Why were Americans of all ages so thin during the 1960s and 1970s?

[Anonymous]

^Oh, and lipo, tummy tucks, plastic surgery were something that only the rich people did.

[Anonymous]

We are close to two ice cream shop. Have you seen the lines there! It's always long. And we wonder why we have a weight and health problem.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They weren’t thin but normal size. If you visit other countries, you’ll see that most people are “thin”. They only look “thin” to you because the majority of Americans are overweight/fat and that is the norm here.

Visit Australia and tell me if you still think this is true.

Kind of tired of people who keep proclaiming that obesity is a uniquely American disorder.

[Anonymous]

I was looking at photos of my dad in his late teens and early 20s and he was very thin. You don't see the same age boys/men that thin anymore. First of all, he grew up on a farm and do physical work every single day. He also played sports in school. He probably ate simple foods without a bunch of crap in them. Soda, ice cream and other treats were just that- treats. Treats that were infrequent. He started smoking during Vietnam and when he came back, he continued so it kept off the weight. I just got back from vacation and really had time to look around and notice how many children and teens are so overweight. I cannot imagine their adult lives will be easy with all of that extra weight. I dropped my son off at camp and notice how many overweight boys there are in his daily camp photos. My friend was shocked when I told her he likes to go on the 4-5 day backpacking hikes at camp. She thought it would be too tiring and she couldn't imagine kids would like that. Boys and girls are at the height of their physical abilities in their teens and early 20s and they should be able to do this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Weight Watchers was founded in the 1960s. I went to my first WW meeting in 1976, when I was 12, in Austin, Texas. And there were PLENTY of overweight people there. I attended on and off through the Seventies. My parents were big fans of Weight Watchers, having watched their weight during the Sixties and Seventies. Do you think there were not people taking diet pills, dieting, and having issues with their bodies before, OP?

Who do you think Freud's patients were, in the 1890s to 1930s? These were women with, among other things, eating disorders and neuroses around food.

You act as if, prior to to 1995 or some mythical time frame, no one had an effed up relationship with food, dieted, or overate. You've got to be kidding me.

Decades ago very few American women were obese. I’d say obese people have a way more effed up relationship with food than a normal person.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They weren’t thin but normal size. If you visit other countries, you’ll see that most people are “thin”. They only look “thin” to you because the majority of Americans are overweight/fat and that is the norm here.

Visit Australia and tell me if you still think this is true.

Kind of tired of people who keep proclaiming that obesity is a uniquely American disorder.

+ 1

absolutely true.

I was just in England and thought this as well.

Americans are so hard on themselves. I saw tourists from all over the world there and no one looked as fit and athletic as Americans. There were plenty of slim people, regular people, and yes even overweight people.

I even saw fat French tourists!

[Anonymous]

I remember crash dieting starting as a young teen in the late 70's. I cut my calories to almost nothing. It was typical back then to do that. I also rubbed oil on my skin and laid out in the sun every day. I was skinny and I was tan but I don't think that I would want my own daughter to do things the way I did them.

[Anonymous]

http://freakonomics.com/2013/07/23/the-history-of-obesity-revisited/

Our results lined up pretty well with the conventional wisdom, suggesting that the obesity epidemic is not particularly old but took off in the 1980s. We found that child obesity rates were low and stable among children born in the 1930s, 40s, 50s, 60s, and part of the 70s, and then rose rapidly through the 1980s and 1990s. Unlike Komlos and Brabec, we did not find evidence that the obesity epidemic was underway earlier. We did see some evidence that girls (but not boys) were getting a bit heavier before 1960, but significant numbers of girls didn’t break into the obese category until after 1980. In fact, much of the increase in girls’ weight before 1960 consisted of girls moving out of the underweight category and into a normal weight range.

[Anonymous]

Smaller portion sizes and more physical activity. The diet (the general diet in terms of food eaten - not as in “going on a diet”) of the 60s and 70s was bad for a lot of people. Few fresh fruits and vegetables and lots of canned and some frozen too. Frozen dinners. White bread. Gelatin everything, spam/canned meats, American cheese. So it’s definitely not everyone eating fresh food 24/7. They just ate a lot less of it.

[Anonymous]

It's hard to say. Food back then was highly processed and not fresh, but maybe portions were smaller? I know that my parents never got to eat out...maybe less than five times before 18. I think smoking also played a part; instead of snacking, people lit up. My parents and grandparents never, ever exercised, but they were always close to the right weight.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They weren’t thin but normal size. If you visit other countries, you’ll see that most people are “thin”. They only look “thin” to you because the majority of Americans are overweight/fat and that is the norm here.

Visit Australia and tell me if you still think this is true.

Kind of tired of people who keep proclaiming that obesity is a uniquely American disorder.

+ 1

absolutely true.

I was just in England and thought this as well.

Americans are so hard on themselves. I saw tourists from all over the world there and no one looked as fit and athletic as Americans. There were plenty of slim people, regular people, and yes even overweight people.

I even saw fat French tourists!

Here is a list of the top 10 fattest countries in the world. The USA is #10. Yippee! We made the top 10!

https://gazettereview.com/2016/06/top-10-fattest-countries-in-world/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Don't forget, most of the adults of that time had grown up during the Great Depression and WWII, during which food wàs rationed. So, many of the adults- the parents and grandparents of the children of that time- had been at minimum borderline malnourished during their own childhood and young adult years.

Thankfully, most adults in the US today never had to live through such hardships.

I posted this a couple days ago, but it is worth noting in light of the Freakonomics post above. The adults of the 60s and 70s lived through very difficult times when they were young. People in my own family have told me that they never had enough food and usually left the table still hungry.

Not really a situation we'd want to replicate.

[Anonymous]

I’m in my 50’s and agree with 10:54. Fancy coffee drinks, eating out, portion sizes and SNACKS. Sometimes I walk through the grocery and am still amazed at the number of options for potato chips, other chips - it’s astounding. This has changed dramatically over time. There were not multiple aisles for sports drinks and snacks.

I also remember when portion sizes ballooned. Most restaurants serve double what was served in the ‘70’s.

“Snacking”/fancy coffe/indulgences - this has become an expected part of ones day where in the 70’s, kids might have had fruit and/or cookies and milk or popsicles in the summer in the afternoon but it was a quick occuranc or non-event and adults did not really partake - they just ate 3 meals.

Botton line - There are just SO many food offerings these days.

[Anonymous]

50 yo from above and just read the depression-era comments - amongst my great aunt/uncles and grandparents and even my parents generation, there seemed a sense to me that they just thought it was unseemly to over indulge - not because of vanity but because you should eat your portion and be happy with it and fat was just unseemly

[Anonymous]

Nearly every time I go out to eat, I am shocked by the portion size of everything. Even the side dishes are enough to fill me up. I cut the portion in half or in thirds and put it in a container right away. I went to the Cheesecake Factory and said, "Oh my God!" when they brought me the burrito I ordered. I cut it into thirds and was overly full with just the third I ate. If people eat like that frequently, it isn't any wonder why there are so many overweight people. I know my students drink a ridiculous amount of calories from a young age. They come into school with sodas, Gatorade, coffee type drinks, etc and this starts in pre-k and KG.