I enjoy watching the Pathe News channel here on YT and I forever say to myself, my, how smart the ladies looked and how slim, not a fattie in sight! I can tune in to any year up to the mid 60's and it's very difficult to find a single soul that's eaten all the pies. I was born in 1960 and recall two fat sisters a couple of years older than me and they were the only fatties in the entire school. Pop of roughly 300 kids.
I cannot accept this. How can children now be as fit as those who ate wholesome fruit veg and meat, played outside for hours and did NOT spend hours looking at video games and social media? Parenting skills have been lost wholesale and children generally are the poorer for it. Seed oils, additives, lounging around indoors because savages roam the streets and parks - how is this normal?
I think a lot of children back then certainly didn't eat wholesome fruit, veg and meat. More like bread & jam and chips. I was lucky as my late mother was a wonderful cook and we had plenty of fruit, veg and meat, didn't stop me getting fat though. By the time I was 12 I was fat and I stopped eating a lot of those wonderful meals mum made
@@ruthbashford3176 Yes I agree. For us sweets were a once a week treat, take away was fish and chips and rare, and we were not always nosing in the kitchen snacking. The cupboard was usually bare! Food was proportionally more expensive so we had less of it. And that turns out to be better for humans than continually stuffing our faces.
I’m not convinced you’re right here Simon I grew up in 70s/80s went to a large boys school and we probably had one fat kid in each year, I’m now 56 and live near a high school and see fat kid after fat kid walking by, also we lived on sweets as children so it has to be lack of exercise and processed foods that’s the problem
We had a large lad in my year in the 70s... On a three mile cross country run, he was seldom very far behind the fastest... Usually last, yes. Tell me that these modern 13 yo tubbies could all keep up with the fittest... I would doubt it... Our mate was big, he carried fat, but didn't look anything like the porky kids I see huffing and puffing as they walk 50 metres to and from their mum's cars near our school...
he is wrong 100% on this one, the school I went to had 1200 kids one was fat, I live next to that school today and when I pass it has dozens of fat kids, I noticed the fat kids group together as well, maybe for moral support for each other, birds of a feather,
Don't agree with you on this one Simon. The current breed of whopper, supertubbies is a new phenomenon. I can't believe the fire brigade had to crane lift fatties out of the bedroom window in the old days.
It was occasionally heard of. Whether, like some other supposedly modern trends it's just a thing we hear more about today because of social media is maybe worth considering.
We had one fat kid in my school in 1960s Salford. Moved to a Manchester primary school, one there as well. Went to Secondary school in 1967, no fat kids. Very few and far between Simon.
Not a good idea to mention Billy Bunter,Simon,he is a character in some novels,all of which I read as a child. And the reason for childhood diabetes is......?
I live in a small town and my wife is a doctor. She says she is yet to see a child who is not overweight. Lots of fast food and sugar. Kids lunch boxes consist of crisps, sweets and juice.
Half of 1960's kids grew up with rationing for half of their lives and most of their father's had been servicemen, my grandfather was fit and did daily exercise into his late 80's!
British Boomers born in '46 were ten years old when rationing ended in the UK. Elsewhere in the Anglosphere, Boomer kids, born between January '46 & December '64, had the most prosperous childhoods in history & the entire generation had the most prosperous adulthood in history.
@@traditionalfood367 The UK babyboom years were 1943-48 and 1958-71. Peaking in 1965. Those born in 1946 endured smog, whooping cough, scarlet fever,TB, measles, the cold war, leaving school at 15, outside loos, no central heating,no foreign holidays, no washing machines, microwaves, TV, cars.... Yeah, very privileged.
@@traditionalfood367 Speak for yourself, this boomer and the ones I grew up around definitely didn't have the most prosperous childhoods in history. That would have depended on which part of the country you grew up and in Glasgow Scotland there was still abject poverty in the 60's AND the early to mid 70's, I know because I grew up with many who lived through it.
@@TheMSS1977I had a Commodore 64 and then a Super Nintendo but we still had to walk to the shops to buy the latest games or magazines with the free demo tapes.
I disagree (for once) Simon. Most people these days eat too many of the wrong things far too often. Snacking has a major affect on weight gain along with the quality of food which is consumed. I currently live near a high school and I would suggest around half of the kids walking past my house every day are significantly overweight. I grew up in the 70's and would guess less than 5% of the kids were "chubby". Indeed in my age year of around 180 kids, only half a dozen or so were what we considered then to be "fat"........
Yes you only rarely see it in Thailand based on genetics. They eat fresh whole foods on the whole. In big Cities there are some fatties but they have discovered American fast food outlets. They don’t know about nutrition.
I'm not sure about the statistics but anecdotally I see a lot more children that are clearly obese nowadays, usually with obese parents. And by obese I mean that their normal movement (walking, running) has been affected by their weight. I do fear they will suffer both physically and psychologically because of it.
Wouldn't the average weight of army recruits in 1900, be skewed by the fact that recruits were mostly from the very poor class? And mostly undernourished.
And in the past they ate bread and dripping and chips with everything. Kids are actually growing up bigger and stronger today as they're better nourished than previous generations.
‘The DoubleDeckers’ (affectionately?) called their mate “Doughnut”. My school chum acquired the nickname RustyCrutch in the early 70’s - he’s still known as ‘Rusty’🤷🏻♂️
I do think you have this one wrong Simon. I looked back on old school photos from the 60s... Very few obese children in them. I was part of a large family, loads of cousins. We were not obese, then looked at my children's photos from school, not many obese children there. My grandchildren Class photos.. More obese children. Mainland Scotland. It's down to parenting, falling for the snack, processed food culture. Giving in to children (as they have more rights now lol). Yes exercise and playing are still around as is healthier eating...but the parents have to be firm but fair and not give in to media, relax and not go at high speed. We live in an I want, I need, consumerism era.
That is because the definition of T2 diabetes has changed so many more people are suffering from it. In the past it was only the overweight elderly who got T2 diabetes and the remedy was simply to lose weight. I got that gem from The Obesity Myth
I don't think the data supports Simon's idea on this occasion. We also all eat a lot more ultra processed foods, which helps cause obesity, addiction and ill health. However, it's not a bad as the media makes out.
There's no question but that children are more likely to be over weight these days. And they eat less healthy food as a rule; there is far more processed food around than ever, and we know that isn't good. This is the fault of the adults to let this happen, but it HAS happened.
