Why were people so skinny in the 70s and 80s

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I also think that the people who make weight a moral and willpower issue are to blame. The obesogenic industries (sugar, plastics, big agriculture, etc.) love these people, because they do their dirty work. There won't be effective societal change until people recognize that individual willpower has no real impact on long term weight management as compared to systemic and industrial impacts. Essentially, we need to have a Big Tobacco moment as a society.

I don't think we will, though, because the folks who adore shaming fat people enjoy it too much. They like the power trip and won't give it up.

I hate to say that I agree with you, but this thread is a perfect example. The tired trope of “eat less, move more” (always delivered with a sneer) empowers corporations to keep poisoning our food supply.

Totally agree. People can't resist a chance to dump on fat ppl so they let corporations continue to put phthalates and other obesogenics in literally everything (guess what, the amount in your breastmilk is about 10X the safe cutoff for drinking water! Fun fact, you are pumping your baby full of obesogenics from the moment it is born).

The levels of phthalates in our bodies have skyrocketed since the 70s/80s, and they are clearly linked to obesity. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4114051/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Smoked instead of ate. That's what my mom would say, anyway. And she was super skinny then.

Same! I can count on one hand the times my mother or grandmother actually ate the family meal they prepared. They were always “busy” in the kitchen or serving everyone else.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:People weren't any skinnier in the 80's OP. They were heavier because working out wasn't a thing. Your parents were skinny because they were young. Once you get into your 50's, it is WORK to keep the weight off.

Of course they were. Try obesity rate among adults has more than doubled since the 70s/80s.

And kids! I remember when I was in school, there were like 2 heavy kids who got teased. Now I see obese kids pretty regularly.

So, I was size 10-12 in high school and I was the fat kid. That was before vanity sizing, so equivalent to about size 8 or medium in mass market brands now. There were maybe 1 or 2 girls bigger than me, and it was a very middle class community.

[Anonymous]

I was a skinny kid in the 80's who had skinny parents and siblings. There was no smoking or speed etc. There were 3 homemade meals a day and, if you needed a snack, an apple. We went out to dinner maybe 4 times a year as a family and the only times I had candy was Halloween, Christmas and Easter. Dessert wasn't a regular thing, but we celebrated birthdays with cake and ice cream. Interestingly, I'm still thin at 50, but I have "junk" and "snacks" in my house. I make 95% of our meals. My kids eat all kinds of sweets and snack as wanted. They are skinnier than I was.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Availability of liquid calories and snacks is so much different now than it was in the 70s and 80s. The marketing is subversive, too. "Healthy" juices and smoothies that add extra calories and more grams of sugar than is recommended in a whole day. Entire aisles in the supermarket devoted to whole grain snacks, superfoods, etc. that from a macros perspective are no different than a bag of chips. Daily starbucks runs (my parents drank black coffee, maybe some cream and a couple cubes of sugar. Think of how many people now habitually consume take-out coffee drinks instead.) Add to that better accessibility to more food in general OR less accessibility to quality foods.

You must not have been around in the 70s and 80s. There was tons of soda, fruit juice, "fruit" juice (like Sunny D), Hawaiian Punch, Capri Sun, you name it. Starbucks didn't exist but we had plenty of junk to fill us up, even in the ye olde times. And plenty of weird diets, too.

I think you're all looking back with skinny-colored glasses.

Yes there were all those things. But people are also remembering correctly. All you have to do is look at old year book class photos. Or pictures from Woodstock, or the day Kennedy was assassinated. People overall were thinner then.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When I was skinny I ate

Lucky charms with whole milk
Pb&J with chocolate milk
Doritos with dip and a coke
Spaghetti with meat sauce and garlic bread
Ice cream

Pretty much every day (the dinner was always pasta and meat or rice and meat or potato and meat)

Did not eat a veggie or a fruit until college

So you were a child, then?

I guess I mean I was never served a fruit or veggie ... like there were none on the table or in the kitchen.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I also think that the people who make weight a moral and willpower issue are to blame. The obesogenic industries (sugar, plastics, big agriculture, etc.) love these people, because they do their dirty work. There won't be effective societal change until people recognize that individual willpower has no real impact on long term weight management as compared to systemic and industrial impacts. Essentially, we need to have a Big Tobacco moment as a society.

I don't think we will, though, because the folks who adore shaming fat people enjoy it too much. They like the power trip and won't give it up.

I hate to say that I agree with you, but this thread is a perfect example. The tired trope of “eat less, move more” (always delivered with a sneer) empowers corporations to keep poisoning our food supply.

Totally agree. People can't resist a chance to dump on fat ppl so they let corporations continue to put phthalates and other obesogenics in literally everything (guess what, the amount in your breastmilk is about 10X the safe cutoff for drinking water! Fun fact, you are pumping your baby full of obesogenics from the moment it is born).

