Everyone used to be thin. Here’s what they really ate.

How is it possible that historically people consumed massive amounts of calories daily, including substantial amounts of sugar, without the obesity rates we face today? Discover the surprising dietary and lifestyle factors from the past that challenge modern perceptions of health and nutrition, encouraging a reevaluation of today's guidelines.

References:

[mdm]

Reading these comments, you see that people cannot let go of their personal dietary dogmas. Portion size doesn't matter when you're looking at total calories for the day, or individual amounts of carbohydrates, fat, and sugar. Even in the early 1960s, when I was a kid, there was no whole grain anything, no arugula, no kale, no protein bars, and most towns had no gyms except at schools. And no barrage of plant-based propaganda. Yet there were only three overweight children in my grade of 100 kids, and they were just chubby, not obese. We lived in the suburbs and did not walk anywhere. The video mentions replacing animal fats with vegetable oil in our diets today. Soybean oil is, and has long been, used for fattening livestock. The video also mentions time spent indoors, and our polluted environments, as factors in our obesity, but the comments I've read all want to deny the high caloric intakes of people in the past and ignore everything else.

[chrystalthornton]

I was born in 1943 so I was around at that time. True we ate everything but "gorging" is a big exaggeration. We had 1/3 the size of portions that we have today. You act like we were shoveling it in. No way. No screens to stare at and we often walked where we had to go. Probably burned more calories walking around but I never saw anybody consuming the mass quantities that you talk about. A typical steak was about 4 oz and now it's 10 oz. An ice cream treat was a small cone or cup, not a gallon. Sodas were about 8 oz not 24 oz. List goes on and on. A hamburger had one small patty, now it's a triple decker. You got a handful of fries, not a bushel basket. Get the picture? People who worked a farm no doubt ate more, but city dwellers did not.

[muddyshoesgardener]

I was born in the 1950’s. Our portions were tiny compared to today’s portions. Nobody worked out and nobody was fat. The kids played outside and we had recess or PE all through school. I think we were more active. We raked our leaves, mowed our lawns, did our own shopping, etc. Our meals were bigger but our snacks were smaller.

[quackslikeaduck]

1950's kid here. I don't think I would describe the general approach to food back in the day as "gorging". Portions were smaller, breakfast and dinner were usually eaten at home (going out for lunch or dinner was a special occasion kind of thing), ultra-processed foods were rare (did they even exist then?), soda -- at least at my house -- was a treat, not something you drank with lunch, dinner, and in between. Kids played outside, rode bikes often, didn't sit in front of the television in a brain/snack coma for 4 - 5 hours a day. "Everyone used to be thin" is a bit of a stretch, but there definitely weren't as many overweight people as there are now; you noticed fat people, because they were in the minority, whereas now you notice thin people. It was a completely different way of living, and I'm so grateful that I experienced it. It affects how I live to this day.

[bradpanter]

As an 80’s kid, everyone was on the low fat kick. Eggs were bad, whole milk too. And don’t dare eat butter, margarine is superior. All lies.

[SomeoneSomewhere]

I’ve become convinced that it’s because we are surviving off of mostly lab invented frankenfoods. Also, we put so many chemicals in and/or on our otherwise healthy foods. This really hit me when living outside of the USA for 6 months and eating almost exclusively in restaurants and I was losing weight without any effort or restrictions. Speaking to others from the US I found it was not just me.

[theautoman]

One major thing was introduced into the diet in the 1970’s was high fructose corn syrup. You can tract the rise in obesity with the rise of this product being added to food and beverages.

[MySkinnydip]

My Grandmother is in her 80’s. She always had oatmeal with sugar and whole milk in the morning. During the weekends it was eggs, bacon, pancakes, sausage and raisin toast. She had sandwiches for lunch with big slices of meat and a fruit. Dinner was meat, starch and peas, carrots, Lima beans or green beans. And they always had dessert. Nobody ever snacked at night except sometimes they would have a sandwich. Her mother made cookies with lard but they didn’t eat chocolate chips. No potato chips no oils always butter. No sugar cereals. She drank water out of the hose and cokes were a treat when they very rarely went for a burger. Hot dogs were the favorite summer food. No fried foods at all! Not one person was over weight or felt they had to snack. Everyone slept well and woke up great. My grandma never had a cavity!

