How much has food changed in the last 50 years?

Question

did people eat salad and worry about there weight. did they eat cheeseburgers. did they eat bacon sandwhiches.

Answer 1

50 years ago people ate home cooked meals every night. They didn't have to worry about their weight as much because junk food was a rarity, and they didn't have ready meals packed with saturated fats, salt and additives. They didn't have to rush around as much as people do in today's society, so they didn't have to eat on the go. They ate simple, healthy, nutritional food.

Answer 2

You've had some really good answers - food has changed enormously in the last 50 years. I was born in 1950 and some rationing was still in place. But also we did not have much money. Many is the time I stood with my mum (now dead) outside butchers etc and tried to help find the cheapest cut of meat, etc. We grew vegetables in the garden. We ate very simply. We had cake once a fortnight. We had no fridge, no freezer, nothing. Milk was kept cool by putting the bottles in a bowl of cold water and leaving the bowl outside all night. We certainly did not worry about our weight! Cheeseburgers were non-existent, but every so often a bacon sandwich would somehow happen - and how much we really enjoyed and appreciated it! I didn't go to a restaurant to eat until i was about 20. I could go on, but I won't. But yes, not only food, many many things have changed in the last 50 years, and I think it's generally downhill. People these days can actually be FUSSY, and they can also leave food if they don't like it because they know there will be something else, something they MAY like, there is now too much food packed into a relatively small part of the world, and we are spoiled and ruined.

Answer 3

Here in UK fifty years ago the hamburger was simply not available. The first hamburger joints did not open until sometime in the late sixties and even then did not take off right away.

In my childhood of the 1940s and 50s, nearly all of our food was rationed. The idea of going on a diet simply was not an option since most people were preoccupied with having more food than was actually available.

Schools dinners back in the 50s were nothing like they are today. I remember huge piles of raw chopped vegetables, masses of boiled spuds and rice but very little meat. Chips simply did not happen ever in school.

The bacon sandwich was unheard of. This seems to have originated in Scotland and gradually moved south. It was certainly not part of the average London diet in my youth.

The range and choice today is vast by comparison with the past. Popular foods of the 1950s were such as fish n chips. Now it's much more Chicken Tikka Masala.

One thing which really has changed and very much for the better on the food front is the quality and variety of food when eating out. London really does have some of the world's finest restaurants. This was not so back in the 1950s and 60s and even right into the 80s.

More of us go abroad and have tasted quality foods and want them back home. No need to go to Spain just pop into the nearest Tapas Bar.

Answer 4

I believe that 50 years some foods were still rationed in the UK. People had a good hearty breakfast, lighter lunch and a home-cooked meal in the evening, cooked from scratch. Food was bought from local shops as it was needed and the emphasis was on things being fresh rather than full of presrvatives.

People had a different life-style then too. There was a lot more manual work and people used more calories during the course of the day. These days, most of us have desk jobs so don't expend a lot of energy. A lot of todays processed foods and ready meals are high in fat,salt and calories and the combination of lack of exercise and intake of too many calories makes for overweight people.

I'm sure people did occasionally diet but I don't think it was an "industry" as it is now. I think Weightwatchers has been going for about 40 years so maybe that is an indication of when the "slide" began to happen.

I certainly had bacon sandwiches as a kid but can't remember burgers. McDonalds didn't open their first UK ventrue until the 1970's although we did have a Wimpy bar.

Answer 5

Yes, food has changed hugely in the last 50 years, never mind 50, it's changed hugely in 25 years. Not only has peoples ideas on food changed, but the manufactured stuff has changed beyond all recognition, all of the tinned Heinz stuff, 20 years ago most of it was really tasty, now it's horrible because they changed the recipe to include less to no salt, no sugar and I suspect inferior ingredients generally, the same as Kelloggs Corn Flakes, I remember eating them when I was a kid out of the packet without milk, this was the early to mid 80's, and I can tell you now that they don't taste anything like they did then, now, theres no flavour off of them really now. So yes, I think food has changed, and not for the better. But like I say, peoples conception on food has changed too, what was once fashionable like Prawn Cocktails were in the 70's and 80's are seen as horrible now. Nowadays it's not posh if it's not in a jus, or theres no coulis, or if it hasn't been set on fire a couple of times. I think that good honest wholesome tasty food has to make a comeback, so what if it's fattening, as long as you aren't eating it all the time, what's the problem? It's the processed stuff that you got less of 50 years ago, true that TV dinners were available, but even they wern't full of the all the junk that is in todays processed foods, and they are full of junk because they are made as cheaply as possible, with the worst quality ingredients. The way to eat healthy in my opinion is to make your own food from the raw ingredients, that way YOU control what's in it, and it's not some stodgy mass dumped into a plastic tray by a machine in a factory somewhere.

Answer 6

I would say food has changed a lot in the last 50 years. People made freshly cooked food back then. There were no takeaways or microwaves. Foods were much more natural without preservatives, additives, salt and saturated fats.

I'm sure people didn't worry about their weight so much, because they were eating fresh and healthy food all the time.

Its the junk food that we are eating nowadays that is causing people to be overweight.

There was also a different way of life 50 years now. Now we are all in rush, with jobs, children and homes to look after, so sometimes its easier to have fast food, but thats no excuse not to eat fresh, healthy food!

