Wellness

[SeaMaiden]

I  was born in 1955. As   I grew up during the late 50's and into the decade of the1960's and 1970's, I grew up  eating a pretty varied  "modern" city suburb diet as there were no BAD FOODS labeled as such like today.  No cholesterol worries...  No smoking worries( my mother smoked all the time around me and even when pregnant with me)....  I was bottle fed as that was the new norm for new Mothers...... no drinking worries... no sugar worries....  ...we just did what we did and ate what we liked. Oh  the good ol days!   No helmets on our bikes... or knee pads when skating either.   We lived on the edge of danger everyday 

    I ate lots of white Wonder Bread.  I ate lots of hostess fruit pies, twinkies , snowballs and hoho's..... I ate a lot of fast food too...  oh and lots of candy  from the 7-11... slurpees....  we had KFC often, Taco Bell and of course Mc Donalds all the time.  Hot dogs too.   My Mom did cook family meals and that was often spaghetti, Steak,  Pork Chops, Leg of lamb...  Lots of cholesterol.    I do remember some cooked vegetables  an occasional iceberg salad thrown in with all of the meat....We ate a lot of TV dinners too... even Breakfast TV dinners.   Lots of eggs and bacon!   Lots of salt and sugar.  Oh and of course those wonderful breakfast cereals... Fruit loops, frosted flakes, sugar pops. Luck Charms, Count Chocula   and on and on!

    I grew up healthy, tall and lean. good skin and hair...  Lots of energy, no allergies.   I did have lots of cavities as I ate a lot of sugar and did not brush well( my fault as we went to the dentist all the time.) I Never had a weight problem with all the food I ate that today would be considered harmful and fattening. 

   As an adult now  who now watches everything I eat and my lifestyle I am healthy at 63, except for arthritis. I just wonder how much healthier I would be if I grew up eating really healthy like they say to today back as a child? Would it have made a difference at 63 today? Maybe I would not have had two knees and hips replaced? Guess I will never know that answer.

I  do think the big difference  between yesteryear and today  is that children  were very active as  growing up back then.....  Play, play play all the time outside running, biking ,skating.  Less TV, no Internet and such.  Today children are much less active and many also eat a very bad diet.

 Maybe it is exercise that is really the thing that keeps kids (us)   healthy and not so much  the importance of   our food intake?    Or it might be as big a factor as what you eat....?  

[puttypiesmom]

@SeaMaiden  I believe that exercise plays a huge role in counteracting all the bad stuff we put into our body but.......I would love to see your lipid panel and know if you have a slightly over active thyroid which often results in staying thin.    Love what you have to say though!!!

[grandma r]

I'm a bit older and so many things are different.  Let's start with respect.  Very little, if any today.  We had limited tv and the shoes we watched did not have smart mouthed kids with idiots for parents.

We played outside!!!!  No one was excluded because they were different.  We made up our own fun.  If someone had a bicycle, we took turns.  We got dirty, drank from a hose, and ate whatever we were given.  

Clothing was never an issue as I attended Catholic schools and sore uniforms, including shoes.  Bookbag were all the same.  We had Church clothes and playclothes.  There were some brand names like Eitienne and Villager, but, unless you found those at an outlet, you didn't have them.  I remember wanting a pair of Bass Weejun's when I was in hs, but, they weren't in the budget.

Name calling and bullying were not tolerated!!!!  "Treat others as you want to be treated" was drummed into our heads.  Still good advice.

If I wanted something, I needed to do extra chores to earn the money.  And, what we bought was not disposable;  we took good care of everything we had.

Today, the lack of respect and discipline is rampant.  It is sad to see.  Moral values don't seem to exist.  It seems we as a people are going backwards.

[Vivian]

I agree that there is a big difference between the amount of exercise kids get today compared to previous generations. I grew up in the 50s and 60s. When I wasn’t in school, I simply walked outside, saw who was out there, and started playing...roller skating, bike riding, or just running around. In summer we went to the beach, walking distance from my home.

The notion of organic foods was unheard of. My mother served simple basic meals. We had desserts but certainly not at every meal. Jello or ice cream or cookies sufficed. My children grew up in the 70s and 80s and had similar experiences. My grandchildren have not. Video games, phone addiction, and dangers that weren’t a concern generations ago have made a big difference, and not for the better.

