1950s Diet Was Healthier

With each decade, British women are becoming wider. The latest figures highlight that our waists, busts and even feet have expanded since the 1950s.
In 1951, your average British woman had a more hourglass figure, the sex siren shape embodied by film stars like Marilyn Monroe, Bridget Bardot, Grace Kelly and Jayne Mansfield.
Women were curvier and had fuller breasts and hips, with a more nipped-in waist. The average woman did not usually weigh more than 9st 10lb, had a size 12 dress size, a 30B bra size and a tiny size-three shoe size.
60 years on, our bodies have inflated in the wrong places. The UK National Sizing Survey illustrates that our once hourglass silhouette has enlarged into a barrel or apple shape. We now have chunkier waists with little shape, rounder bellies and fatter backs.
The data also highlights that we are presently at least half a stone heavier, on average a size dress size 16 and a 36C/D bra size. Our feet have stretched to a size 6.
In the 1950s people ate more carbohydrates in their diet .
We can easily blame our expanding waistlines on the fact that there is such a variety and sheer quantity of food on offer nowadays. Ironically, nutritionists estimate that presently we eat roughly the same number of calories as women did during the 50s. However, the foods we get them from are considerably different.
The healthier 1950s diet comprised of approximately 55% carbs, mainly from vegetables, cereals and bread, all foods which could be digested slowly and blood sugar levels could be kept stable. Presently, carbohydrates constitute only 45% of our diet, while a phenomenal 40% of our diet today is fat, in contrast to only 32% in the 50s. We also eat twice as much sugar as women did in the 1950s..