There were very few obese children when I was a child in 1970’s. When I see children today out with their teachers they all look the same as in my time.
Reading Orwell's A Road to Wigan Pier, there seemed to be the opposite problem in the 1930's and 40's with kids having stunted growth and being malnourished.
The 'food pyramid' was changed in the 70's to introduce more carbs such as wheat and less meat to reduce saturated fat but people became more unhealthy.
I was at primary school in the 70's and in the entire school we had one boy who was obese and a girl who was obese, and it was an unusual sight. there are definitely more examples of obese children in primary schools today. We were generally fitter than children today as we did play outside from breakfast 'til teatime and we ate much less processed food than kids today eat. We only stayed in if the rain was really chucking it down, and showed no signs of abating, and couldn't wait to get outside again as soon as it eventually stopped raining. The idea of sitting in watching telly was alien to us.
Simon says in his sub stack that we wouldn't realise kids were obese unless we were continually reminded by the media. I doubt that is correct. So we were beginning to talk about this in the 60s. And also in that decade concerns were voiced about immigration. So both are issues of which we have been aware for some time but have not been adequately addressed.
My headteacher once - when introducing a new (overweight) student to our school in front of EVERYONE - said to him, "you're now part of the furniture". You can guess the reaction from the whole assembly.
Got this one WRONG! There was in the 1960s typically ONE kid out of a class of 30 who was fat. The proportion is far higher now and very noticeably so when you go into poorer areas of the country. This is partly the result of ultra processed food and relative affordability of calorie dense fast food. The explosion of preventable cancers and type two diabetes doesn’t occur in a vacuum ……. Not much will change of course because big food and big pharma make a lot of money out of the status quo.
You are definitely wrong on this one, Simon. Walk around any supermarket and you’ll see fat children with fat parents pushing overload trolleys. Hospital waiting rooms show a similar picture, including overweight nurses and ancillary staff. Obesity and related ailments are a financial drain on the NHS.
It's not often that I disagree with you Simon but on this one..I do. I'm pushing 60 and can only remember 2 fat people in my school, one black, 1 white......that's it. I've driven passed the local school on kicking out time and it's quite obvious that most of the kids are pushing obesity already.
There has been a steady rise in both adult and childhood obesity from the late 1980s up until the early 2020s. This trend accelerated when new government dietary guidelines were introduced 40 years ago. These demonised meat and dairy and saturated fats in favour of promotion of polyunsaturated fats and vegetables; remember your '5 a Day' government prpaganda? . Whilst there is no evidence that people are eating more calories than they did in the past there is plenty attesting to the metabolic harm such a national shift in dietary recommendations have caused; furthermore, more people are eating highly processed junk and convenience foods instead of healthy home cooked food. Increased prevalence of insulin resistance andtype 2 diabetes in older children are major health concerns nowadays. One in ten of our children are leaving school overweight and with poor metabolic health.
I’m afraid I don’t agree with you on this Simon. At my school in the sixties and seventies there were very few obese children just the occasional one or two. Looking at school children these days its the slim child who is the exception. I blame it on snacking and ultra processed food.
It's a life of convenience. Deliverpoo and all of the others drastically causing laziness. But previous to that is the mobile phone and the need for attention it has caused taking focus away from kids. iPad is a free babysitter, it's a mad world.
I was talking to a teenage girl the other day who has a Big Mac (delivered by motorbike to her door) every night before bed. Apart from the implications to health, where do they get the money!
I'll be popping down to the village Co-op soon for milk. Usually run into all the schoolkids munching through bags full of sausage rolls, donuts, pastries. In my day we shared a bag of cola cubes.........
I went to school from 1957 a d usually one plump child per class. This continued throughout my school life until I left in 1969. Also loved sweets as a child but only had 3d pocket money to buy them with on Saturday which eventually increased to 6d! Didnt have pizza, yoghurt, ready done chips, ready meals at all as a child. So although the media has tried to brainwash people into thinking you've got to be thin to be desirable and fat is bad that's not the same. Now i live in a seaside town where we have lots of visitors and so many families are very overweight and actually obese. So there is definitely a difference from years ago and i do agree being out and not always indoors in front of a screen probably has a lot to do with it. Also kids on old newsreels always looked happy and dare I say pink cheeked when they were playing out in the streets etc even if they were poor and scruffy. Children dont seem to have that look anymore. Freedom and fresh air ( and a few sweets) equals happiness!!
I used to climb up trees in the 80's to put up rope swings 50 feet in the air. I had to be careful because if I fell I'd probably be dead or badly injured. I also used to play computer games but not all the time.
Being a boomer we had double classes of around 40 kids per class..most years had one mega fat boy ( almost always boys) and most classes had a fat kid..that was it..having lived in London Hertfordshire and Essex, 20 odd years ago I relocated to west Yorkshire, the 5 towns area, I was and am astounded by the 'family fat phenomenon '..It's unbelievable the amount of not just hefty ( I could lose a stone) but morbidly obese is common place, parents and children..not only indolence but the wrong food at the wrong time is a factor, they will have fish & chips on their way home for tea..seriously if you are ever up this way you could have a walk around some of them..should only take a weekend 😅😂
Obesity is widespread here on Tyneside. I'm not sure of the official figures? But walking around my region it looks like at least 50% of the population are obese. Many children are over weight too.
Look at any sports field now at the weekends, they are empty. There used to be a waiting list for pitches. Exercise has changed- its moved to the gym. Bad move for social interaction in my opinion. Definitely more over weight kids today.
House of Commons library data shows that "10.1% of reception age children (age 4-5) were obese in 2021/22, with a further 12.1% were overweight. At age 10-11 (year 6), 23.4% were obese and 14.3% overweight. This data is gathered as part of the National Child Measurement Programme and published by NHS Digital.12". We have a problem.
It’s not the primary school kids that are the problem, it’s when they hit puberty and beyond that excessive weight gain kicks in. Unfortunately Simon you’ve got this one wrong
My daughter received a letter from my grandson's primary school saying he was overweight. My daughter replied his weight is fine. The school replied that the "qualified" school nurse determined he is overweight. My daughter replied that she is a consultant paediatrician and the school nurse is mistaken. End of correspondence.
