Before the 1960s, everyone used to be thin and they consistently ate over 3,000 calories and a hundred grams of sugar per day. Marilyn Monroe was known for having the ideal figure, but the 50s icon had a diet and exercise regimen that was nothing like that of today's beauty influencers. Marilyn was documented to gorge on foods like toast, orange juice, cereal, crackers, pasta, butter, milk, eggs, coca-cola, eggnog, custard, and even nightly hot fudge sundaes.
While her acting career certainly kept her on her feet, even 10 minutes of working out was considered a lot for her. Marilyn was not an outlier either, as these habits were standard for people during this era who, despite being exceptionally thin by today's standards, were not on low-fat or plant-based diets, they weren't counting calories, and they didn't even do low-carb or high-protein. We combed through the depths of lost historical records to present the findings to you. You'll discover how much people really ate, the foods that created generations of slim people.
Why exercise had little to do with it, and what key factor changed that more than quadrupled the obesity rate in just 70 years. In the 1960s and prior, the obesity rate was consistently under 10%. It really started increasing in the 70s and 80s and has only gotten worse since, now sitting at about 40%. In the late 1940s, a study was conducted on US Army soldiers to measure exactly how much they were eating. And despite only weighing 157 pounds on average, the men gorged on nearly 6- thousand calories per day.
While the troops of course were more active than the average Joe, they weren't working out like maniacs to earn those calories either. The researchers stated that, judging by interrogation and observation, the average man was moderately active and spent about three hours daily in the open. The soldiers'diets consisted of milk, meat, bread, potatoes, fruit, vegetables, eggs, and even lots of white sugar.
That's right, the soldiers were putting away anywhere from three quarters of a cup to half a pound of refined sugar daily. The soldiers also ate more food when it got colder, likely to increase their rate of resting metabolism and heat production adaptively. Yes, eating more to increase metabolism is not just a pipe dream, but something everyone seemed to do without worry in this era.
We'll get to just how they were able to do it later in the video. Working out tirelessly for hours on end was not how people were able to stay lean while eating more. Another example is in 1945. where U.S. soldiers were recorded as having eaten an average of 3,700 calories a day, including over 400 grams of carbohydrate and 180 grams of fat daily.
The researchers documenting this stated, there was no significant variation of caloric intake with degree of activity of troops. Around the turn of the 20th century, people from Denmark were consistently recorded consuming over 3,000 calories daily. The record keepers noted that, The most prosperous of the families again reached the same level as the agricultural worker in their consumption of calories. The more well-to-do classes, mostly doctors, obtained a fair supply of energy, particularly when their restricted amount of muscular work is taken into account. In other words, the rich ate a lot, didn't move much relative to the laborers and farmers, but were still exceptionally thin, as the researchers here stated that A man of normal weight was just 154 pounds.
The U.S.'s 1939 Book of Agriculture gives us a glimpse into the diets of the time. On average, people consumed around 3,500 calories daily, with the wealthiest consuming well in excess of 4,000 calories daily. Again, weighing around 154 pounds with just moderate activity levels. The more people made, the more they spent on food, and the more they ate.
They also ate a lot of sugar. Throughout the 20s and 30s, the US bought anywhere from 106 to 118 pounds of sugar per person per year, equivalent to right around 140 grams or three quarters of a cup of sugar daily. Even more incredible is that this is literally just from refined white sugar. This doesn't even count the sugar from milk, fruits, and vegetables, which constituted some of the largest components of the diet. Bread and potatoes were also consumed in massive quantities, making this a high carb, high high-sugar diet.
They also ate so much saturated fat that the fat intake was recorded as either butter or fats other than butter. They also consumed plenty of meat, including organs and eggs, while so-called plant proteins like beans, peas, and nuts were essentially negligible. In 1943, the average diets of the US, Canada, and the United Kingdom included tons of white sugar at over 100 grams or half a cup per day and plenty of milk, meat, fruits, vegetables, potatoes, and bread.
This all amounted to supplies north of 3,000 calories, including around 400 grams of carbohydrate and 130 grams of fat per day. Yet there's absolutely no inclination that these people were even close to being as fat as we are today. The average man and woman were listed at 154 and 123 pounds respectively. They also didn't care about protein nearly as much as the fat loss influencers of today, maintaining their lean physiques with no more than 100 grams of protein per day.
Another analysis from 1945 further confirms these trends. showing that the diets of the US, Canada, and UK were very similar to that of 1943. However, when the researchers looked at the average diet in Brussels, Belgium, they stated that it was deficient in calorific value, calcium, riboflavin, animal protein, and fats. Can you imagine a statement today claiming a Western society was deficient in calories, animal protein, and fat?
