40 Years...How Our Food World Has Changed

I recently read an article in my Nutrition Action Newsletter and they were discussing how the food world looked very different 40 years ago back in 1971 from what it is today.

Some of the highlights I thought were quite interesting and felt it was appropriate to share a walk down memory lane to see just how much things have changed!

Let's start by foods like Tofu, whole wheat bread, and brown rice were hard to come by. Salads were merely iceberg lettuce, milk was whole, and coffee...well let's just say Starbucks were not on every street corner it was either black or with cream and sugar. People cooked more, snacked less and ate out less. As a whole we ate less and weighed less.

For starters back in the early 70s Americans only spent a 1/3 of their food dollars eating out. Today we spend 1/2 our food money on eating out. Just think if we would cut back on our eating out what it would do for our bank account as well as our waistline. It's true foods that are found in most restaurants typically have higher calories, fat and sodium along with enormous portions sizes. It's no wonder there is a rise in obesity in our country.

Supermarkets have exploded! Back in 1971 the typical supermarket carried around 8,000 items. In 2009 it was more than 48,000!!! Now you can pick up everything from pre-pared meals, prescriptions, salad bars, baked goods and even do your banking all in one store. Walmart figured it out back in the 80's with it's invention of the Supercenter which makes them the larges grocer. It's not just too convenient for us to shop multiple times per week to get the items we want, making it that much easier to buy more and consume more than we need. Imagine that!

Yes it's true we are eating more and more calories every year. In 1970 there were 1,675 pounds of food available for ever person in the US to eat. In 2003 it was up to 1,950 pounds. This means there is an extra 500 calories per day is being produced for every man, woman and child. With the increase in available of food it's no wonder we want more, eat more and why our weight has steadily risen along with the increase in food available.

Well the good news is there's one thing that still has not changed and that is the Big Mac. Oh yes in 1967 McDonald's introduced us to this big boy at a whopping 540 calories and it is still around today. I guess for McDonald's some things never change. Except back in the 70's eating one big mac was a treat. Today many consume this whopping high calorie and high saturated fat treat daily and sometimes more than one per sitting. Is it really McDonald's fault for our weight gain in eating their foods or ours? The formula is still the same, but we just crave more, eat more and order more...so really we're making ourselves sick and fat at the same time.

These are just a few examples from the article I read, but what I took away from walking down food memory lane was that we have the ability to eat whatever and whenever we want. Food is much more abundant, people are cooking less at home and eating more out. We are consuming more than we need, food manufacturers are producing more than we need and we continue to abuse and make poor choices year after year. So the question is does it really take all this food to leave us feeling satisfied? I sure know back in the 70's people were not starving and were much leaner than they are today, so why can't we go back in time and change our eating habits today for a better tomorrow?