There was also rationing in those days, so people were used to making good healthy meals with the rations they got. They made good use of the food they could obtain, as there was not much of it available.

Now there is also a lot more food available from lots of different countries, which gives us a good chance to vary our diet.

Answer 7

Fifty years ago people still ate salads but burgers were not on the home menu - bacon sandwiches have been around since the sandwich was invented! Watching weight was rarely an issue as without today's modern inventions like the washing machine, washing up machine, vacume cleaner, douvets, etc., etc., a lot of energy would be put into day to day chores - and no, we didn't need to go off to the gym either!

Answer 8

You have it right Chipmunk.

Fifty years ago, I don't remember eating a Hamburger but we did eat plenty of salads in season. Our vegetables tasted like vegetables are supposed to. That is because they were fresh and had not travelled all around the world before reaching our plates.

Apart from preserved foods bought during World War II i.e., eggs, food did not come pre-packed.

How anyone can bear to eat the Junk that is served up in boxes ~~ just to be popped into the Microwave, I can't begin to fathom out. It is truely revolting and does not even taste, anything like the real thing.

It is just as easy and quick, to cook a family meal of meat and fresh vegetables, as it is to serve a families worth of pre-packed food, and the beauty of it is, all of the family get to eat at the same time and the food is served all at the same temperature.

When you had eaten a meal, you were satisfied until the next meal, so there was seldom need for snacking in between meals.

Fifty years ago sweets were on ration. For most people, chips were only eaten with fish

In my opinion, food fifty years ago, was tastier and more nourishing.

Answer 9

One of our problems 50 years ago is that post-war rationing hadn't long finished and few things were imported. We had salads - no mayonnaise but Heinz salad cream, olive oil came in small bottles from the chemist, vinegar was malted brown or white. Yes, we had bacon sandwiches (and egg ones), we had faggots, but I'm not sure when burgers became fashionable. There was no labelling of varieties - potatoes were "whites" usually Majestics or "reds" King Edwards. No sell-by or use by dates. We were born with senses to tell us if things were off (few people had fridges and I knew of noone who had a home freezer) - if it smelt OK, looked OK and tasted OK - it was probably OK!
During the war the only worry people had about weight was if they were too thin - try getting fat on a ration of 1 egg a week, 2oz cheese (Cheddar all year and Danish blue for a treat at Christmas), sugar came off ration after the war but went back on again. I was a teenager when rationing finished - the War ended when I was 7! I tried my first "real" spaghetti at a small newly-opened Italian restaurant in Bristol when I was about 18.
Marguerite Patten wrote a lot of books about managing without onions, eggs, meat, etc. Try your local library - I know there is a publishers remainder being sold at the moment.

Answer 10

When I was a kid in during 60s,70's, you didn't hear about this healthy eating thing, probably because people's stable diets were fresh fruit and veg and there wasn't the amount of choice, there weren't the choice of fast food takeaways selling unhealthy fat packed food. Although you did have the local chippy of course, but I can remember a fish supper being a treat (going back a bit now), I can actually remember the first chinese take away to open in the village I live in!
People didn't seem to worry as much as they do about their weight, you did have people wanting to lose weight (women normally) but there certainly wasn't the obssession there is today and it wasn't so fashionable to look skinny. Twiggy was in the public eye at the time and some women wanted to look like her but I don't remember hearing about women strarving themselves to achieve it, (although many probably did) or indeed the health issues behind it. Athough of course Twiggy maintains she didn't diet to achieve this and I tend to believe her, as she looks wonderful for her age now and so healthy.
People ate unhealthily sometimes but eating your veg and fruit in most homes was just the norm too. I hated green veg, but I had to eat it, I'm not fussy on it still, although I do try and eat my five a day, I'm glad now I did eat it as a child because I do think it can have long terms advantages in later life. I also think that after rationing during the war people in the 60's especially were just glad to be able to buy the healthy food whenever they wanted, although in some cases this may have caused people to overindulge too.
The way we live has changed drastically, more mums work and maybe don't have the time to make homecooked healthy meals as they used to, everything is at such a faster pace and people seem to always be on the go so I can see the attraction of the fast food option.
All generations have eaten unhealthily sometimes, when I was a kid we didn't worry about cutting fat off meat, not frying food and we'd think nothing of spreading loads of butter on our bread. I do think there is too much temptation out there these days with the vast array of takeaways burger joints etc, that it is only to easy to plump for the quick and easy options. Eating these things are fine but we all know it should be in moderation. I do think the way we eat now is going to have huge implications on the health of the country in the future and something really has to be done before it spirals out of control completely!

Answer 11

There was a lot less variety of food 50 years ago. Not much was imported. WE ate fresh meat, sausages and fresh seasonal vegetables for dinner every day. Veg were boiled and served we had stews and casseroles and a roast once or twice a week. The only takeaway was fish and chip not more than once a week. There was only one variety of plain crisps and ice cream was either vanilla or neopolitan. or choc ice.
Fruit was mainly seasonal and as food was generally dearer in proportion to wages you ate what you were given as most people didnt have freezers and there wasnt lots of food to snack on between meals.
Food had no additives was less fatty and less added salt and preservatives. Housewives were more active with housework as there were less aids and men had more manual jobs. Children played out more - not everyone had a tv and it wasnt 24 hr, no computrs etc. WE were all more active and interacted more as a family. therefore food and activities meant less obesity.