Stinks of corporate fuckery...

[NanaCat]

30. We were skinnier because we ingested less sugar in general

Sugar is in foods where you would never expect to see it these days, where it doesn't even belong, really. That is contributing to the surge in morbid obesity and diabetes. And it's no better for you than HCFS. Both do the same thing to your liver: Generate fat cells.

Really.

And sweets alone are not the problem. People are consuming far more fizzy drinks and junk food snacks than they did in the 60s and even the 70s. I was a 70s teen, and remember how most parents, even the well-to-do ones like mine, bought those things only for a special occasion, like a family gathering or a party. We never had it with meals, and never had it between meals, either, unless my brothers and I used money we scrounged up to buy one when we were away from the parents. Families across socioeconomic lines ate real food for the majority of their meals. Even poor families ate better than too many people do these days. Before my mum and her brothers could help them out, my grandparents were quite poor, and yet they didn't eat junk food or fast food at all--it was three squares of meat and veg and fruit, not processed rubbish. That surely helped keep the weight down.

Plus, we were simply more active back then. Most parents in the 70s restricted telly viewing to a few hours a day--if that, and the Saturday morning cartoons for the younger sprogs. Unless one was an avid reader (guilty here), that meant sticking around the house was a bore. My brothers were constantly outside, riding bikes, climbing trees, enjoying 'sandlot' type sports with their friends, and so on. I did someo of it, too, if I got bored enough.

Plus, we used our own feet to get around more often in general, either by walking, biking or skating. We didn't use our cars for idiotic things like going to the grocer a few blocks over for some milk when we had perfectly capable feet to take us there. The last thing my parents wanted to do after long commutes to and from work was spend time in a bloody car. So they sent one of us to get the milk, LOL.

I don't think most people realise how very much life has changed from the 70s when people were routinely active and ate better, to one where they were far more sedentary and ate too much crap.