https://www.oftwominds.com/blogoct23/health-destruction10-23.html
Most meals were prepared at home 60 years ago, fast-food was a rarity, eating out was a treat reserved for special occasions, snacks and sugary beverages were rare treats, cold cereals contained little or no added sugar, high fructose corn syrup was unknown, local grocery stores stocking real food were common and genetically modified crops were not yet in use. Dairies and meat production were still local rather than nationally centralized.
It's not as if people in 1964 were health fanatics. The typical diet was light on whole grains and heavy on processed meats like hot dogs and bologna, and "going to the gym" was only a thing for high school and college athletes. But food was more likely to be locally sourced, and snacks tended to be real food items such as apples or carrot sticks. The memories of the Depression were still sharp and "waste not, want not" was the zeitgeist.
Going out to eat was a luxury generally viewed as a rare splurge, as it was obviously "a waste of money." This value system made a brown-bag lunch for students and adults alike the common choice.
Kids were encouraged (or ordered) to play outside. Many households limited the hours kids could watch TV, because it was obviously "a waste of time."
. . . Making us ill is extremely profitable, and so is alleviating the symptoms of the resulting lifestyle diseases. Just watch a few hours of trash TV and count how many Big Pharma adverts you see, touting some costly medication to alleviate the chronic diseases directly attributable to the highly processed junk food that is #2 in adverts behind the Big Pharma ads.
As the old saying put it: "They get you coming and going." Eat this highly profitable junk food, become chronically ill, and then spend the rest of your life consuming highly profitable meds.
I agree. About 25 years ago I started working in the Automotive industry. There was a young lady in her mid 20's as I was in my early 40's at the time. She ate out on a regular basis and brought bagged sweets on the line for her energy bursts. One night we all decided (the entire line) to order out at this particular fast food chain. I however had never eaten anything from there, much less anywhere else as I was raised just like you have written above. Going out to eat was a luxury growing up and home cooked meals were more nourishing and more affordable. Anyway, this young lady started laughing at me as I asked what was good and what should I order. She said something along the lines of , "Were you born in a barn or are you a backwoods Hillbilly?" Now this young lady was also the daughter of a preacher and she also weighed about 225 pounds or better. Where as I only weighed 125. So I see what you mean about fast food causing one to become overweight. God bless.