04/09/2018
Quite an interesting read here. Gets you thinking....
This photograph was taken at Brighton beach in England during their long hot summer of 1976.
1976 was a pretty profound year. Concorde’s first commercial flight took place in 1976, the S*x Pistols were outraging everyone with their ‘punk rock’ and ‘Rocky’ and ‘Carrie’ were big stars at the cinema.
Now this photograph from 1976 has recently caused quite a stir.
It was published in The Guardian, an independent newspaper in the UK and social media went into meltdown and everyone was giving their theories about why.
Why what?
Why no-one in the photo is fat. If you compared this photo with one taken in the same circumstances today it would be very different.
So why the dramatic difference?
Firstly, in 1976, the food was terrible. There were very few fast food outlets and things were relatively more expensive. There was nowhere near the availability of choice in the shops and supermarkets were just cutting their teeth. All the shops shut early so if you missed your tea, you went hungry. There was no popping to Maccas. The only take away foods were the occasional fish and chips and a pie from the bakery.
But here’s a surprise; we actually ate more in 1976. Government figures show the average person today consumes 2,130 calories daily, including confectionary and alcohol.
In 1976 we consumed 2,590 calories.
Other people suggested there is less manual labour nowadays.
Makes sense but the data contradicts that. A paper in the International Journal of Surgery states that “ adults working in unskilled manual professions are over four times more likely to be classified as morbidly obese compared with those in professional employment”.
What about exercise?
People argued that we are more sedentary nowadays, that we drive everywhere instead or walking or cycling, order from Woollies online and have so much screen time.
Here’s the next surprise; a long term study with Plymouth University showed children’s physical activity is the same as it was 50 years ago.
Also more cycles are being sold year on year, there are cycle paths everywhere and there are 24 hour gyms everywhere. Everyone seems to be working out more than they ever did but getting nowhere fast.
You can’t outrun a bad diet.
My old nan never went to a gym or exercise class in her life and owned zero Lycra.
Events like the 5km Parkrun are organised in every small town in the world.
So what has happened?
1976 is the start of when we started to get fatter.
We do know that we ate more in 1976, but we ate differently.
Today we buy half as much fresh milk as in 1976 but five times more yoghurt, three times more ice cream and 39 times more dairy desserts.
We buy half as many eggs as in 1976 but a third more breakfast cereals and twice the cereal snacks. Half the total potatoes and three times the potato chips.
Purchase of direct sugar have reduced slightly but the sugar we consume has rocketed, including the sugar in drinks and processed food.
The food pyramid was published in the US in 1992. It told us we should be eating 6-11 servings of cereals, grains, rice and pasta per day. It demonised fat.
This became ingrained is us all. Low fat was healthy.
Meanwhile the world was getting sicker and fatter than ever before.
Obesity rates have tripled since 1980 and increased quicker in children.
We are eating more take away, more sugary drinks and more junk food and ready to heat and ready to eat food than ever before.
You can pick up a meal and you don’t even need to get out of your car.
Why cook a bolognaise sauce from scratch when you can get one in a jar? Even if it is full of sugar and canola oil.
The food industry employs scientists to design products that use sugar to bypass our natural appetite control mechanisms, and use packaging and promotions to break down our defences.
They employ psychologists and food scientists to trick us into eating more than we need.
They promote the idea that weight is a question of “personal responsibility” and “everything in moderation” and push the “calories in/calories out” mantra which is a fallacy as we now know. The body just isn’t that simplistic.
And after spending billions of dollars on overriding our willpower, they blame us for failing to exercise it.
And chronic illness is at an all time high in all western countries and those that are adopting a western diet are catching up rapidly.
Obesity related illnesses like Type 2 diabetes are increasing year on year. Chronic illnesses like Crohns, Ulcerative Colitis, Alzheimers’, Hashimotos, Hypo and Hyperthyroidism, Multiple Sclerosis are all on the increase.
So it’s not your fault. The world in which we live has changed and we all need to make a conscious effort to try and live like we did pre-1976.
Before convenience foods, televisions in every room, before ready-to-heat and ready-to-eat foods were available, before the microwave, before take-aways on every street corner. Before the internet and email and Facebook and Instagram. When learning meant we went to the library or bookshop.
When playing sport at school was allowed to be competitive and we only got a medal if we won, not just competed.
So,if you see me out an about today, wearing headphones linked to Spotify, I will probably be listening to a classic album from 1976 called ‘Never Mind The Bollocks’.
Never has it been more profound, the food industry could learn a lot from The S*x Pistols…