They did that with my son 10 years ago, Said he was classed as 'Over weight' Ridiculous, he has never been overweight, He's now at Harrogate Military college working off them extra pounds😂😂
@@JustDaniel6764a friend and I took those obesity tests in high school. He got obese, I got overweight. He had already taken up hammer throwing. We had a good laugh.
@@gilessteve It's not "meaningless". I am not inviting YOU to judge his weight - I am telling you that he was judged by a school nurse to be overweight while a community-based consultant paediatrician said that claim was nonsense. Professionals disagree - but which is the most qualified?
Another modern myth is that the streets were clean. In the fifties and sixties, litter was a huge problem, and it was the subject of many campaigns. Remember “Keep Britain Tidy”. Pet dogs often roamed free and dog poo was everywhere. Beaches were often covered in oil, and raw sewage was discharged into rivers and the sea. Local councillors would tell me that the biggest issue they faced when doorstep campaigning was that of dog poo. Every time a postcard appears on social media, there is chorus of old people proclaiming the opposite. I’m sure that if I repeated the above, I would be accused of being a denier or a cynic. I can remember it, but their memory seems to be affected by some subliminal programming.
Obesity is a major health concern. In Ireland, 61% of adults and 22% of 5-12 year olds are overweight or obese. Pre-diabetes, diabetes and the metabolic syndrome were at least twice as common in the Traveller population when compared to data available for the background Irish population
Are comparisons with previous years the norm? I hear more with reference to BMI, however flawed it is. It is not uncommon to see overweight and obese children wobbling around in the seaside resort where I live. Almost inevitably they have ice creams or chips to keep them happy.
My late father, a D-Day veteran often observed that we were constantly being told there was terrible poverty in the UK but he saw lots of fat people wondering about. He couldn’t reconcile the two positions. When we were poor between the war he would say we were poor and skinny as we couldn’t afford food. How can it be we are poor now yet people are fat. You can’t argue with his reasoning bless him.
Do you have access to any data regarding Diabetes, Obesity and any other current health problems related to weight and diet ? Do you believe there is any connection between the diet of children in the 50s and 60s and the health outcomes compared to the diets now ?
You cannot deny that there is an obesity issue with children. Me and my husband have 3 children, our son is 5 and our two daughters are 3. When we take them to the local Leisure Centre for their swim lessons, it never fails to escape my notice, just how many children under the age of 10 years old have huge pot bellies, back fat and in the case of one boy huge man(boy) breasts and cheeks so red he looks as though his blood pressure is higher than mine and mine has remained higher than average since 2020 as a result of Pre-eclampsia during pregnancy. There is most definitely a larger quantity of fat children now, than there was in the 1980s, when I myself was at primary school. There was one fat girl in my entire school year. These days, to avoid hurting anyone's fee fees, the media are trying to normalise obesity across the board, it is a very unhealthy approach. But that, along with the ever further reach of the nanny state, is giving piss poor parenting all of the excuses with none of the accountability.
The thumbnail reminded me of the halcyon days of my childhood where every class had a fat kid, known as the fat kid, fatty, fatso and in some cases Bunter, these labels were never seen as fatist or any other woke nonsense, It was part of being a kid. I was often referred to as lanky or lamp post, the ugly kid was often known as Plug. Halcyon days indeed. However, the amount of lardy, chubby and generally fat kids has definitely increased, I often think to myself; "I don't think these kids have ever played any sport or spent the summer holidays outside, riding their bikes"!
Although not showing children I watched Woodstock and was amazed how slim and healthy just about everyone was. As a youth we used to think the singer from canned heat was massive but he was only 18 stone
Absolute twaddle. Growing up in the 70's in a Scottish city it was extremely rare to see a fat person. After many years abroad I was genuinely shocked upon my return, I didn't see 'fat' people but absolutely obese people many unable to walk without the aid of a stick, the kind of size that I had only ever associated with the U.S. There was just one fat kid that was bullied in my primary school, he wouldn't even be considered that fat by todays standards. As someone whose job it was to visit at least two different schools per week over a period of 2 years I was appalled to see 2 or 3 obese children in each class room. The correlation between obesity and the pre-packaged, processed foods that we simply did not have in the 70's is absolutely undeniable.
Look at young women, all chunky, weren't that way when i was teen in the 70's. Look at the top of the pops audience. Fatties at school got picked on as rare, as did the spectacle wearer.
I think Simon is well off the mark on this one.When I was at school in the 70,s and 80,s the amount of fat kids was 1 or 2 in my whole year group.There are way more cases of obesity than ever
Surely Simon, if you wish to monitor or gauge such things as average weight or height etc you have to look at averages at certain points in time. Now, if the AVERAGE weight of a man was ten stones in 1960, and today it's thirteen stones, then you can safely say men have become heavier. What has caused the increase in weight is open to debate, but that doesn't alter the fact they are significantly heavier. The fact that young British army recruits (for the South African campaign in the late eighteen hundreds) were so malnourished and sickly was a cause for national concern and shame!!!!!
Kids are definitely fatter now. We had 1 maybe 2 fats kids in my school and unfortunately they were mocked and bullied. This was 1979/80. My mum still lives in the same house opposite the same school that I grew up in and went to. I watch kids come down the same path I walked in 1980 and I’d say at least 1 in 10 are fat and many fatter than any in school of my time. There were no McDonald’s, Burger King, or doughnut shops and schools didn’t sell Coke. It’s way too easy to have a massive calorie intake now. Not necessarily kids fault. But kids are fatter. Fact.
I think there was one chubby boy in the whole of my primary school in the 70s/early 80s. I can’t remember any fatties at my grammar school. Today I’d say at least half of our young people are overweight, and a significant number have eating disorders of one kind or another. Fast food, nutrient-poor food, the internet and social media, the loss of school playing fields, worries about letting kids play outside (paedophiles, crime, migrants, etc) and perhaps most significantly family breakdown and single parenting all have a role to play in this decline.
When I was a child in the sixties the only plump kids were farmers the rest of us were skinny waifs we lived on baked beans and chips - one bottle of squash a fortnight and I didn’t know what a yogurt was till I left school
There are a pair of excellent examples I can think of that demonstrate a correlation between obesity & an obssession with extended computer screen use & unhealthy social media addiction
The correct weight should match up with the person's body mass index (height & waist) and usually shouldn't be over 180-200lb for either adult male or female. Of course, people over 6'6" in height can be allowed exceptions. But if we're talking about healthy weight, that's what to go off of. The modern 'fat acceptance movement' is one example of lunacy that today permeates the minds of so many people: "Healthy at any size" delusional people.
