how did people back in the old days stay so thin and lean?

[Smithy]

When you see the 1940s type shows like the Sullivans in Australia

That brought back memories Cookie! My whole family loved The Sullivans and we watched it religiously. Loved the New Guinea bits obviously.

Great show!

Taking of big breakfasts, my mother came from a farming family and when I used to be sent down to the farms of one of my uncles over school holidays, breakfasts were huge, cereal and stewed fruit (or porridge in the winter), bacon and eggs and then a big mound of toast. But you needed it being out all day working. All my uncles and cousins were (and still are) skinny as rakes.

 

[Fletch]

The bell curve was steeper then. You had a lot of thin to medium build people and a very few, invariably VERY fat people.
It was rare to see a man younger than 50 carrying a spare tire.
Almost no one was in the position many of us (y.t. included) are today of carrying 10% or so extra weight. The lifestyle simply didn't allow it!

-The Seven Deadly Sins ranked a lot higher in people's consciousness. When was the last time you heard the word GLUTTONY used without irony?
-At least until WW2, you could easily work full-time and still not be able to afford more than a candy bar for lunch.
-Getting back to the Seven Deadlies, PRIDE and SLOTH were a lot more broadly defined. Despite the slower and simpler lifestyle, there was more acceptance of stress as a part of daily life. People really pushed you around. Authority was generally unquestioned and a lot less reasonable. If you couldn't take it, you generally starved or turned to drink or theft. What you couldn't do - it wasn't even possible - was go passive by overeating, napping after meals, leaning on your shovel or goofing off, all of which are pandemic today.

 

[RIOT]

You were forced to exercise running after your food back in the "Olde" days. lol

 

[Miss Sis]

The picture of the British allowance, that's just the rationed food - vegetables and bread etc were not rationed. You just had to get very creative with potatoes!

People I've spoken to said they never went hungry during the war, just that it was very monotonous having to eat the same things all the time. I can imagine it was dull.

When you see the 1940s type shows like the Sullivans in Australia they are all tucking in to the full cooked breakfast of bacon and eggs etc even in War time.

I have a war-time Red Cross Cookbook from New Zealand, where it is saying about cutting down on butter as the average New Zealnder pre-war was eating a collosal amount, but the recipes of which there is one for every day of the year still often use 1/2 to 1 pound of butter EACH!

 

[Smithy]

People I've spoken to said they never went hungry during the war, just that it was very monotonous having to eat the same things all the time. I can imagine it was dull.

The thing I've heard from family members in Britain during the War that drove them mad was powered eggs. Apparently whole farm eggs were almost gold!

 

[gluegungeisha]

We cook with diet coke quite often!
Nikki

fftopic: Reminds me of this:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=5iIxvRsn9zk

I agree with everything everyone else already mentioned.

It's amazing how big of a difference the type of sugar in your JUNKFOOD makes! I just read this homemaking book from the early 60's that encourages a VERY starch-heavy diet...lots of bread and potatoes. None of the vegetables recommended were in their raw form! Lots of creamed carrots and potato salad-y dishes. Interesting.

I think we miss a lot while we're obsessing over the nutritional value of our food. I always notice that I look and feel better when I just eat what my body is telling me it wants, and stop when I'm full. Mind you, I was brought up on a very healthy diet. My mom struggled with money during my early years, but she still sent me to school with a lunch of snowpeas, baby carrots, dates, and PB&J on whole wheat. I still ate some snacks and sweets in between, and unhealthy foods at my dad's place, but the regime my mom gave me was steady. My tastes were pretty much set during those years.

 

[imported_the_librarian]

Guess this is just an echo, but to me it boils down to three things:

8 oz coke vs. Big Gulp today

no eating between meals

clothing (didn't lots of folks wear corsets back then????) At least with the dress clothes, it is easier to hide weight with a jacket, etc.


???????????

Just my thoughts..............

 

[KeyGrip]

Shop the outer perimeter of the grocery store.

While I agree with the ideas presented so far, I feel this particular sentence bears repeating. Definitely a good shopping strategy.

 

[Dixon Cannon]

That's an easy answer. The food they ate wasn't saturated with High Fructose Corn Syrup - as the first ingredient of every product!

That one ingredient has caused a major shift in human metabolism over the years; look around you - what you see is the effect of HFCS in everything we eat.

-dixon cannon

 

[Alan Eardley]

I guess I'm one of the few people on this forum who actually ate in the 1940s.

I'm talking about the UK here. I can tell you that the food we ate was loaded with fat and sugar.

The difference is that people got more exercise.

Alan

 

[mtechthang]

I defer to one who was there!!

The difference is that people got more exercise.
Alan

Alan- One thing I haven't seen mentioned is that people slept a good bit more (ironic, given the time of this post!). Another factor is. . . people weren't going on and off diets! It has been shown that one of the best ways to gain weight is to diet. You keep re-setting your "set-points" for calorie consumption and re-adjusting your metabolism and your weight creeps up and up. :rage: (That kind of supports the statement earlier in the thread that they didn't sit around the internet- reading diets!!!) [huh]

 

[PADDY]

The Great Depression.

Most folk didn't have very much so many grew their own fresh veg and home livestock and had 'set' mealtimes. Throw in a great usage of manual labour jobs and walking to work, local sports and overall greater exercise and less sitting around.

 

[jgilbert]

Would the cost of food been a factor?

