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

[Anonymous]

So many obvious reasons:

1) Take out/Eat Out culture didn't exist. I can count on one hand the number of times we ate out, versus eating at home. We went to our special restaurant once a year- maybe! Also the snack food industry was 1/4 of what it is now.

2) Nothing to watch on TV since we only had 5 channels - 4,5,7,9 and 20. After Brady Bunch and Gilligans Island what was there to watch!

3) and yeah I guess a lot more people smoked

[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.

+1 snacks, snacks, snacks.

[Anonymous]

I thought it was the amphetamines.

[Anonymous]

When kids get fat young, they stay fat. In the 50s and 60s, kids played outside, every day. They also ate the food their mother served at dinner, which were far healthier than the takeout, fast food, and "custom" dinners served today. Those kids became the adults of the 70s and 80s. Today's adults grew up in the age of video games, very large portions, and an explosion in prepared and take-out foods. They struggle with their weight because food has been marketed to them like a drug their entire life, and sedentary behavior was normalized early. It's only going to get worse.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Running and working out wasn't a thing back then. My parents were skinny as heck. They played sports but weren't going to the gyn especially as they got older. Both had desk jobs. We lived in a city so not a ton of walking (it wasn't safe). Anyone feel like it's strange?

Jogging was HUGE in the 70s and 80s, as were jazzercise, Jane Fonda, stationary bikes, and gyms for men. These were the decades when the fitness craze really took off.

I also think we are misremembering how skinny people were and how "good" the food was. It was mostly junk, we just ate less of it.

The Atlantic article a PP linked to also explores some mysteries surrounding this. Worth a read.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

+1 snacks, snacks, snacks.

This has to be a huge part of it. My own parents didn't have snacks at school they said they got a milk and that was it. And no snacks after sports. We are constantly shoving food at our kids and a lot of it is garbage. I hate the fact that my kids get a bag of Cheetos and a Sunny D or something like that after a soccer game from some other parent.

[Anonymous]

I recommend the book The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollen. It's really good insight into where our food comes from and what goes into it. It's easy to say stuff like "food is more processed now", but can you explain what that means, specifically? And why that is?

Anyway the reason this relates to your question is that the entire bio-agricultural industry was different in the 70s and as a result the food people consumed was just vastly different. A peanut butter and jelly sandwich with grocery store bought ingredients today probably has scores of additional additives and preservatives and an entirely different macronutrient value as compare with the same exact sandwich made with grocery store ingredients in the 70s.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Running and working out wasn't a thing back then. My parents were skinny as heck. They played sports but weren't going to the gyn especially as they got older. Both had desk jobs. We lived in a city so not a ton of walking (it wasn't safe). Anyone feel like it's strange?

Jogging was HUGE in the 70s and 80s, as were jazzercise, Jane Fonda, stationary bikes, and gyms for men. These were the decades when the fitness craze really took off.

I also think we are misremembering how skinny people were and how "good" the food was. It was mostly junk, we just ate less of it.

The Atlantic article a PP linked to also explores some mysteries surrounding this. Worth a read.

My mom smoked and my dad was an avid jogger and racquetball player. Those were their secrets. You don't see much racquetball these days.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

+1 snacks, snacks, snacks.

This has to be a huge part of it. My own parents didn't have snacks at school they said they got a milk and that was it. And no snacks after sports. We are constantly shoving food at our kids and a lot of it is garbage. I hate the fact that my kids get a bag of Cheetos and a Sunny D or something like that after a soccer game from some other parent.

My kids are getting an Honest juice box and a bag of pirate booty so it has a health halo but is still just calories they don’t need. It’s exhausting to fight back against. My kids think I’m so mean to ban all this snacking.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

+1 snacks, snacks, snacks.

This has to be a huge part of it. My own parents didn't have snacks at school they said they got a milk and that was it. And no snacks after sports. We are constantly shoving food at our kids and a lot of it is garbage. I hate the fact that my kids get a bag of Cheetos and a Sunny D or something like that after a soccer game from some other parent.

My kids are getting an Honest juice box and a bag of pirate booty so it has a health halo but is still just calories they don’t need. It’s exhausting to fight back against. My kids think I’m so mean to ban all this snacking.

I remember fondly the time my daughter got a sack of little powdered white Hostess donuts after a game. Not the individual serving sleeve, the whole sack.

[Anonymous]

back then - smoking, less snacking

now - soda, processed food, weird diets, constant snacking for adults and kids

My parents are still thin now and they pretty much eat natural food they cook themselves and take walks, no crazy exercise or diets to remain thin. They do eat the occasional Trader Joe's frozen pizza or local hamburger. But it will be like 3-4 people sharing a pizza and eating it with extra vegetables and fruit. Same with breads - they do buy croissants for breakfast sandwiches, but each sandwich will be 1/2 croissant with egg, plenty of sautéed veg, and homegrown greens piled on top. They only drink tea, coffee, smoothie, and water.