4:06 I don't recall is being always the case. When I was at school there was maybe 1 fat kid in the year. Cetainly not 1 per class. I don't recall there being any malnourished ones either.
Our class fat kids parents had the chip shop, so I knew how she got fat, 2 other fatties in the school were a brother and sister who's parents had a newspaper shop, so they stuffed themselves on the chocolate, sweets, pop and crisps
I taught from 1969 until 2009, 40 years. There were were fat children in 1969 but not on the scale as were to be found in the 21st Century. The number of children I observed unable to stand from sitting on the floor in assembly or PE in 2009 was far far greater than in the 60's. To stand they have roll on their sides then to their front , then on to their knees
This the equivalent of webbies climate change denial. "1976 was a really hot summer and once the Thames froze over and once someone wrote a book about the ice age coming in the 1970s". Theres your intellectual rigour.
Cant agree with you I'm 69 when i was in junior school we had 2 fat kids, now living in Asia over the last 30yrs the population is definitely getting fatter.
Good points, well made! I know I weighed less in the past but stopped worrying about ordinary overweight or even obesity being a health risk when I saw people in the States weighing over 40 stone. NOW that is a health risk!
One thing that may be causing kids to be heavier now is I find them all to be much taller . I now think I am living in the land of giants . ( I am 77 )
Kids are definitely fatter today than they were in previous generations.
This really is obvious. Sometimes one does have to go with the empirical evidence.
@@W5nmwh50
What do you mean "sometimes"? One should *always* judge by empirical evidence.
only if there is enough of it.@@fishofgold6553
@@W5nmwh50 incease in height is better nutrition.
I knew one kid who was about fifteen pounds overweight. He stuck out like a sore thumb and was mercilessly mocked.
Use your eyes and then look at some old footage of life in the UK! I'm afraid this is nonsense.
I enjoy watching the Pathe News channel here on YT and I forever say to myself, my, how smart the ladies looked and how slim, not a fattie in sight! I can tune in to any year up to the mid 60's and it's very difficult to find a single soul that's eaten all the pies. I was born in 1960 and recall two fat sisters a couple of years older than me and they were the only fatties in the entire school. Pop of roughly 300 kids.
At school in the sixties there were very few obese kids, the majority were slim or correct weight.
Just search CZcams. . . Swinging London 1967. . . Someone has done a great job upscaling lots of old cine film to 4K . . . Looks amazing!
I cannot accept this. How can children now be as fit as those who ate wholesome fruit veg and meat, played outside for hours and did NOT spend hours looking at video games and social media? Parenting skills have been lost wholesale and children generally are the poorer for it. Seed oils, additives, lounging around indoors because savages roam the streets and parks - how is this normal?
I think a lot of children back then certainly didn't eat wholesome fruit, veg and meat. More like bread & jam and chips. I was lucky as my late mother was a wonderful cook and we had plenty of fruit, veg and meat, didn't stop me getting fat though. By the time I was 12 I was fat and I stopped eating a lot of those wonderful meals mum made
@@ruthbashford3176 Yes I agree. For us sweets were a once a week treat, take away was fish and chips and rare, and we were not always nosing in the kitchen snacking. The cupboard was usually bare! Food was proportionally more expensive so we had less of it. And that turns out to be better for humans than continually stuffing our faces.
Additives have no calories, and what do seed oils have to do with it?
@@basylpeterjones s.0...hydrogenated processed gunk that was once used for lubricating machine parts until they found a way to make it edible
'Parenting skills have been lost'. Things like Frequent beatings and telling your kids to bugger off out until dinner/tea time? 😉
I’m not convinced you’re right here Simon I grew up in 70s/80s went to a large boys school and we probably had one fat kid in each year, I’m now 56 and live near a high school and see fat kid after fat kid walking by, also we lived on sweets as children so it has to be lack of exercise and processed foods that’s the problem
Spot on. I just wrote an almost identical post
@@gaillaffer7579 yes mate it’s true my daughter is 16 and half her class are fat
thats true way more fat kids fat mums fat dads and fat grandparents
We had a large lad in my year in the 70s... On a three mile cross country run, he was seldom very far behind the fastest... Usually last, yes.
Tell me that these modern 13 yo tubbies could all keep up with the fittest... I would doubt it... Our mate was big, he carried fat, but didn't look anything like the porky kids I see huffing and puffing as they walk 50 metres to and from their mum's cars near our school...
@@neddyseagoon9601 haha yeah mate you know it
Kids are fatter today. Growing up in 60s the odd kid was fat and often mocked and called fatty. Youre off the mark on this one, which is rare
he is wrong 100% on this one, the school I went to had 1200 kids one was fat, I live next to that school today and when I pass it has dozens of fat kids, I noticed the fat kids group together as well, maybe for moral support for each other, birds of a feather,
@@sicks6six No,it's gravitational attraction!
I have never seen so many overweight kids in my life. Their parents are no better with full sleeve tattoos as well.
You realise that you haven’t provided any evidence to support what you say. It’s just your opinion versus Simon’s opinion.
He’s wrong
Even the kids we thought of as fat if u look through old photos they were barley overweight by today’s standards
I left the UK in the mid 80s. Twenty years later, the first thing I noticed was how fat young people were. It's the Fast Food Generation.
So you're an immigrant.
LOL
Don't agree with you on this one Simon. The current breed of whopper, supertubbies is a new phenomenon. I can't believe the fire brigade had to crane lift fatties out of the bedroom window in the old days.
It was occasionally heard of. Whether, like some other supposedly modern trends it's just a thing we hear more about today because of social media is maybe worth considering.
@ShanghaiRooster yeah, I'm from lincs so I've heard of Daniel Lambert. There's some truth in what you say, but I still think today's kids are fatter.
We had one fat kid in my school in 1960s Salford. Moved to a Manchester primary school, one there as well. Went to Secondary school in 1967, no fat kids. Very few and far between Simon.
There aren’t very many though. I live near a primary school and see children walking to school every day. Most of them are normal size.
Not a good idea to mention Billy Bunter,Simon,he is a character in some novels,all of which I read as a child. And the reason for childhood diabetes is......?
They are 'normalising' fatness by showing chubby children in tv ads, something you would never see thirty years ago.
But only chubby white kids.
Not the KFC chubsters.
