3 ms·

People ate fast food and drove everywhere in 80s/90s what changed that it's worse now?

lancesells 4y ago
Fast food portions being larger, poorer eating habits passed on from generation to generation, the internet, the smartphone, presumably more stress and anxiety.
- pc86 4y ago
  Are fast food portions actually larger? I remember getting super sized combos when I was a kid (maybe even in HS, I forget when they got rid of them) but they're gone now, and on the rare occasion I get fast food the portions seem reasonable.
  - mathewsanders 4y ago
    I moved from New Zealand to the United States and one of my early culture shocks was the large portion sizes. I’d order food to go and it would easily be two meals. I wondered if it was some sort of expectation that when you ordered food at a restaurant that there was always excess you could take home in a ‘doggy bag’ which seems to be fairly common in the US but not typical in my experience in NZ or Australia. I’ve definitely become accustomed to it and I can now eat that full American sized serving :( Funnily enough, most of the time the cheeseburgers are smaller here in the US than NZ!
  - Hnrobert42 4y ago
    Drink sizes are WAY bigger. I remember small fries used to come in a little white paper sleeve. In the US, I haven’t seen those in years. That said, this 2011 study from Cambridge University says portion sizes have not grown significantly. https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/proceedings-of-the-nutrition-society/article/increasing-fast-food-portion-sizes-myth-or-reality/690383DAC7D690C260C65659A8B9974A https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/proceedings-of-the-n...
    - pc86 4y ago
      I received one of those paper sleeves the last time I went through a drive through maybe 4 or 5 weeks ago, but that's not to say the sleeve itself didn't get larger.
      - Hnrobert42 4y ago
        Paper or paperboard? Was it white or red?
    - bombcar 4y ago
      The "cost to supersize" seems to me (but I have no proof, maybe I have more money now) to have gone down relative to the meal cost, so it's more and more of a "no brainer" upgrade. Maybe if they were required to price it backwards, where the meal costs $x and you can get a ten percent discount if you order small, that would "trick" people into eating less.
  - yamtaddle 4y ago
    > Are fast food portions actually larger? Oh my god, yes. "Free refills" also didn't become standard until some time in the 90s. In the 80s, a refill cost money and often the cups were smaller to begin with. You'd buy a pitcher (just like with beer) if you wanted a lot at a bit of a discount. You can see this on an ad on a pizza hut in the skater movie Gleaming the Cube, near the end of the film. Now the idea of buying a pitcher of soda makes no sense because everywhere has free refills, but almost none did in the 80s. In the early 90s some places did but it was often just during certain hours (lunch, say) as a draw. It spread from there until it became normal, fast-food joints started letting you fill (and re-fill) your own cup, et c.
galangalalgol 4y ago
The paper talks about epigenetics and these chemicals, but isn't it possible the diet and lack of physical activity affected future generations as well? If not via epigenetics, perhaps via gut flora being passed down and spread? They talk about lab animals with controlled diets and activity becoming fatter on average over the decades, and point to chemicals as the only possible culprit. I find that quite possible or even probable, but isn't it also possible the gut flora is evolving to be more efficient at processing modern food?

Fast food portions being larger, poorer eating habits passed on from generation to generation, the internet, the smartphone, presumably more stress and anxiety.

pc86 4y ago
Are fast food portions actually larger? I remember getting super sized combos when I was a kid (maybe even in HS, I forget when they got rid of them) but they're gone now, and on the rare occasion I get fast food the portions seem reasonable.
- mathewsanders 4y ago
  I moved from New Zealand to the United States and one of my early culture shocks was the large portion sizes. I’d order food to go and it would easily be two meals. I wondered if it was some sort of expectation that when you ordered food at a restaurant that there was always excess you could take home in a ‘doggy bag’ which seems to be fairly common in the US but not typical in my experience in NZ or Australia. I’ve definitely become accustomed to it and I can now eat that full American sized serving :( Funnily enough, most of the time the cheeseburgers are smaller here in the US than NZ!
- Hnrobert42 4y ago
  Drink sizes are WAY bigger. I remember small fries used to come in a little white paper sleeve. In the US, I haven’t seen those in years. That said, this 2011 study from Cambridge University says portion sizes have not grown significantly. https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/proceedings-of-the-nutrition-society/article/increasing-fast-food-portion-sizes-myth-or-reality/690383DAC7D690C260C65659A8B9974A https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/proceedings-of-the-n...
  - pc86 4y ago
    I received one of those paper sleeves the last time I went through a drive through maybe 4 or 5 weeks ago, but that's not to say the sleeve itself didn't get larger.
    - Hnrobert42 4y ago
      Paper or paperboard? Was it white or red?
  - bombcar 4y ago
    The "cost to supersize" seems to me (but I have no proof, maybe I have more money now) to have gone down relative to the meal cost, so it's more and more of a "no brainer" upgrade. Maybe if they were required to price it backwards, where the meal costs $x and you can get a ten percent discount if you order small, that would "trick" people into eating less.
- yamtaddle 4y ago
  > Are fast food portions actually larger? Oh my god, yes. "Free refills" also didn't become standard until some time in the 90s. In the 80s, a refill cost money and often the cups were smaller to begin with. You'd buy a pitcher (just like with beer) if you wanted a lot at a bit of a discount. You can see this on an ad on a pizza hut in the skater movie Gleaming the Cube, near the end of the film. Now the idea of buying a pitcher of soda makes no sense because everywhere has free refills, but almost none did in the 80s. In the early 90s some places did but it was often just during certain hours (lunch, say) as a draw. It spread from there until it became normal, fast-food joints started letting you fill (and re-fill) your own cup, et c.

galangalalgol 4y ago

The paper talks about epigenetics and these chemicals, but isn't it possible the diet and lack of physical activity affected future generations as well? If not via epigenetics, perhaps via gut flora being passed down and spread? They talk about lab animals with controlled diets and activity becoming fatter on average over the decades, and point to chemicals as the only possible culprit. I find that quite possible or even probable, but isn't it also possible the gut flora is evolving to be more efficient at processing modern food?