake and chocolate. She was stout and short and had such a large bosom instead of using a bread board, she rested the loaf on her bosom and cut slices of bread onto the breadboard away from herself. I recall she always needed a size 16/18 and was barely 5'.

If you are a fan of Barbara Pym you will find people (of both sexes) in her novels dining on a small lamb chop, a single tomato and some lettuce, or one poached egg on toast for their main meal.

That's barely a starter in this house . . .

5000 calories seems a bit extreme. I just cycled 75km and it took just shy of four hours. My fitness tracker reckons that burned about 1500cals.

I walked 14km over the course of the day yesterday and that only burned 758 ‘active calories’.