Web Page 1088
17^th October 2012

Top Picture : Model Housewife?

Second Picture: Typical 1950’s kitchen

How women stayed slim in the 1950’s!

I came across this article the other day and thought it was worth sharing!

Our mothers may not have worked out in the gym regularly, or competed with men in the office or even followed the Atkins Diet. But 50 years ago they still managed to burn up many more calories than their counterparts do today.

Research suggests that normal housework and day to day general exercise that stay-at-home housewives did in 1953 were more far successful at shedding the pounds than most of today’s diets and exercise programmes.

Our mothers and grandmothers burnt well in excess of 1,000 calories a day through their normal domesticated lifestyle, according to a study by the magazine Prima. Ladies today get through only 556 calories, even though seven out of ten think they are far healthier than the post-war generation. Modern women also consume a lot more calories, 2,178 a day now as opposed to 1,818 then. This could be down to eating more convenience and junk food as the women in 1953 were far more likely to cook meals from scratch with a mixture of ingredients.

Not everything in 'the old days' appears to have been healthier. 1950’s woman would often eat twice as many eggs and used almost twice as much cooking fat as women today. They also ate far more sugar and less chicken. Most meals were served with vegetables, although it was more likely to be swede, peas, turnips and sprouts rather than the aubergines, mange- tout or rocket.

Washing machines and dishwashers have also played their part in reducing the amount of calories burned. In 1953 a woman would spend three hours a day doing the housework, an hour walking to and from the shops in the local town or village centre, an hour on the shopping itself and another hour making dinner.

Many also had lunch to prepare, too, as many husbands and children came home to eat in the middle of the day. More calories would have been burned, of course, walking the children to and from school, since the family car was still a rarity. Compare that with today when women now drive rather than walk, have freezers which mean fewer shopping trips and use supermarkets which provide everything under one roof, no more hunting the streets for the cheapest items! It is all a far cry from 50 years ago when they would have to traipse between the butcher's, to the baker's, the greengrocer's and other specialist stores.

Women 50 years ago didn't have the benefit of 45 minutes on the treadmill or an evening class in Pilates. In 1953, their idea of relaxation was listening to Housewives' Choice while they washed up the breakfast things or Mrs Dale's Diary when they stopped to enjoy tea and a biscuit for elevenses. The children needed playing with, too, as few families had a TV set to keep them quiet. Evening entertainment involved listening to the radio again, curling up with a book or playing board games. And in a less disposable age there was always plenty of darning and mending to do by the fire.

Looking back it is telling that modern technology has made us two-thirds less active than we were. Exercise and diet are not the only things to radically change over the last half-century. In the 1950s, a new home cost £2,000 but an office worker's average wage was just £ 14 a week. A loaf of bread and a pint of milk was the pre-decimal equivalent of 3p, a pint of beer 9p and 20 cigarettes just 18p.

Now here is a thought the survey also claims that housewives in the 1950s enjoyed much more active sex lives than women of today because their time was not divided between career, childcare and socialising as it is now!

     The diets half a century apart 

Average calories consumed a day 

1953 
Breakfast: One slice white toast and butter and a boiled egg, tea 220 
Lunch: Corned beef sandwich and butter, tea 430 
Snack: Slice Victoria sponge, tea 175 
Dinner: Two pork chops, boiled potatoes, swede, cabbage, tinned pears and custard, tea 993 
TOTAL: 993 

Average calories burned a day  1953 
Three hours housework (150 cals an hour): 450 
One hour walking to shops (280 cals an hour): 280 
1 hour shopping (200 cals an hour): 200 
1 hour cooking (162 cals an hour): 162 
TOTAL: 1,092 

2003 
Breakfast: Two slices wholemeal toast, margarine and honey, mineral water: 378 
Snack: Crisps and chocolate bar fruit drink: 400 
Lunch: Slice toast and full fat cheese spread, chocolate biscuit, mineral water: 250 
Dinner: Home-made chicken curry, rice and naan bread and Snack: chocolate bar: 1150 
TOTAL: 2,178 

Average calories burned a day  2003 
Two hours housework (150 cals an hour): 300 
30 minutes gardening (350 cals an hour): 175 
30 minutes cooking (162 cals an hour): 81 
TOTAL: 556

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Peter

DUSTYKEAT@aol.com

Pj.keat@ntlworld.co.uk

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