Chubby white kids.
Not the KFC customers
I live in a small town and my wife is a doctor. She says she is yet to see a child who is not overweight. Lots of fast food and sugar. Kids lunch boxes consist of crisps, sweets and juice.
Half of 1960's kids grew up with rationing for half of their lives and most of their father's had been servicemen, my grandfather was fit and did daily exercise into his late 80's!
British Boomers born in '46 were ten years old when rationing ended in the UK. Elsewhere in the Anglosphere, Boomer kids, born between January '46 & December '64, had the most prosperous childhoods in history & the entire generation had the most prosperous adulthood in history.
Also the 1950's as well.
@@traditionalfood367 The UK babyboom years were 1943-48 and 1958-71. Peaking in 1965.
Those born in 1946 endured smog, whooping cough, scarlet fever,TB, measles, the cold war, leaving school at 15, outside loos, no central heating,no foreign holidays, no washing machines, microwaves, TV, cars....
Yeah, very privileged.
@@traditionalfood367 Speak for yourself, this boomer and the ones I grew up around definitely didn't have the most prosperous childhoods in history. That would have depended on which part of the country you grew up and in Glasgow Scotland there was still abject poverty in the 60's AND the early to mid 70's, I know because I grew up with many who lived through it.
The Baby Boom is post war, not during the war. The Baby Boom years do not start in 1943.
Good morning. Children in the days before computers was more active with more common sense of street awareness.
I was too before I got a Sinclair spectrum zx. Those things took time to program.
Next thing you know - I'm a Balloon!
Grammer wuz beter...
@@TheMSS1977I had a Commodore 64 and then a Super Nintendo but we still had to walk to the shops to buy the latest games or magazines with the free demo tapes.
@@TheMSS1977 GG
I disagree (for once) Simon. Most people these days eat too many of the wrong things far too often. Snacking has a major affect on weight gain along with the quality of food which is consumed. I currently live near a high school and I would suggest around half of the kids walking past my house every day are significantly overweight. I grew up in the 70's and would guess less than 5% of the kids were "chubby". Indeed in my age year of around 180 kids, only half a dozen or so were what we considered then to be "fat"........
A friend was over from Thailand and couldn't believe how fat we all are here.
Rich but fat
Yes you only rarely see it in Thailand based on genetics. They eat fresh whole foods on the whole. In big Cities there are some fatties but they have discovered American fast food outlets. They don’t know about nutrition.
the amount of 20 stone 20 year old girls around is very abnormal
Large pumped up derrieres are considered attractive in a certain community..
This is true, the odd thing is they do not appear to be aware that this is an issue. This is what I find to be a strange phenomena.
I'm not sure about the statistics but anecdotally I see a lot more children that are clearly obese nowadays, usually with obese parents. And by obese I mean that their normal movement (walking, running) has been affected by their weight. I do fear they will suffer both physically and psychologically because of it.
I see a number of fat men & wimen that have taken to electric buggies they are so fat.It's a miracle the machines themselves can take it!
Sometimes statistical analysis is at odds with empirical evidence!
Wouldn't the average weight of army recruits in 1900, be skewed by the fact that recruits were mostly from the very poor class? And mostly undernourished.
Indeed so, some poor people signed up just to get fed and taken care of.
Yep, and I'm sure they quickly put on weight once recruited into the army with three square meals a day.
And shorter obvs
@@HistoryDebunkedsimonwebb Oh this is good news ,if kids are not pudgy they have more of a chance to flee the nefarious intentions of OAPS .
WW2 as well malnourished excess food for working class recent post WW2
Chasing dogs was a good game because when one was cornered it would turn and chase you.
Kept me lean.
Than goodness for Tetanus jabs.
Fat or not but look at what the kids are eating. There are all these dirty kebab and chicken shops all over the place.
And dirty people running them
Was thinking the same but with a capital D,
Yes lots of them in my area
And in the past they ate bread and dripping and chips with everything. Kids are actually growing up bigger and stronger today as they're better nourished than previous generations.
@robinsmith8918 you notice the environs around them also dirty rubbish strewn greasy pavements etc
During my primary school years in the 1970s there was one fat kid in the entire school. Of course, we nicknamed him Jumbo.
And there was more kids underfed than not.
@@secondchance6603 yes today food is abundant to excess
Ours was called Twoey as he was the size of two people.
‘The DoubleDeckers’ (affectionately?) called their mate “Doughnut”.
My school chum acquired the nickname RustyCrutch in the early 70’s - he’s still known as ‘Rusty’🤷🏻♂️
There was always the fat kid in Grange Hill. Roland eating Rolos
I do think you have this one wrong Simon. I looked back on old school photos from the 60s... Very few obese children in them. I was part of a large family, loads of cousins. We were not obese, then looked at my children's photos from school, not many obese children there. My grandchildren Class photos.. More obese children. Mainland Scotland. It's down to parenting, falling for the snack, processed food culture. Giving in to children (as they have more rights now lol). Yes exercise and playing are still around as is healthier eating...but the parents have to be firm but fair and not give in to media, relax and not go at high speed. We live in an I want, I need, consumerism era.
Maybe you could address the T2 diabetes issue Simon and offer an explanation?
That is because the definition of T2 diabetes has changed so many more people are suffering from it. In the past it was only the overweight elderly who got T2 diabetes and the remedy was simply to lose weight. I got that gem from The Obesity Myth
I don't think the data supports Simon's idea on this occasion. We also all eat a lot more ultra processed foods, which helps cause obesity, addiction and ill health. However, it's not a bad as the media makes out.
We have primitive instincts in an age of Superabundance.
All I know is I have a wardrobe full of trousers I can’t fit into.
Thats why brits are complacent about 👽 take over hunger is a good motivator doesnt exist today.
There's no question but that children are more likely to be over weight these days. And they eat less healthy food as a rule; there is far more processed food around than ever, and we know that isn't good. This is the fault of the adults to let this happen, but it HAS happened.
I never saw a fat kid in any class of mine from 1957- 1968, where were they all?
I agree, their was never any fat kids in my schools (or parents) 1956 to 1967 in the north Mancheste area
There use to be maybe one "chubby" kid in every other class.. that's it (speaking for a Scandinavian country in the 80:s)
"The party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command".
There were very few obese children when I was a child in 1970’s.
When I see children today out with their teachers they all look the same as in my time.
