I was born in 1950 so I have a good memory of the 50’s and most of the 60’s. We drank raw milk, ate real butter, bacon and egg’s with biscuits and gravy was a morning staple. Sandwiches were what every we put together from past meal’s (fried potato sandwich with mayonnaise and pepper is pretty good eating). Chicken, beef or pork was usually served in the evening in some form or another. Sweets were a rarity and we only ate what we made, a store bought piece of candy was even rarer. Basically we ate all the things they now say we shouldn’t but my old pictures of that time tell a different story. We were all skinny back then and in my opinion much healthier than we are now. How did that happen?
Well I look back at that time and see allot of things that have changed. Where I lived there were 10 families in the area and all of the mothers stayed at home. Meals were made in the kitchen and not in some factory, kid’s played outside until supper time and our parents just worked harder back then. Yes we did have TV’s but with 2 channels it was what the parent’s wanted to watch and the channels went off the air at 10:00. We just didn’t have time for the nonsense most of the population seems to be consumed with now. We ate what we wanted when we were hungry and ate all we wanted yet seeing an obese person was pretty rare.
They also suggest an overall diet for everybody and that’s just not the case. I watch these boy’s out here in the oilfields eat every time they get a chance, they work hard and burn allot of calories and have to consume allot of calories to keep going. Then we have just the opposite with people sitting most of the day with little to no exercise or manual work. Your diet is determined by your needs and I’ve seen no study that takes that into consideration. My own intake and needs have changed over the years with me spending more time on the ranch in my truck than wearing out boots and gloves. Last November I started working out with weights and doing some time on the elliptical every morning. My strength has went up over 50% and my intake of calories has increased yet I’ve lost close to 25 lbs.