During my 5 years at University in the early 60s, I was supported by a cadetship from the NSW Health Department which also meant I worked for the Department during University holidays. Being the first female recipient of such a plan, my brief involved getting experience in anything related to food and health. I helped children with Down’s syndrome, explained diets to people with newly-diagnosed diabetes, catered for patients on special diets, helped prepare staff Christmas parties at a major hospital, visited various food factories (which turned me off margarine for life), spent time with well-known cookery editor Margaret Fulton (we bonded over our hatred of margarine) and, as I liked writing, I worked on press releases for whatever issue the Department thought needed publicity.
When I finished my degree and post-graduate qualifications I started full-time work with the Department. My tasks included checking the health and diet of pregnant women and children, encouraging breastfeeding, writing pamphlets on vitamins, diets for peptic ulcer, keeping bones healthy and avoiding constipation. Any school child who appeared undernourished was weighed and measured. The main factor for early heart attacks in men was smoking. Obesity simply wasn’t an issue.
Foods were simple. Breakfast was porridge, Weetbix, cornflakes, rice bubbles or Allbran, usually followed by bacon, eggs and toast. Occasionally a parent would squeeze some oranges and mix the juice with water as a treat. Adults drank tea; children drank milk. The small bottle of milk provided for extra calcium for children at school ceased in the 1970s.
Lunch was usually sandwiches – often 4 or 5 for active teenagers – with a piece of fruit also in the brown paper lunch bag. Bread was mostly white and only baked Monday to Friday. Wholemeal bread was available but most ‘brown’ breads were ‘coloured’. Spaghetti came in a can – with tomato sauce, similar to baked beans, and was used as a sandwich filling. At school, children drank water from a bubbler.
Dinner included meat, with roast lamb or beef commonly served for Sunday lunch, leaving cold meat for sandwiches the next day. Catholics ate fish on Fridays. Roast chicken or pork were reserved for Christmas or special occasions. Mashed or baked potatoes accompanied most meals, along with peas and carrots. Cauliflower was often doused with white sauce and sprinkled with parsley. Broccoli and zucchini were unknown. Dessert was canned or home-preserved fruit with jelly, custard or ice cream. Hot puddings were popular in winter.
Fried foods used beef dripping, butter, or fat from the breakfast bacon. Cooking oils were largely unknown although migrants from Italy or Greece could buy olive oil from Paddy’s Markets in Sydney. Small bottles of olive oil were available in pharmacies and used on the skin. Tomato sauce, salt and white pepper were usually on every table and most people sprinkled salt on food before they’d even tasted it (a habit, sadly still common today).
Take-away items were an occasional holiday treat. Packaged snacks were uncommon with fruit, toast, bread or, occasionally home-made cake or biscuits eaten between meals. Adults drank tea or instant coffee, usually with a sweet biscuit. Soft drinks came in glass bottles and a family of 5 would share a 750 mL bottle.
People often look at these old eating habits and wonder why so few people were fat. Physical activity played a major part. Until supermarkets sprang up in the late 1960s and 70s, women walked to the local shops each day, were served by the store attendants and then carried their goods home. Approximately 600 to 800 foods were available, many only seasonally.
Children walked or cycled to school – or at least walked to the bus stop or train station. If the distance was several kilometres, they just left home earlier. No one drove children everywhere. At school, they ran around at recess and as soon as they’d finished their lunch. After school, they played outside or rode their bikes until it was dark. Boys chopped wood and did various maintenance jobs, girls helped with housework. Spills and dirt were wiped or swept – scrubbed if necessary. Dishes were washed in the sink. Windows and gates were opened by hand. Total daily activity not only used many more kilojoules of energy, but was at a level where it guided the appetite to match the body’s needs. Today’s largely sedentary lifestyle means that our automatic appetite control system no longer works.
Changes
When supermarkets first appeared, a Marketing Manager from Woolworths told me they’d need to expand the food supply to 2,000 items to break even.
Early additions to the food supply included instant coffee, cartons of flavoured milk and fruit juices, dry spaghetti, cakes and biscuits, soft drinks and literally hundreds of breakfast cereals – many with almost as much added sugar as lollies. There are now thousands of packaged sweet and savoury snack foods and whole aisles of lunchbox snacks. Trolley loads of items now mean shopping is done by car or home delivery and few items are regarded as only suitable for special occasions.
Supermarkets in Australia now stock an average of 30,000 of the 50,000 or items available. It’s not all bad. No nutritionist is going to object to the greater range of vegetables (a variety of lettuces, mushrooms, avocadoes, plus fennel, broccoli and baby spinach), or healthy Greek yoghurts, a range of cheeses, nuts, dried fruits, legumes and wholegrains. Lots of frozen vegetables offer good value and leaner meats are available.
On the other hand, overwhelmingly many thousands of foods in our supermarkets are ultra-processed foods. Most of these items are unhealthy and there’s no denying that our current foods and eating habits are related to current health problems.
In the 1970s, some of us working in public health formed a group called MOP-UP – the Movement Opposed to the Promotion of Unhealthy Products. We were involved in anti-smoking campaigns, campaigned for laws to make it easier for women to breastfeed their babies, argued for labels to carry a Nutrition Information Panel and an ingredient list in descending order of content. For the latter, I remember a food company executive calling out “you’ll get that over my dead body, Stanton”.
MOP-UP ended but lobbying did not. After years of effort, the Federal Health Department produced Dietary Guidelines in 1981, including advice to promote breastfeeding – a world first. But with every revision, we’ve had to argue against food companies to retain this important guideline.
I was involved in the last revision of the adult and infants’ guidelines and we argued hard to include more information on sustainable food choices and the need to use the term ‘unhealthy foods’. Sustainable choices eventually got a small mention – although not enough detail, and the food industry succeeded in forbidding the word ‘unhealthy’, preferring ‘discretionary’ choices (which few people understand).
Many more changes are needed. As recommended in a formal review in 2011, we should list ‘added’ sugars, ban industrially-produced trans fats and include the kilojoules on alcoholic beverages. The Health Star Rating and foods for infants also need major changes.
So no retirement yet!
Dr Rosemary Stanton OAM