Are todays eating habits storing up health problems for the future?

There were very few overweight people when I was young. For us meals were cooked at home often with fruit and vegetables grown in the garden.
It was much harder work than having a take away delivered to the door but I think people were healthier then.
Most of the bought food like meat and dairy was bought from local farmers not from abroad.
We were allowed sweets on a Friday and not many of them!

Our parents were brought up in the 1920s 30s and wartime rationing, all when life was really hard not the easy time we have today. We worry about high calorie food, our parents families were struggling to find enough when hard labour was the order of the day.

It’s not just food, it’s lack of exercise. 😱

Because most women didn’t work, their role was primarily domestic and child rearing, I’d rather not have women return to that pigeon holing. It also meant one wage and in the 50’s there were still food shortages in some areas, the poorest of society were unhealthy and died early.
There were many disadvantages in those rose tinted days, particularly for women.

They seem to be living longer now so perhaps we are wrong. They have much better teeth than we had here, no fillings, no decay. They also seem to have better complexions and less illnesses ( ok, vaccinations help )

Yes, I remember my dad coming home with sweets and chocolate on Fridays too.
In those days you got paid every week.
My daughter takes her kids out for a treat on Fridays because she finished work early.
There's the answer- both parents are usually at work all week and so don't have time to cook and bake in the way our parents did.
Times change and habits too- I find getting cooked food delivered ridiculous especailly when there is so many time saving gadgets around, but people get lazy.
All three of my GKs eat way too much sugar so yes, maybe they are storing up problems for the future but when I was a child salt and sugar were always on the dining table- sugar went on and in everything so maybe it hasn't changed that much, it's just now we don't put the sugar or salt on the food ourselves?

Surely the problems are already here?
When you have many, many people spending hundreds of pounds a month on a drug to stop them eating then I think you are a little late asking the question.

I worked but always cooked a proper meal.

I would get up early and put something in the slow cooker.

I would be cooking supper in the late afternoon and supervising homework at the same time.

Saturday was for cleaning.

Jaxjacky

Because most women didn’t work, their role was primarily domestic and child rearing, I’d rather not have women return to that pigeon holing. It also meant one wage and in the 50’s there were still food shortages in some areas, the poorest of society were unhealthy and died early.
There were many disadvantages in those rose tinted days, particularly for women.

In my parents generation women did far more hard physical labour than today's generation whether they had employment or not.

I usually cook from scratch and always did, even while I worked full-time.

When I see the number of grossly overweight young adults, I realise that many of them must be eating quite wrongly, and yes, I imagine they are laying in trouble for themselves.

However, that is their concern, not mine. They are not my relations, and even if they were, they would not want my unsolicitated advice.

I had a Gregg's sausage roll for lunch today.
It's probably the first one I've eaten for about five years.

Yesterday was cheese and salad, chicken and vegetables and freshly squeezed juices, so I don't feel too guilty.

A Gregg’s sausage roll is the the first thing I look for once off the flight from my home in Canada to Edinburgh😋My guilty pleasure.

Llamedos13

A Gregg’s sausage roll is the the first thing I look for once off the flight from my home in Canada to Edinburgh😋My guilty pleasure.

Glad it's not just me! Had one yesterday after shopping at Tesco- but I'm cutting them out as from this week- wish me luck!

Contents of Greggs sausage rolls…….

If I go more than a couple of days with no fresh fruit or vegetables I do feel quite lethargic to be honest! Never been a fan of “beige food” either. We always had a good diet growing up and the habit has stayed with me as well as being instilled into my children. They have families of their own now and cooking from scratch with quality, in season ingredients, is just a ways of life.
Yes, we have sometimes had quick, snack meals but never on a regular basis………you are what you eat! Eat crap food and you’ll feel and look crap I guess.

LucyAnna5

Contents of Greggs sausage rolls…….

Once every five years ....

I had a freshly squeezed apple, beetroot and carrot juice when I got home!

And now a G&T - haven't had one of those for about three years.
It's been a bit of a day.

I have never knowingly eaten a Gregg's sausage roll. I'm veggie and I may have eaten a vegan SR.

My guilty eating habits are eating too much. I cook from scratch lots of veg but I eat butter, cheese and dairy..

It's true that there weren't many overweight kids when I was young.
Given the chance we'd have devoured a sweetshop. I feel sorry for today's children who have to learn self control!

I think this question belongs about (at least) 50 years ago.
IMO the damage is largely done.

Agree, Rosie. Close friends when I was growing up lived on fish fingers & baked beans on toast (I loved going for tea!) with cadburys mini-rolls or arctic roll for pud. The one home-cooked staple with them was bread pudding (bit like lardy cake) which is delish but not healthy.
Mum cooked from scratch but- the fried breakfasts with fatty bacon & fried bread;
Roasts on sunday with "gravy off the dish" (the fat out of the meat) poured over for extra oomph;
Sugary puds every day to fill you up;
Dripping & sugar sandwiches (not both together).
We didn't snack as much, & we had loads of excercise & I can only think that's why we weren't fat as hunts.

Always made a cooked breakfast for husband and kids, before they left for work/school.

Although I think there are more overweight children and adults than we were young, I think that the majority of young people do eat well.
I can't be the only grandmother whose parents give their children fruit and vegetables ,puts firm limits on their sugar intake and gives them only milk and water to drink.

Sago

I worked but always cooked a proper meal.

I would get up early and put something in the slow cooker.

I would be cooking supper in the late afternoon and supervising homework at the same time.

Saturday was for cleaning.

Likewise. I had what was known in the family as 'the big green casserole'. A cast iron casserole. It would take me about 10 minutes of a morning to toss the basic ingredients of a casserole into it. The meat would go in as a frozen block straight from the freezer. I would set the delay start on the oven for about 3.30pm. by which time the meat and any frozen food would have defrosted. The cooking process would cook everything together, ready to serve when I got in from work.

I would also cook enough for 2 meals so that one went into the freezer ready to be heated through another day.

I did the cleaning on Sunday evening, as it was the weekend that disturbed the house most. That moved to Monday morning when I retired.

I had a wonderful French cast iron cooking pot but it became too heavy to lift, especially when full of food.

Thank goodness for slow cookers, especially in the winter.