I agree with most here, hard work and little to no snacking. and the the portions! I bet over half the time we dine out, we each get a salad and then split the main course. Or we each end up taking a to go bag home.

 

[imported_the_librarian]

I guess I'm one of the few people on this forum who actually ate in the 1940s.

I'm talking about the UK here. I can tell you that the food we ate was loaded with fat and sugar.

The difference is that people got more exercise.

Alan

Good point! The Tube wasn't around and folks could do stuff while listening to the radio.

 

[Valhson]

way too many logical replies here.

My vote is witchcraft...


lol lol lol

 

[FStephenMasek]

I didn't see anyone mention smoking. My wife is from Lithuania, and we often remark that many of the numerous thin model-like girls in Vilnius smoke (and spend so much on clothing that they have to cut back on food - go there and you will see plenty of evidence to support this theory).

 

[dani]

the smoking thing is true, it works as an appeite suppresent, and that is why you see so many models smoking. i have to agree whith everyone else though, no HFCS, not as much TV, and so on. my husband, and i rarely eat out, i cook almost everything from scratch, but even then most the ingredents, have a lot of stuff i cannot pronouce, and organic food cost so much. his mom does complain, that he has lost weight though, every time we see her she has something to say about such as "are you sure your cooking for him", "are you cooking enough", and "well does he eat it". everytime i want to tell her yes he does it, he actually likes my cooking better then his moms, she frys everything though, and i hate fried foods, so i hardley ever make them.

 

[zaika]

Re: seeds and the like. I read an article in Slow Food a couple years ago. The mega-companies making the pesticides / herbicides also make the GM'ed seeds that are of course resistant to said chemicals...so one might be encouraged to use more! Oh, let's not think about the effect on wildlife, or on anything that might get touched by the chemicals translocating via wind, water washoff, etc. Oh, and many of the seeds now produce frutis and veggies that don't have their own seeds so... you gotta buy them all again next year. Emphasis is on high-volume, high-producing foods, not necessarily those that taste good (there is a case to be made here in some way for growing food in developing nations).

I don't know if you forgot to mention it or not...but non-modified hierloom seeds are still available for a variety of vegetables, fruits, and flowers. you can find them online quite easily. I never knew that you could find so many varieties of tomatoes! I wish I had room to garden, so thank God for CSA's! :eusa_clap
It seems to me that we no longer take pride in cooking a meal, or growing a vegetable, or take time to really savor the subtle flavors in a stew. Food these days seems to be something that we consume as much as we can of while paying as little as possible for...all while on the go. Unless you're a foodie or a chef or something along those lines, appreciation for a homecooked meal at the dinner table isn't really a priority.
On a personal note, I've been trying to lose weight for the last year by altering my lifestyle and my habits. I've found that I'm successful in reducing my waist size when I'm aware of what and when I'm eating instead of eating whatever is available on the fly. By my grandmothers' example, I've begun to try to eat on small plates, sit down at the dinner table to eat, and walk to as many places as possible. It's really hard to go from veritable couch potato junk food addict to cooking meals and walking to as many places as possible...but the pay off has been worth it.
Also, it was probably easier for folks "back then" to get extra exercise in during the day as the neccessities were probably within walking distance. Growing up, I lived in tract housing that was so far away from grocery stores, movie theatres, or anything else that we had to drive everywhere. These days I'm lucky enough to live in a neighborhood where everything is within walking distance. I much prefer this lifestyle than being subjected to having to drive everywhere and pay scandalous prices for gas.
When I lived in Russia in 1996-97, I lost 40 pounds in seven months because I walked EVERYWHERE. To school, to the bus station, to the bakery...everywhere. But everything was so close, so I didn't NEED to have a car. My meals consisted of high starch foods like potatoes, beets, carrots and pasta...and very little meat. Also fresh vegetables and the occasional fruit in the spring/summer. But it was all natural, grown in some babushka's garden, and it was necessary to have that starch to keep you walking. I tried to stay on that diet when i got back here, and...well. It didn't work without the walking everywhere.
Anyway. Wow...I've said a lot. *retreats to lair* lol

 

[Paris1925]

Rose colored glasses!

My goodness! You all have a very rosy view of food of the past! It's true that meat didn't have hormones, but it did have nitrates, nitrites, and all sorts of other noxious chemicals at levels far greater than we use now to keep it from spoiling--refrigerators where nowhere near universal pre WWII.

Meats were higher in saturated fat, and as already pointed out, fresh vegetables were pretty much only available during the season. The rest of the year it was canned, canned, canned! *See above for notes on noxious substances used for preservatives.

People were thinner, but certainly not healthier--think back a generation or two in your own family and you'll no doubt come across quite a number who had heart attacks, strokes and cancer at very young ages, in part due to the high amount of cholesterol consumed and the processing of foods. (I have a friend who is a cancer researcher who said that changes in the way we preserve food now has practically eliminated stomach cancer!) Not that we today don't have plenty of diseases associated with obesity, but our grandparents weren't paragons of nutritional virtue, either.

I think general consensus in the medical community for thinner people of the past is--smaller portions, more exercise, less high fructose corn syrup, which is truly evil stuff.

 

[Justdog]

Most folk didn't have very much so many grew their own fresh veg and home livestock and had 'set' mealtimes. Throw in a great usage of manual labour jobs and walking to work, local sports and overall greater exercise and less sitting around.

Have to agree with that, more manual labor, more active at an early age which results in leaner adults. More activities that you were actually active at.