How would this advice sit with the current recommendations, back in the 1950s, a pregnant mother was advised by her doctor to take up smoking for relaxation. Another mother followed other advice at the time that when taking your tots out in the sun you should rub your toddler's skin with a mixture of baby oil and iodine for a deep, rich tan.
But the most shocking thing of all is that despite these widespread practices the recipients are now aged fifty plus living a healthy life. More healthy indeed than the current crop of toddlers, preteens and teens that are brought up under the new and enlightened methods of the new millennium.
This begs the question how did any children survive to adulthood in those dark ages?
Despite years of constantly contradictory messages about whether red wine, chocolate, fish, coffee or eggs are tonic or toxic
In the 1950/60's the majority of kids received only one vaccination, polio, or at best two, the TB jab, they picked blackberries from the wild drank water from streams and drank full cream milk, ate Spam, spread full fat butter, and so the list of no no's goes on.
Kids of the 1950s, '60s and '70s are survivors, mini daredevils: sun bleached, pocket-knife-carrying, bottom-spanked, beef eaters. They ran around the streets from dawn till dusk armed with, bows and 'pointy' arrows spud guns, boxing gloves and catapults, and the most scandalous of sins they rode bikes, (usually several sizes too big) unprotected by bike helmets, and sunscreen was unheard of.
Houses of the 1950's houses were filled with the hues of cigarette smoke while their parents downed a host of cocktails, following and evening meal that was ninety percent red meat.
We just didn't know then how brave we were. And, surely, future generations will marvel at our physical moxie. Because, truth be told, it was not easy to get here.
Whether your day started with heaped bowls of salt and sugar saturated cereal, or settled for the traditional breakfast of bacon, egg, black pudding swimming in fat, yes animal fat probably unknowingly every nutrition and safety maxim of modern day child rearing was violated.
And yet, somehow, despite all that, most of them made it out of their childhoods fine and healthy. So why? Is there really any point to denying ourselves delicious, sugary, buttery food, stamping out our cigarettes and straining our muscles at the gym?
Despite years of constantly contradictory messages about whether red wine, chocolate, fish, coffee or eggs are tonic or toxic, there have been enough clinical trials to offer some undeniable truths: high cholesterol, low exercise, excessive sun, inhaling cigarette smoke, failing to wear a seatbelt, and excessive drinking while pregnant can hurt you (or your baby).
They may not, but they can, or quite likely will, depending on the behaviour. With death rates from heart disease dropping by over the last 20 years, about half this decline is thought to be due to prevention. Today’s parenting styles are guided by that knowledge.
It would be an injustice to say that our modern, healthier habits haven't make any difference, with people soon will be pushing age 100 and feeling good, and the fifties being the new forties shows that the things being done is extending our younger years.
No one can deny that many lives have been saved by seat belts and air bags every year. The other question.. although many of the 1950/60/70's generation survived how many were lost, how many succumbed to lung cancer as a result of smoking, or failed to live beyond their forties as a result of liver disease brought on by drinking alcohol.
Two factors that determined survival one just plain 'luck of the draw' as many weathered their childhood deeds and diets because their parents heard about the health studies, or the tragic accidents, and changed their ways much as we on reaching adulthood have. The other big factor in longevity is rooted in our DNA is determined by your chromosomes. Which explains how cigar-smoking, vastly overweight Winston Churchill lived to age 90, while running guru Jim Fixx died of a heart attack at 52.
But an important footnote for all our lifestyle changes for the better it is predicted that the current generation of the western worlds under 30 year olds will be considerably less fit than previous generations as we now face an obesity epidemic... so where have we gone wrong?
Tagged in Health