But how did people in the 70s and even 80s stay so paper thin... whenever im looking through old clothing magazines or my favourite artists from that time period im always thinking "body goals..."
I don't think there was as much process food as there was in the 80's and beyond and I feel like that is a big reason. Also I think people were outside more, more physical labor etc.
Probably because work wasn't the be all and end all. We had proper mealtimes. Everybody ate together at pretty much the same time. 'Convenience foods' ie microwaveable or 'chips-with-everything' dinners didn't exist and fresh fruit and vegetables weren't as hard to come by.nor anywhere near as expensive as they are today.
Less junk food, less automation. Kids especially, and even adults played outside, played sports. TV was only 8 channels over the air. Cable was a luxury item. Almost every kid got to and left high school with a base fitness level much better than today. Even though i was a nerd, knowing I was going to college for STEM, I was a three sport varsity athlete because sports or theater were the only after school options. Soon as anyone heard me sing, they pointed me to the gym.
I was like that until I turned 40 or so. I could eat anything and never get fat. Buy a trampoline and work on doing 20 minutes every day with bum drops, forward and backward flips. Its a full body exercise that is fun.
We were subsidizing corn farming less, so didn't need to pump fructose into every kind of food imaginable. Sorry to sound like RFK Jr., but even broken clocks are right twice a day.
From an early lifetime spent while involved heavily with athletics, the hardest part for me growing up in the late `90's and early 2000's, was finding food that wasn't filled with sugar content.
Read the labels before buying in the store! What became my pastime was reading sugar content labels to my mom when we'd go shopping for groceries. I was on a zero-fat, zero-sugar, self-imposed dietary plan for my gymnastics endeavors, but finding food that wasn't full of sugar was basically impossible.
Having done the research, I can tell you that back in the 1970's and early `60's, only during that time was our civilization first introduced to a high-fat diet but few were buying into the concept until the late `70's.
The very first McDonald's restaurant outside the USA, arrived in Canada in 1967 and was not well-received by Canadians. The burgers were full of fat and McDonald's became known as 'poor people food' to those who lived in Canada because the quality was low and so was the cost.
Ever since the `70's however, sugar and fat content have steadily increased tenfold in ALL food, even food that doesn't taste sweet. Right now, I can buy a 5 pound bag of white refined sugar in my supermarket for $1.25 and during the pandemic, it cost .99 cents for 5 pounds of sugar.
Why? Because people were not going outside the house to eat and sugar sales were way down, so the sugar refiners were giving the shitte away at cost!
If you want to maintain a thin lean body, the first thing you have to do is lay off all sugar and fat entirely. Moderate exercise comes second but diet always comes first.
@swirlie you mention first ever mcdonalds in canada in 1967..... been there many times in the 70s all the way up until recently... and it's still there...obviously renovated. it was the place to buy weed back in the 80s. it was also the scene of a grizzly murder scene a few years ago where there was a lovers quarrel and people were stabbed to death.
Most companies started using High Fructose Corn Syrup in thier products in the 80's. I think that drpve the fat epidemic. Almost everything you eat or drink today has it.
what @NativePortlander1970 said, also people didn't sit on their asses in front of a computer 24/7, especially kids. we played outside way more and played more adult recreational sports
Im sure they had fat people all through the ages those are just model types eh? Not the general population ? A lot of people were physically active tho too vs sitting around staring ar their phones so..