The levels of phthalates in our bodies have skyrocketed since the 70s/80s, and they are clearly linked to obesity. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4114051/

Yes, I think of these people as similar to the ones in the 1940s who argued against tobacco limitations because of willpower, etc. They were wrong then and are wrong now. But industry is a lot smarter now, and has taken a page from the tobacco playbook (in some cases literally), so the situation is much worse than it was with tobacco.

You can see it in this thread. The industrial apologists are open about how they cling to their ability to sneer at fat people. Mocking fat people and feeling morally superior is more important to them than systemic change, even though we would all benefit by treating obesogenic industries as though they were as toxic as tobacco.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/14/health/big-tobacco-kool-aid-sugar-obesity.html

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2879177/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I also think that the people who make weight a moral and willpower issue are to blame. The obesogenic industries (sugar, plastics, big agriculture, etc.) love these people, because they do their dirty work. There won't be effective societal change until people recognize that individual willpower has no real impact on long term weight management as compared to systemic and industrial impacts. Essentially, we need to have a Big Tobacco moment as a society.

I don't think we will, though, because the folks who adore shaming fat people enjoy it too much. They like the power trip and won't give it up.

I hate to say that I agree with you, but this thread is a perfect example. The tired trope of “eat less, move more” (always delivered with a sneer) empowers corporations to keep poisoning our food supply.

Totally agree. People can't resist a chance to dump on fat ppl so they let corporations continue to put phthalates and other obesogenics in literally everything (guess what, the amount in your breastmilk is about 10X the safe cutoff for drinking water! Fun fact, you are pumping your baby full of obesogenics from the moment it is born).

The levels of phthalates in our bodies have skyrocketed since the 70s/80s, and they are clearly linked to obesity. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4114051/

Yes, I think of these people as similar to the ones in the 1940s who argued against tobacco limitations because of willpower, etc. They were wrong then and are wrong now. But industry is a lot smarter now, and has taken a page from the tobacco playbook (in some cases literally), so the situation is much worse than it was with tobacco.

You can see it in this thread. The industrial apologists are open about how they cling to their ability to sneer at fat people. Mocking fat people and feeling morally superior is more important to them than systemic change, even though we would all benefit by treating obesogenic industries as though they were as toxic as tobacco.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/14/health/big-tobacco-kool-aid-sugar-obesity.html

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2879177/

We shamed a lot of smokers into quitting. So then we should shame the junk food eaters into eating less junk food, right?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:People eat all the time now. Nonstop. My kid is forced to take a snack for a 2.5 hr preschool event.

Snacks snack snacks all the time. Mostly processed food.

People don’t smoke.

All you have to do is eat three small meals a day and you won’t get fat.

Yes. We snack more, and there are more processed snacks available, and portions of everything are larger. There is also much less physical activity in a normal day, especially for kids.

[Anonymous]

diet pills and smoking helped a lot. Plenty of EDs

[Anonymous]

I think its also that the food pyramid s completely wrong. It’s startling how many people can lose weight doing keto even people who have failed many times in the past. Low carb, high protein diets with a modest amount of fat work and are sustainable while a grain based diet will pack on the lbs. Add to this that grains and starches are cheaper along with corn syrup and now most restaurant and prepared processed foods are loaded with carbs.

Weight management is behavioral. It can be managed with will power BUT it is extremely difficult to do this especially when dieticians push out dated carb heavy diets.

[Anonymous]

Cigarettes

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think its also that the food pyramid s completely wrong. It’s startling how many people can lose weight doing keto even people who have failed many times in the past. Low carb, high protein diets with a modest amount of fat work and are sustainable while a grain based diet will pack on the lbs. Add to this that grains and starches are cheaper along with corn syrup and now most restaurant and prepared processed foods are loaded with carbs.

Weight management is behavioral. It can be managed with will power BUT it is extremely difficult to do this especially when dieticians push out dated carb heavy diets.

The 70s and 80s were carb heavy werent they? There was a whole lot of 1/4 plate meat 1/4 plate veg 1/2 carbs (rice potato pasta bread).

[Anonymous]

Pre- diet Coke

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Availability of liquid calories and snacks is so much different now than it was in the 70s and 80s. The marketing is subversive, too. "Healthy" juices and smoothies that add extra calories and more grams of sugar than is recommended in a whole day. Entire aisles in the supermarket devoted to whole grain snacks, superfoods, etc. that from a macros perspective are no different than a bag of chips. Daily starbucks runs (my parents drank black coffee, maybe some cream and a couple cubes of sugar. Think of how many people now habitually consume take-out coffee drinks instead.) Add to that better accessibility to more food in general OR less accessibility to quality foods.

You must not have been around in the 70s and 80s. There was tons of soda, fruit juice, "fruit" juice (like Sunny D), Hawaiian Punch, Capri Sun, you name it. Starbucks didn't exist but we had plenty of junk to fill us up, even in the ye olde times. And plenty of weird diets, too.

I think you're all looking back with skinny-colored glasses.

Yes there were all those things. But people are also remembering correctly. All you have to do is look at old year book class photos. Or pictures from Woodstock, or the day Kennedy was assassinated. People overall were thinner then.

Very noticable in the old Soul Train videos!