[visualapologetics]

My daughter went to Germany for an extended stay, three months. She said she felt so good there. She is very gluten intolerant, but was able to eat gluten breads freely while she was there. Energy was great, and she lost weight. She slept like a rock. There is so much more going on here than we know.

[moviemakerwannabe]

You forgot that they started to give hormones to the beef and dairy cows to cause them to grow faster and produce more. About that time people also started to grow faster(mostly in girth) and weigh more. When asked if adding those hormones to our food sources would affect us we were told no but as time passed people have eaten less and gained more.

[SharonPorts]

While most of this boils down to additives, frankenfoods, and lack of exercise, most people don’t consider the lack of sleep. Sleep is when your body repaired itself and I know the average person in the US doesn’t get enough. This also includes the stress in our lives. Everything in the US is rush, rush, rush. Even the “hustle” culture was popular but is slowly dying because burning your candle on both ends will never work.

[WhirledPeas]

We didn’t spend the day in front of computers. Duh. What did they call organic food in the 50’s? Food.

[andredarin]

So, basically we have a sales pitch for Prism Weight Loss.

It never stops.

[loneranger]

Here is the absolute true reason why we didnt get fat back then: we did not have snacks, only young active children got snacks. We ate protein at every meal, and drank whole milk. This kept us full until the next meal. We ate dinner at 6 o clock, and then nothing else until breakfast the next day at 7 or 8 o clock. that is a 13-14 hour fasting window. food was fried in butter or lard. only the lazy housewife who didnt keep a can of drippings, bacon or otherwise, would use oil like crisco. Real food. Treats like meals out were for a birthday or a special occasion. You couldn't get chips and ice cream to bring home. you got those things at a fair or at the movies.

[yearight]

My uncle married a woman from another country, and my cousin married a man from another country. Both of their partners came to America slender, and both now struggle with their weight. They both have stated the same thing. That they are eating exactly like they were back home and have no idea why they can't stay skinny anymore. It's something in out food that isn't present where they came from. All the while people don't realize the amount of money that comes out of obesity. From the medical industry to the diet industry. It's a fantastic cash cow, and they are very aggressive in keeping it this way. Take note of how they make sure to change the definition of words so that "All Natural" or "Organic" doesn't even have to be true, and they can out it on their box to make people think they're eating something okay when they're not. People are vultures sadly.

[Seer]

I vacationed in Europe in the late 1980’s. We ate A traditional big breakfast, a mid morning coffee coffee cake a huge dinner, where I ate this wonderful whole grain bread, then we typically had evening beers and snacks. I lost weight when I expected to gain but there was no processed food with the rancid seed oils, high fructose corn syrup or crisco oil. Sugar was consumed but not in huge amounts. But hey the corporatocracy charges huge prices for their unhealthy processed food that has a long shelf life and then the corporatocracy extracts wealth by treating the myriad of dis eases caused by their foods. Robbing from cradle to grave. There is an old Chinese proverb for food: if it spoils eat it quickly, if it does not spoil do not eat it.

[amethystfeathers]

The most basic foods are overprocessed now, portions are huge. Food manufacturers have destroyed health. People used to walk their kids to school, walk to the shops everyday to buy fresh vegetables, kids were outside running around, on their bikes, walking everywhere.

[TheMississauga]

its the garbage oils in everything thats the problems

[wannabetrucker]

i grew up in that era and one big difference is we didn't eat highly processed foods, we might have if the opportunity was there but it wasn't in my area. And we moved all the time. We went outside to play, ride bikes etc we walked to school...had gym class during the day....played basketball, softball etc..people in band practiced marching. We were constantly moving as a normal part of the day.

[ceemartin]

The problem is no longer making dishes from scratch. Food manufacturers have a lot to answer for imo, they are the ones who put in dire ingredients (cheap oils, additives, etc) that make the body go into inflammation mode, and once that happens you pile on the weight and you bring on a whole lot of health problems too. For example, introducing MARGARINE to the market, as a replacement of good old butter.