[luvmybeetle]

I was born in 1945 and I grew up in the 50's.  Everything you are saying here is correct but we are the people who raised these current children and grandchildren.  So who is to blame?  We ate all sorts of food and, yes, we did a lot of exercising outside.  But when my mother came home from work, yes I said work, she cooked a homemade meal and didn't cut corners.  Then the fast food and frozen foods came and many mothers stopped cooking good meals.  Ever since the invention of computers it has never been the same.  There are 8 years between my 2 children and I definately notice the difference in how I raised them, because of my age at the time.  It is a different world out there and we need to be aware, pay attention to what is going on.

[RetRN]

Our meals were all home cooked when I was a child. We had a large garden and things were frozen and canned. We had strawberries, raspberries, elderberries, and many vegetables from the garden. We had potatoes, corn, beets, carrots, green and yellow beans, melon, horseradish, radishes, peas, lettuce, cabbage, tomatoes, peppers, onions, cucumbers, and more in the garden. As kids we had to help weed the garden and flower beds. We were always outdoors riding our bikes in summer and sledding down the barnhill in winter. I have very pleasant memories from those times. When I graduated I was 5'7" and weighed 107#.

[LTT1]

@SeaMaiden

I think there here are lots of reasons.

I was raised same era as you. My DM and DF were bordering on alcoholism. My DM was depressed. The happiest times I remember were those times I was playing with neighborhood friends.

I believe in some other philosophies regarding fast food and our health/weight. The corn syrup theory. 

I believe in the theory about gluten...life without it made our breads healthful.

I believe our bodies do not know what to do with GMO’s and therefore cannot process them (disposal ends up in fat tissue.)

My In-laws never drank sodas; they ate a salad every night with their protein ie: cole slaw with pork chop or chicken breast.

They were always slim and healthy and looked younger than their years. 

[puttypiesmom]

Wanted to also say that Laura Spencer had a hip replacement in her 40's.  She discussed it awhile ago on GMA.  Very interesting reading if you care to google.  

[Laura14]

I would never switch growing up without all the "rules" and "nannies" with what I see my nieces and nephew deal with today.

My youngest niece for a while was, in my opinion, developing an eating disorder because all she ever hears is what's wrong with food and frankly became scared to death to even touch anything. 

The last time I was out to dinner with them her sister wanted to know what was a healthy thing to order and it wasn't a good question in a way you would want that question to be asked.  It came from fear.  

I am still alive even though:

I rode in the back seat of a station wagon with no seatbelt with my sisters and cousins up and down I-95 from PA to FL every summer for years and encouraged the semi truck drivers to take their eyes off the road and blow their horns for us.

I fell off my skateboard, bikes, sleds, etc with no knee pads, helmets, wrist guards, required safety classes, etc.

My designated playground was the sidewalk and the street complete with one person as the designated lookout for cars who with drivers who were not distracted and slowed down because they were watching the road and not a device.

I actually had to call someone a name to their face if I dared and vice versa which meant manners were, for the most part, still intact and you thought before you hurt someone's feelings because there were consequences.  Remember those?  

[sidsmom]

@SeaMaiden

“I just wonder how much healthier I would be if grew up

eating really healthy like they say to today back as a child?  

Would it have made a difference at 63 today?”

A knee-jerk reaction would be ‘of course it would make a difference!’

But we have to factor in ‘...healthy like they say to today.’

The definition of healthy is so backwards today.

The amount of meat one eats today in one day would

be what people would eat in a week years past. 

And ‘fat’ was expensive...no oils, no Crisco..only lard/butter

which was rationed for baked items.  Today I see chefs pour

oil in a pan...to fry bacon! What are we doing??

People tend to scream ‘it’s the sugar!’ 

True, it shouldn’t be discounted, but it’s usually what the

sugar is supporting which is the issue of illness (fat/oil).  

They also scream ‘we don’t exercise!’

Again, true it shouldn’t be discounted, but people can lose

significant amount of weight without dedicated movement.

It is...was...and always will be...about the food.

(Especially the fat...reduce the fat & wellness will happen!)

Our ancestors proved it.