I agree
Precisely 👍
Seems to be more Fork crime than Knife crime now.
Love it! Made my day!
A spoon-fed pun?
Ban forks and spoons
I looked around Walmart today, looked up videos "fat people of Walmart" My data says you're wrong. 😂😅
He is not talking about your country.
"WALMART IS RAAAAACIIIIIIST!"
LOVE that video.
Computer says Noooo
I was a kid in the 50’s. I walked to school. I played in parks. I climbed. Not necessarily trees. I rode my bike constantly. No porkies in my class.
Reading Orwell's A Road to Wigan Pier, there seemed to be the opposite problem in the 1930's and 40's with kids having stunted growth and being malnourished.
Some kids seem to have the meth look. They need meat on them bones!
The 'food pyramid' was changed in the 70's to introduce more carbs such as wheat and less meat to reduce saturated fat but people became more unhealthy.
I was at primary school in the 70's and in the entire school we had one boy who was obese and a girl who was obese, and it was an unusual sight. there are definitely more examples of obese children in primary schools today.
We were generally fitter than children today as we did play outside from breakfast 'til teatime and we ate much less processed food than kids today eat.
We only stayed in if the rain was really chucking it down, and showed no signs of abating, and couldn't wait to get outside again as soon as it eventually stopped raining.
The idea of sitting in watching telly was alien to us.
They should also factor in the fact that people are considerably taller than they were in 1900😊
Salient point. Just look at the growth in height of the Japanese when their country opened up and diets changed.
Simon says in his sub stack that we wouldn't realise kids were obese unless we were continually reminded by the media. I doubt that is correct. So we were beginning to talk about this in the 60s. And also in that decade concerns were voiced about immigration. So both are issues of which we have been aware for some time but have not been adequately addressed.
My headteacher once - when introducing a new (overweight) student to our school in front of EVERYONE - said to him, "you're now part of the furniture".
You can guess the reaction from the whole assembly.
fat kids were ridiculed so were thick kids and others its part of growing up
@shaunrobjoShn7712 CRUEL
Got this one WRONG! There was in the 1960s typically ONE kid out of a class of 30 who was fat. The proportion is far higher now and very noticeably so when you go into poorer areas of the country. This is partly the result of ultra processed food and relative affordability of calorie dense fast food. The explosion of preventable cancers and type two diabetes doesn’t occur in a vacuum ……. Not much will change of course because big food and big pharma make a lot of money out of the status quo.
Obesity is big problem in the UK and that starts at childhood.
You are definitely wrong on this one, Simon. Walk around any supermarket and you’ll see fat children with fat parents pushing overload trolleys. Hospital waiting rooms show a similar picture, including overweight nurses and ancillary staff. Obesity and related ailments are a financial drain on the NHS.
its a real laugh when a doctor or a nurse with an ar-e the size of a double decker bus tells you that you must lose weight.
It's not often that I disagree with you Simon but on this one..I do. I'm pushing 60 and can only remember 2 fat people in my school, one black, 1 white......that's it. I've driven passed the local school on kicking out time and it's quite obvious that most of the kids are pushing obesity already.
There has been a steady rise in both adult and childhood obesity from the late 1980s up until the early 2020s. This trend accelerated when new government dietary guidelines were introduced 40 years ago. These demonised meat and dairy and saturated fats in favour of promotion of polyunsaturated fats and vegetables; remember your '5 a Day' government prpaganda? . Whilst there is no evidence that people are eating more calories than they did in the past there is plenty attesting to the metabolic harm such a national shift in dietary recommendations have caused; furthermore, more people are eating highly processed junk and convenience foods instead of healthy home cooked food. Increased prevalence of insulin resistance andtype 2 diabetes in older children are major health concerns nowadays. One in ten of our children are leaving school overweight and with poor metabolic health.
1 chubby kid in my school back in the 60s, he wasn't even in my class but i remember his name, that's how much he stood out
Has Simon gone blind? I didn't know or see any fat children when I was a child.
Good morning all
Have a great, productive day!
I’m afraid I don’t agree with you on this Simon. At my school in the sixties and seventies there were very few obese children just the occasional one or two. Looking at school children these days its the slim child who is the exception. I blame it on snacking and ultra processed food.
It's a life of convenience.
Deliverpoo and all of the others drastically causing laziness.
But previous to that is the mobile phone and the need for attention it has caused taking focus away from kids. iPad is a free babysitter, it's a mad world.
I was talking to a teenage girl the other day who has a Big Mac (delivered by motorbike to her door) every night before bed. Apart from the implications to health, where do they get the money!
@@vordmanwell even fast food seems to be going up in price so that may change.
It's odd they view the boomers generation with nostagia when it suits...but then assert the 'far right' are longing for a past that never existed
They'll say anything to further The Agenda.
"They".
Who does what? Explain.
Are you far right wing? Personally, I'd consider myself a moderate.
Nothing wrong with being far right@@mannylikestoanimate
I'll be popping down to the village Co-op soon for milk. Usually run into all the schoolkids munching through bags full of sausage rolls, donuts, pastries. In my day we shared a bag of cola cubes.........
In my day it was chips and biscuits we could buy at school.
Luxury! We used to dream of cola cubes! We had to dig around in the dirt finding worms for our snacks!
@@thehound9638 i used to get paid by the other kids to watch me eating worms, i still made the rugby team.
@@thehound9638 Worms ???if you were lucky. We had to survive on rabbit droppings.
@@user-cd6dg2vs2q i had them for pudding with custard mom used to say they were tapioca
I went to school from 1957 a d usually one plump child per class. This continued throughout my school life until I left in 1969. Also loved sweets as a child but only had 3d pocket money to buy them with on Saturday which eventually increased to 6d! Didnt have pizza, yoghurt, ready done chips, ready meals at all as a child. So although the media has tried to brainwash people into thinking you've got to be thin to be desirable and fat is bad that's not the same. Now i live in a seaside town where we have lots of visitors and so many families are very overweight and actually obese. So there is definitely a difference from years ago and i do agree being out and not always indoors in front of a screen probably has a lot to do with it. Also kids on old newsreels always looked happy and dare I say pink cheeked when they were playing out in the streets etc even if they were poor and scruffy. Children dont seem to have that look anymore. Freedom and fresh air ( and a few sweets) equals happiness!!
I grew up in the 60s and climbing trees was the nom,If kids try the same today they will be told not too for fear of damage to the tree or themselves.
