Why is it that so many Americans are overweight today, than they were fifty years ago? A simple answer to that question is that Americans have changed their eating and work habits. .
Forty to fifty years ago fast food was a relatively new thing, and to be able to eat it was a luxury. Now today there are fast food restaurants on just about every corner. A long time ago people use to have to cook their food instead of just driving up to a window and getting a bag full of empty calories. .
The school lunches have changed also. There was a time when schools had lunchroom ladies or cooks who would prepare nutritious well balanced lunches. If a child did not by a school lunch, then a parent prepared a lunch for their child. Now there are schools where pizza and French fries or pizza and potato chips are served everyday for lunch. There is not a salad or a piece of fruit in sight. There is even an elementary school in Chicago, where everyday the children are served a meal from different fast food franchises. One day the meal would be served from Mc Donalds, the next day Pizza Hut, then KFC, and etc. When parents use to pack their children's lunches fifty years ago, they would pack a thermos of soup, a piece of fruit, and a sandwich probably made of meat from last night's dinner instead of processed meat. Then along came this evolution of foods, commonly called convenient foods that made it easier and less time consuming for parents to prepare their children's lunches. Instead of soup in thermos, juice boxes were created, then chocolate milk started to come in little bottles for school lunches, and as time went on soda became popular, and soda pop along with Gatorade became the beverages of choice for today's school lunches. Next, is the potato chips. Fifty years ago, people did not buy a lot of bagged potato chips , and if a school age child had a bag of potato chips, then they were considered lucky.