While today's dietary guidelines impose limits on calories, sugar, and saturated fats, telling us to swap animal protein for plant protein, the concerns of the pre-obesity era were the complete opposite. Calories were treated like any other nutrient. They were concerned about people getting enough, whereas today the guidelines have calorie limits.
Recommended intake was at least 3,000 for an average man and 2,500 for an average woman, who weighed 154 and 123 pounds respectively. At least 3,800 calories was considered a good target for young men 16 to 20 years old. And tiny teenage girls were told to eat an insane 2,800 calories.
They also provided meal plans, suggesting a diet of milk at every meal, meat, bread, potatoes, sugar, fruits, and vegetables. Getting your recommended amount of sugar and calories for the day apparently didn't make anyone fat. One of the most famous studies in the history of nutrition was the Minnesota Starvation Experiment, which took place in the late 1940s.
In order to starve the man, they first needed to understand how much they were eating to begin with. This involved feeding the men and tracking what they ate to maintain their weight. These men maintained an average weight of around 150 pounds, yet ate well over 3,000 calories daily.
A typical dinner on this maintenance diet was roast beef with gravy, whipped potatoes, tomato salad, and ice cream for dessert. I know more than a few people that would say they would get fat just thinking about that type of daily dinner. In 1942 and 1948, Again, we see that the wealthiest people would eat the most despite having non-labor occupations.
Again, we see people were eating the classic 30s and 40s diet. In 1942, the average amount of calories per person purchased was around 3,500 and that number jumped up to around 3,800 calories in 1948. Fruit, vegetables, dairy, meat, bread, potatoes, and 1-2 pounds of sugars and sweets per week. Yet despite all of this, You can't find a fat person in this old footage if you tried.
This trend continued into the 1950s where English factory workers were on average 5'7 and 147 pounds and ate 3,500 calories per day. This included non-active workers like the glorious roles of filler of toothbrushes, rotary machine operator, and polisher. They also mentioned that a previous pilot study showed the calorie intake did not on the average vary between groups of men doing work of different degrees of activity. Clearly our not-so-distant ancestors ate way more and ate lots of things we think of as unhealthy today, but they did not have health issues we currently struggle with. Ultimately, the explanation here is that our metabolisms have been completely and utterly decimated over the past 100 years.
There's no biological reason why the body can't simply increase the conversion of extra food into energy, whether that's through functions like heat, detoxification, digestion, regeneration, or simply having more subjective mental and physical energy. However, tons of factors in the modern environment can inhibit this process, slow our metabolism, and cause us to store the energy we eat as fat while leaving us feeling tired and run down. People from this era ate mostly animal fat, butter, and cream.
Whereas today we eat mostly vegetable oil, which has anti-metabolic and thus fattening effects. We don't eat the whole animal anymore, including all of the tendons, organs, and even the glands that produced hormones. Neglecting a unique set of compounds with beneficial effects.
Then there's pollutants like BPA, heavy metals, PFAs, parabens, and so many more that get stored in fat to protect the rest of the organs from their toxicity. Spending less time outside, in communities, and in nature has... decimated the microbial environments in our bodies, making us more susceptible to bacterial overgrowths in the gut that end up fattening us up.
Our food has become a smorgasbord of emulsifiers, added vitamins, gums, flavorings, and so much more that inflame our digestion and leave us ripe for fat gain. Since the birth of big pharma in the 1940s, we've been exposed to increasingly higher loads of drugs that poison our energy metabolism, and even if we aren't prescribed them. Even the light we get exposed to, enriched in blue light and lacking the rest of the natural frequencies, plays a role in putting on weight. With metabolism disrupting factors everywhere you look, it can be difficult to navigate how to best improve your health, and you could benefit from some personalized help.
That's why we created PRISM, our ultra-premium health consulting platform. We've assembled a team of metabolic specialists to come together and tailor a health strategy specifically for you. Click the top right of your screen or the link in the description for a complimentary consultation where we'll dive deep into your issues and explore personalized solutions.
All in all, the pre-obesity 1930s, 40s, and 50s diet was remarkably consistent. Something like 80-100 grams of protein, 400 grams of carbs, and 100-140 grams of fat. This applied to grown men regardless of activity levels and was scaled similarly for women too. Yet, These men weighed around 150 pounds and women around 120 pounds. A diet comprised of meat, eggs, milk, potatoes, breads, fruits and vegetables, fat from cream and butter, and yes, plenty of sweets too, led to obesity rates a fraction of what we see today.
The reality is, you should be able to eat this type of diet without suffering from weight gain or other health issues. As always, don't let them fool you, subscribe to our channel.