A few years back the schools all banned playing conkers! Dangerous, they said and suggested that if playing conkers at home, to wear safety goggles!
I used to climb up trees in the 80's to put up rope swings 50 feet in the air. I had to be careful because if I fell I'd probably be dead or badly injured. I also used to play computer games but not all the time.
I taught my daughter to climb. She loves it.
Being a boomer we had double classes of around 40 kids per class..most years had one mega fat boy ( almost always boys) and most classes had a fat kid..that was it..having lived in London Hertfordshire and Essex, 20 odd years ago I relocated to west Yorkshire, the 5 towns area, I was and am astounded by the 'family fat phenomenon '..It's unbelievable the amount of not just hefty ( I could lose a stone) but morbidly obese is common place, parents and children..not only indolence but the wrong food at the wrong time is a factor, they will have fish & chips on their way home for tea..seriously if you are ever up this way you could have a walk around some of them..should only take a weekend 😅😂
UK, in addition to USA, is suffering 5 decades of Ancel Keye's dietary pseudoscience.
Obesity is widespread here on Tyneside. I'm not sure of the official figures? But walking around my region it looks like at least 50% of the population are obese. Many children are over weight too.
You do see a lot of our cousins from across the pond sat in these battery powered ObeseTravellators.
Ii think you only have to look at the nurses in any hospital to see what modern lifestyle and diet has done
Look at any sports field now at the weekends, they are empty. There used to be a waiting list for pitches. Exercise has changed- its moved to the gym. Bad move for social interaction in my opinion. Definitely more over weight kids today.
House of Commons library data shows that "10.1% of reception age children (age 4-5) were obese in 2021/22, with a further 12.1% were overweight. At age 10-11 (year 6), 23.4% were obese and 14.3% overweight. This data is gathered as part of the National Child Measurement Programme and published by NHS Digital.12". We have a problem.
After Sloppy Simon's piece yesterday about statistics, the irony is strong today, as he ignores the statistical evidence on his chosen subject.
Surely people today have never lived longer and, despite their diets, children have never been healthier.
@@ruthbashford3176 longevity in the UK has been falling for the past few years. Obesity is one of the factors. The stats are easy to find.
Fat boy alert...
It’s not the primary school kids that are the problem, it’s when they hit puberty and beyond that excessive weight gain kicks in.
Unfortunately Simon you’ve got this one wrong
Just goes to show, nobody is right all the time!
“Soaring childhood obesity from pandemic could cost UK billions” source: Imperial
My daughter received a letter from my grandson's primary school saying he was overweight. My daughter replied his weight is fine. The school replied that the "qualified" school nurse determined he is overweight. My daughter replied that she is a consultant paediatrician and the school nurse is mistaken. End of correspondence.
They did that with my son 10 years ago, Said he was classed as 'Over weight'
Ridiculous, he has never been overweight, He's now at Harrogate Military college working off them extra pounds😂😂
@@JustDaniel6764a friend and I took those obesity tests in high school. He got obese, I got overweight. He had already taken up hammer throwing. We had a good laugh.
@@The_Custos The way they go about calculating it is stupid., everything is so ridiculous these days
Without disclosing his weight and height this is meaningless.
@@gilessteve It's not "meaningless". I am not inviting YOU to judge his weight - I am telling you that he was judged by a school nurse to be overweight while a community-based consultant paediatrician said that claim was nonsense. Professionals disagree - but which is the most qualified?
There is a cost of living crisis and people can't afford food!! Also.. everyone is obese.
Another modern myth is that the streets were clean. In the fifties and sixties, litter was a huge problem, and it was the subject of many campaigns. Remember “Keep Britain Tidy”. Pet dogs often roamed free and dog poo was everywhere. Beaches were often covered in oil, and raw sewage was discharged into rivers and the sea. Local councillors would tell me that the biggest issue they faced when doorstep campaigning was that of dog poo.
Every time a postcard appears on social media, there is chorus of old people proclaiming the opposite. I’m sure that if I repeated the above, I would be accused of being a denier or a cynic.
I can remember it, but their memory seems to be affected by some subliminal programming.
Obesity is a major health concern. In Ireland, 61% of adults and 22% of 5-12 year olds are overweight or obese. Pre-diabetes, diabetes and the metabolic syndrome were at least twice as common in the Traveller population when compared to data available for the background Irish population
They are definitely less fit. Army fitness requirements are lower and training longer because fitness is lower.
The more and worse you eat, the bigger you get. So?
A case of "the glass half-empty". We - or more accurately Tesco, Sainsbury, Morrison, etc. - have abolished starvation.
Are comparisons with previous years the norm? I hear more with reference to BMI, however flawed it is. It is not uncommon to see overweight and obese children wobbling around in the seaside resort where I live. Almost inevitably they have ice creams or chips to keep them happy.
Out of a class of 31 in my old school in 1968 there were two that were fat !
If u check the photos the fat kids weren’t very fat I bet
My late father, a D-Day veteran often observed that we were constantly being told there was terrible poverty in the UK but he saw lots of fat people wondering about.
He couldn’t reconcile the two positions.
When we were poor between the war he would say we were poor and skinny as we couldn’t afford food. How can it be we are poor now yet people are fat.
You can’t argue with his reasoning bless him.
We have more of a problem with kids being dumbed down by a crap education system/
i am surprised they are not all round the bend the shite we allow to be pushed on and at them.
I forgot to mention that in the sixties Alan’s snack bar did not exist in the UK!
or the kfc stabbers.
Do you have access to any data regarding Diabetes, Obesity and any other current health problems related to weight and diet ? Do you believe there is any connection between the diet of children in the 50s and 60s and the health outcomes compared to the diets now ?
You cannot deny that there is an obesity issue with children.
Me and my husband have 3 children, our son is 5 and our two daughters are 3. When we take them to the local Leisure Centre for their swim lessons, it never fails to escape my notice, just how many children under the age of 10 years old have huge pot bellies, back fat and in the case of one boy huge man(boy) breasts and cheeks so red he looks as though his blood pressure is higher than mine and mine has remained higher than average since 2020 as a result of Pre-eclampsia during pregnancy.
There is most definitely a larger quantity of fat children now, than there was in the 1980s, when I myself was at primary school. There was one fat girl in my entire school year.
