“Happy Days” are here again?
The viral tradwife movement, which encourages women to be homemakers and men to be breadwinners, has some people waxing nostalgic for the 1950s.
In a recent nationwide survey on US values, nearly half of Americans indicated that life was actually better in the ’50s. Republicans were more likely than Democrats and independents to say that our culture has changed for the worse.
In some ways, public health is notably better than 70 years ago. People are living longer, healthier lives thanks to preventive care, earlier and more accurate diagnoses through improved technology, new drugs, medical devices and procedures and enhanced treatment options.
There’s also a deeper understanding of the need to limit alcohol, sugar and cigarettes and get adequate sleep, exercise and nutrition.
“There is a wider variety of fruits and vegetables in the supermarket. There’s more focus on using less pesticides [on food],” Josephine Connolly-Schoonen, an associate clinical professor of family medicine and executive director of the nutrition division at Stony Brook Medicine, told The Post.
“So I would say that’s a positive,” she continued, “and there’s a bit of a move recently towards grass-fed and [pasture-based] ways of raising animals.”
Despite this progress, the US is experiencing more obesity and diabetes than ever before.
Connolly-Schoonen, who authored “Losing Weight Permanently with the Bull’s-Eye Food Guide,” shared five health lessons that we can learn from the ’50s and apply to our daily lives.
Cook more at home
Leave it to Beaver to embody the ’50s trend of the happy nuclear family.
Families grew food in their backyard gardens and kids watched their parents prepare meals before sitting down together at the dinner table. Restaurant food was reserved for special occasions.
Fast forward to 2024. Americans on average dined out nearly five times a month and ordered takeout three times a month.
“When we eat out, we really don’t know the quality of the food ingredients being used by the restaurant,” Connolly-Schoonen said. “They’ll tend to use the cheaper ingredients … the cheaper seed oils, cheaper thickeners for products, so eating out does tend to reduce the nutritional quality of foods people consume.”
Consume fewer ultra-processed foods
Ultra-processed foods (UPFs) — like pretzels, pizzas, soda and pastries — comprise about 60% of the US diet.
Connolly-Schoonen traces the popularity of UPFs to the 1970s, when high fructose corn syrup became readily available because of exorbitant sugar prices and government farm subsidies.
“Food manufacturers came up with a large variety of synthetic ingredients that they can make very cheaply,” Connolly-Schoonen explained, “and then developed a huge array of these ultra-processed foods over the 1980s and 1990s, so that has really changed the quality of the food supply.”
Though plentiful, a steady diet of UPFs is known to increase the risk of heart disease, cancer, diabetes and even early death.
Eat smaller portions
It’s not your imagination — portion sizes have gotten beefier.
Hamburgers are roughly three times the size they were in the ’50s (from 3.9 ounces to 12 ounces on average), and the standard size of French fries has more than doubled (from 2.4 ounces to 6.7 ounces).
Coca-Cola was only available in 6.5-ounce glass bottles until 1955. Now, Coke is most commonly sold in 12-ounce aluminum cans and 20-ounce plastic bottles.
And in 1987, McDonald’s introduced the option to “supersize” its meals.
Connolly-Schoonen doesn’t expect portions to shrink anytime soon, especially amid economic inflation.
“I still see people wanting to go out and feel like they’re getting a value,” she said. “People have to see the value in their health and in whole, [minimally]-processed foods, as opposed to the short-term financial gain of the cheap, larger portions.”
Have less screen time
“Kids used to just go outside and play and just ride their bikes,” Connolly-Schoonen said. “They were more active.”
Electronic devices have significantly changed play habits and disturbed sleep patterns.
Blue light from smartphones can trick the body into thinking it’s daytime, disrupting the body’s natural sleep cycle. Sleep deprivation can lead to high cortisol levels, which can contribute to weight gain and obesity.
Children also tend to dine while watching TV or using their devices, Connolly-Schoonen said, so they are often too distracted to observe and learn from their parents’ healthy eating habits.
Move more at work
File this away — nearly half of US private sector jobs required moderate physical activity in 1960 compared to less than 20% of jobs nowadays.
The shift from manual labor to social and analytical skills means less opportunity for physical activity.
“In traditional desk jobs, prior to 2020 with the COVID pandemic, you at least got up to go to meetings. Meetings were in different buildings, different floors of a building, you had to at least take some steps,” Connolly-Schoonen said. “Now you find most meetings are virtual, so literally, people can be at their desk and not get up at all for the vast majority of the day.”