[Anonymous]

I don't know folks. I was around in the 80s and I ate tons of snacks, lots of candy and junk food, and we watched TV all the time. Cable became a thing in the 80s. And yes, we ate at home a lot but a lot of that food was heavily processed. Lots of casseroles from recipes on the back of a soup can, lots of freezer meals, etc. And I had a SAHM. My own child eats better and watches way less television than I did at her age. And it's not an SES thing -- my parents were/are a higher SES than my DH and I are.

I still agree that processed foods and lack of exercise is a big part of it, but I'm not sure television is the culprit. I think it's stress. I think families are stressed, parents are stressed, kids are stressed. I think everyone numbs with whatever is handy, whether that's fatty foods or television or video games or the internet. I think we're all trying to make the day to day as tolerable as possible because the long term feels worse than ever. And so much is expected of us. Kids in the 70s and 80s just went to school, maybe did one or two activities, tops. Yes, there were fewer dual-income parents, because it was possible to own a home and send your kids to decent schools without a second income. And if you did own a home and your kids were doing okay in school (which could mean straight Bs, that was fine and most people didn't freak out about that), you were considered successful even if you worked a blue collar job and never took a vacation that required an airplane.

Being middle class in the 70s and 80s was nice. Even for POC who were experiencing more racism, being middle class was pretty nice. It was a sustainable lifestyle that felt meaningful (kids, work) but also included a decent amount of leisure time and family time.

I don't know what the heck we're doing now. It seems terrible. I think it's hard to "eat your veggies" and get some exercise when you are exhausted and stressed out and feel like no matter what you do or how hard you try, you'll never have enough money to retire on, you'll never be able to afford college for your kids, and you are one medical emergency away from financial ruin.

I think it's stress and everything else (overeating, processed and heavy foods, lack of exercise, overwork, etc.) goes back to that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:back then - smoking, less snacking

now - soda, processed food, weird diets, constant snacking for adults and kids

My parents are still thin now and they pretty much eat natural food they cook themselves and take walks, no crazy exercise or diets to remain thin. They do eat the occasional Trader Joe's frozen pizza or local hamburger. But it will be like 3-4 people sharing a pizza and eating it with extra vegetables and fruit. Same with breads - they do buy croissants for breakfast sandwiches, but each sandwich will be 1/2 croissant with egg, plenty of sautéed veg, and homegrown greens piled on top. They only drink tea, coffee, smoothie, and water.

Oh.- I forgot that they will sometimes grab a dozen donuts for the two of them. My dad will eat one and freeze the rest. My mom eats as many as she can (like 3-4 in a sitting haha) but they do this like once every month or two, not every week.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm 54 and remember when everybody started marketing low fat foods in the 80s, and nobody realized they added a bunch of sugar to make it taste better. And I really think we got addicted to that, more than anything. And that was about the same time diet sodas became sweetened with Nutrasweet which tasted a lot better than the older saccharine sweeteners that had a bitter aftertaste. There is some data out there that just tasting the sweetness without getting the calories makes you crave more.

To me, those two trends really shifted how we ate as a country. That plus fast food marketing super-sized everything.

Yep. The diet industry has actually made everyone fatter, which just keeps them clinging on the the diet industry.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't know folks. I was around in the 80s and I ate tons of snacks, lots of candy and junk food, and we watched TV all the time. Cable became a thing in the 80s. And yes, we ate at home a lot but a lot of that food was heavily processed. Lots of casseroles from recipes on the back of a soup can, lots of freezer meals, etc. And I had a SAHM. My own child eats better and watches way less television than I did at her age. And it's not an SES thing -- my parents were/are a higher SES than my DH and I are.

I still agree that processed foods and lack of exercise is a big part of it, but I'm not sure television is the culprit. I think it's stress. I think families are stressed, parents are stressed, kids are stressed. I think everyone numbs with whatever is handy, whether that's fatty foods or television or video games or the internet. I think we're all trying to make the day to day as tolerable as possible because the long term feels worse than ever. And so much is expected of us. Kids in the 70s and 80s just went to school, maybe did one or two activities, tops. Yes, there were fewer dual-income parents, because it was possible to own a home and send your kids to decent schools without a second income. And if you did own a home and your kids were doing okay in school (which could mean straight Bs, that was fine and most people didn't freak out about that), you were considered successful even if you worked a blue collar job and never took a vacation that required an airplane.

Being middle class in the 70s and 80s was nice. Even for POC who were experiencing more racism, being middle class was pretty nice. It was a sustainable lifestyle that felt meaningful (kids, work) but also included a decent amount of leisure time and family time.

I don't know what the heck we're doing now. It seems terrible. I think it's hard to "eat your veggies" and get some exercise when you are exhausted and stressed out and feel like no matter what you do or how hard you try, you'll never have enough money to retire on, you'll never be able to afford college for your kids, and you are one medical emergency away from financial ruin.



I think it's stress and everything else (overeating, processed and heavy foods, lack of exercise, overwork, etc.) goes back to that.

Regarding "eat your veggies" - the veggies we are eating now are veggie chips and puffs, smoothies, bagged salads that have been in the refrigerator case fora. week... etc. We aren't eating out of grandma's garden.