These days, to avoid hurting anyone's fee fees, the media are trying to normalise obesity across the board, it is a very unhealthy approach. But that, along with the ever further reach of the nanny state, is giving piss poor parenting all of the excuses with none of the accountability.
The thumbnail reminded me of the halcyon days of my childhood where every class had a fat kid, known as the fat kid, fatty, fatso and in some cases Bunter, these labels were never seen as fatist or any other woke nonsense, It was part of being a kid. I was often referred to as lanky or lamp post, the ugly kid was often known as Plug. Halcyon days indeed. However, the amount of lardy, chubby and generally fat kids has definitely increased, I often think to myself; "I don't think these kids have ever played any sport or spent the summer holidays outside, riding their bikes"!
That looks like Boris at the head of the queue. He develped his Flashman personality when he was at school.
Although not showing children I watched Woodstock and was amazed how slim and healthy just about everyone was. As a youth we used to think the singer from canned heat was massive but he was only 18 stone
Only? That's 10 stone more than me, a whole person or more!
18 stone is pretty massive. 😊
Watch the film he was the biggest in half a million 😮
Don't forget Mama Cass Eliot.
Absolute twaddle.
Growing up in the 70's in a Scottish city it was extremely rare to see a fat person.
After many years abroad I was genuinely shocked upon my return, I didn't see 'fat' people but absolutely obese people many unable to walk without the aid of a stick, the kind of size that I had only ever associated with the U.S.
There was just one fat kid that was bullied in my primary school, he wouldn't even be considered that fat by todays standards.
As someone whose job it was to visit at least two different schools per week over a period of 2 years I was appalled to see 2 or 3 obese children in each class room.
The correlation between obesity and the pre-packaged, processed foods that we simply did not have in the 70's is absolutely undeniable.
I knew no obese kids in the 50s and 60s.
Look at young women, all chunky, weren't that way when i was teen in the 70's. Look at the top of the pops audience. Fatties at school got picked on as rare, as did the spectacle wearer.
Young women and actresses on tv in 70's, many had next to no boobs, went around bra less. Now young women bursting out, somethings going on.
I went to school in the 1960s, there was not one fat child at school with me out of 300, I still have my school photos.. Sometimes you are just wrong.
meaningless without height. in 1967, Mr Average was 5ft 7.5in tall. Now the average is 5'10.
I think Simon is well off the mark on this one.When I was at school in the 70,s and 80,s the amount of fat kids was 1 or 2 in my whole year group.There are way more cases of obesity than ever
Surely Simon, if you wish to monitor or gauge such things as average weight or height etc you have to look at averages at certain points in time. Now, if the AVERAGE weight of a man was ten stones in 1960, and today it's thirteen stones, then you can safely say men have become heavier. What has caused the increase in weight is open to debate, but that doesn't alter the fact they are significantly heavier.
The fact that young British army recruits (for the South African campaign in the late eighteen hundreds) were so malnourished and sickly was a cause for national concern and shame!!!!!
Kids are definitely fatter now. We had 1 maybe 2 fats kids in my school and unfortunately they were mocked and bullied. This was 1979/80. My mum still lives in the same house opposite the same school that I grew up in and went to. I watch kids come down the same path I walked in 1980 and I’d say at least 1 in 10 are fat and many fatter than any in school of my time.
There were no McDonald’s, Burger King, or doughnut shops and schools didn’t sell Coke. It’s way too easy to have a massive calorie intake now. Not necessarily kids fault. But kids are fatter. Fact.
On this occasion you are talking rubbish.
I agree with Simon
State why.
I think there was one chubby boy in the whole of my primary school in the 70s/early 80s. I can’t remember any fatties at my grammar school. Today I’d say at least half of our young people are overweight, and a significant number have eating disorders of one kind or another. Fast food, nutrient-poor food, the internet and social media, the loss of school playing fields, worries about letting kids play outside (paedophiles, crime, migrants, etc) and perhaps most significantly family breakdown and single parenting all have a role to play in this decline.
When I was a child in the sixties the only plump kids were farmers the rest of us were skinny waifs we lived on baked beans and chips - one bottle of squash a fortnight and I didn’t know what a yogurt was till I left school
There are a pair of excellent examples I can think of that demonstrate a correlation between obesity & an obssession with extended computer screen use & unhealthy social media addiction
And you do think of them. A lot.
@@david1964. Chubby troll alert...
A point well made - the proof is in the puddings.
@@user-bm7md9qm6h I'm 6'3" and I weigh 10 stone. (Don't sneeze.)
@@simondjangothe4349 Are you aware that George Hetty weighs 17 stone?
The correct weight should match up with the person's body mass index (height & waist) and usually shouldn't be over 180-200lb for either adult male or female. Of course, people over 6'6" in height can be allowed exceptions. But if we're talking about healthy weight, that's what to go off of. The modern 'fat acceptance movement' is one example of lunacy that today permeates the minds of so many people: "Healthy at any size" delusional people.
I rarely disagree with you Simon but in this regard I do
Ileft scholl at 15 , in 1963 , I cannot remember ever seeing any Fat Children .
4:06 I don't recall is being always the case. When I was at school there was maybe 1 fat kid in the year. Cetainly not 1 per class. I don't recall there being any malnourished ones either.
Our class fat kids parents had the chip shop, so I knew how she got fat, 2 other fatties in the school were a brother and sister who's parents had a newspaper shop, so they stuffed themselves on the chocolate, sweets, pop and crisps
I taught from 1969 until 2009, 40 years. There were were fat children in 1969 but not on the scale as were to be found in the 21st Century. The number of children I observed unable to stand from sitting on the floor in assembly or PE in 2009 was far far greater than in the 60's. To stand they have roll on their sides then to their front , then on to their knees
When I was in school in the eighties and nineties, there was one fat person of each sex per year-group, and no more.
This the equivalent of webbies climate change denial. "1976 was a really hot summer and once the Thames froze over and once someone wrote a book about the ice age coming in the 1970s". Theres your intellectual rigour.
Cant agree with you I'm 69 when i was in junior school we had 2 fat kids, now living in Asia over the last 30yrs the population is definitely getting fatter.
Good points, well made!
I know I weighed less in the past but stopped worrying about ordinary overweight or even obesity being a health risk when I saw people in the States weighing over 40 stone. NOW that is a health risk!
One thing that may be causing kids to be heavier now is I find them all to be much taller . I now think I am living in the land of giants . ( I am 77 )