Why were people so skinny in the 70s and 80s
![[Post New]](/jforum/templates/default/images/icon_minipost_new.gif){kind=icon}
Anonymous
|
smoking
speed exercise (my dad was a runner in the 70s and 80s, so some people were doing it, my mom went to some early version of women's workout world. It was in a strip mall, Gloria something?) smaller portions-if you got a soda it was 8 or 12oz less time on screens, so even if we weren't athletic we were less sendentary |
Anonymous
| Lots of processed food in the 70s and 80s. Not sure of people’s memories: but truthfully, The food wasn’t as tasty, easier to stop. TV dinners boomed in the 80s and they were terrible. Tons of delicious but fatty frozen food today. |
Anonymous
| The war on drugs hadn’t happened yet. |
Anonymous
|
You mean, why were people in the normal BMI range, contrary to now, when two thirds of adults are overweight or obese?
Because there wasn't as much junk food back then. People cooked more from scratch, and their parents had fed them normal portions, not ginormous portions, so they'd grown up knowing how much food is normal. Today, most children in the US grow up with no knowledge of what a normal portion should look like, and perhaps no knowledge of how many meals to consume a day, and even what constitutes a meal, since adults around them are snacking all day, and encouraging them to snack. Junk food occupies the majority of most supermarket aisles, and some of it is less expensive and easier to prepare and eat than healthy carbs and vegetables. We are in a diabetes and cardiovascular disease epidemic, and every taxpayer pays the burden of their, and other people's, bad eating choices. |
Anonymous
|
Diet coke and Marlboro lights
Eating healthy also does not make you skinny, the idea that we should be at the bottom of our BMI is not healthy. |
Anonymous
| Smoked instead of ate. That's what my mom would say, anyway. And she was super skinny then. |
Anonymous
Right - in addition to smoking - I don't think anyone had a problem with diet soda then either. |
Anonymous
I don't know about other people, but we ate mostly unprocessed foods for meals because my parents were immigrants, but we did eat processed food for snacks. Even so, the cost of food was more expensive back then in comparison. Inflation was high in the 70s up until the mid 80s, then dropped significantly in the mid 80s into the 90s. |
Anonymous
| lack of screens. tv was not that interesting. people actually went out and did things. |
Anonymous
|
People didn't outsource things as much - house cleaning, yardwork, etc.
They moved a lot more. Much less screen time, more walking in general. Also drugs and smoking. Smaller portion sizes. |
Anonymous
Women didn't work as much outside the house - that's why people are outsourcing so much now. |
Anonymous
|
Smoking, mostly, and less snacking.
Cooking from scratch was a lot of butter, breads, potatoes, cheese, canned or pickled veggies, etc. Fresh produce wasn't easy to get out of season. It was homemade but it wasn't diet food. However, we didn't eat between meals because there wasn't as much snacky stuff. |
Anonymous
| My Dad loved McDonald's and neither of them smoked or drank. |
Anonymous
|
yes to all the above but also more sedentary lifestyles - and more sedentary jobs
Sitting in front of COMPUTERS all day doesn't keep a person lean. |
Anonymous
We lived in a tiny 2 bedroom condo in the city. No maintenance |