Portion sizes when you were young

mumps

I eat smaller portions now. As a child my mother served what we called "Irish" meals, big pile of spuds and plenty of meat. I needed the calories as I was very active. My body seems to know what I need as I eat smaller portions now as that is what I can manage. If I have fish and chips I have a childs portions, same with McDs where I have a happy meal and save the toy for one of the GC.

dandy-candy

Having one child cut at the half line and the other pick first is genius GQ!

thorsoak

"I cut and you choose" was the mantra running through our family in the 1950s. And I still remember going to the butchers for my mother and buying a pound and a quarter of chuck steak for a meal which would feed six of us!

Cheapskate

My sisters and I were born late 60s/early 70s, and there was rarely much money around. We had smaller portions compared with today, but ate very well - mum was more a fan of simple peasant or hippy food (by other folks' tastes) - and we had lots of vegetarian food based heavily around eggs, cheese and pulses. Sometimes we had a roast chicken, which lasted a few days more in various forms, more likely mince or sausages turned into all manner of imaginative dishes. I particularly remember mum making sausage pie, skinning the bangers, mixing with onions and herbs and putting under pastry, or rissoles - skinned sausages made into small balls and fried, served with veg, yummy! Due to both my parents life experiences, we had a lot of what's now called ethnic food, curry, chilli, etc., before it was trendy for most of the population (think we were the only non-Asians we knew who ate home made curry!).

We had sweets after church, often 2 plain Bounties between we 3 girls and mum, so one bar each. We girls could make that bar last all afternoon! Mum also made us cut and then choose - we learned very young how to divide into thirds!

I have some old plates of mum's, and the side plates are a third smaller than mine, likewise bowls and dinner plates. I often use my side plates for myself, and always for the children and even then the plate isn't full. Tonight I made chicken noodle soup from the roast we had yesterday. Roast served 6, the soup did another 4, bits went into DS' lunch, and some scraggy bits for the cat.

This is making me feel hungry and thrifty at the same time!

A xo

monnagran

I was born before the war so portion sizes were not a problem! Fortunately we grew all our own fruit and vegetables and kept hens so we were a lot better off that some.
I was the faddiest eater I have ever known and had a real food phobia. I hated meat but adored cheese (2oz a week didn't go far) and salad. None of this affected my weight in the slightest. I was always fat in spite of the lack of treats and the small portions in the forties and fifties, and in spite of all the exercise we got - playing out of doors, skipping, playing ball games and walking everywhere. My father didn't get his first car until he was in his forties and I had already left home.

These days my dinner fits on to a side plate, I limit myself to 1 slice of (HM) bread a day, have my main meal at lunch time and just a couple of pieces of fruit for tea. I gave up my car and walk much more than I did,have a large house and run down garden to lick into shape, I've tried every slimming club under the sun and am still a good 4 stones over weight.
Moan, moan, moan, SPIT!

x

armyknife

GreyQueen wrote: »

...

I'm pretty astonished at the sugary, salty garbage I see people giving kids, and the general lack of physical activity in both parents and children. Can't see it ending happily in the long term, healthwise, never mind figure-wise.

And you never ever saw the obesity that you see now. There might be one podgy child in a class of 35-40, but they'd be counted positively sylph-like by the standards of today. Look at old photos if you like, it's not just memory playing tricks.

GQ, get hold of a dvd of the 'The Wall', on it is a small documentary about the making of the film and the video for the single 'Another Brick ..' in which are shots of the normal London school kids who took part in it, just larking about in a school play ground, to the modern eye they almost all look rake thin, made me thing maybe I'd got the aspect ratio wrong on the tv, perhaps setting it to 4:3 for a 16:9 film.



I might add it's also worth view because it's a nice snapshot of life before thatcher, guessing it was film late 78/early79.

msgnomey

I certainly remember the 10p sweet mix on a Friday IF you'd been good at school all week
no takeaways until I was at least 10 or so

I work in a school and am sometimes amazed at the amount of food some of the children bring from home for their 'snack' bearing in mind they have only been at school for 2 hrs by snack time! Also they get a good cooked meal each day too and free fruit in the classroom!!

kiss_me_now9

culpepper wrote: »

I think plates are bigger these days. We have one or two from the early 80s and they are still dinner plates but the ones for sale now are bigger. It tricks your eyes into seeing a less full meal .

I disagree. My parents dinner set is from their wedding in the mid 80s and it's bigger than the set that I bought last year from Morrisons and the set I bought back in 2008 from Woolworths. I feel like that purely depends on what plates you own!

I think a lot of it is that we've moved as a society out of restriction from rationing and into an age where we can have anything we want. We don't just see this excess in food, but in benefits, the NHS and even education. People feel like they're 'owed' whatever they want and don't have to go without any more. We've created a society where we can get whatever we want whenever we want without 'real' consequence (cos why does it matter that you don't have a job when you can pop to cash converters and get that Xbox with your JSA payments?) and consequently people take advantage.

armyknife

That's a bit of a caricature and an insult to people who find themselves having to live on unemployment benefit, like for instance the person I know who's being evicted and made homeless due to benefit changes.

maman

kiss_me_now9 wrote: »

I think a lot of it is that we've moved as a society out of restriction from rationing and into an age where we can have anything we want. We don't just see this excess in food, but in benefits, the NHS and even education. People feel like they're 'owed' whatever they want and don't have to go without any more. We've created a society where we can get whatever we want whenever we want without 'real' consequence (cos why does it matter that you don't have a job when you can pop to cash converters and get that Xbox with your JSA payments?) and consequently people take advantage.

Ouch! Where did that come from??:(