I really think a significant part of it is that we always ate home cooked meals and junk food was a special treat only.
This. The ever-increasing soda sizes, continuous availability of high fat/sugar snacks, ginormous portion sizes at restaurants & fast food places, and frequency of eating out in general have at least as much to do with it as activity level, if not more. It always surprises me the number of overweight kids you see on all the organized sports teams.
Dave
Organized kids' sports aren't always really that great in terms of building fitness - think about how much time kids spending standing waiting for their turn between drills, waiting to go to bat in T-ball, etc.
And, unfortunately, the trend in some places is for a "snack" after many of these games and practices, which too often is cookies and juice or Gatorade, that more than replaces any calories burned in a 45-minute practice.
20,000 miles behind me, the world still to see.
This ties neatly into a thread I started on RWOL about those who are obese having higher health care costs each year than smokers. In that thread, I mentioned that the problem of obesity is a complex societal issue and, as with all complex societal issues, the solutions are complex and must be multi-faceted.
Short term goal: 17:59 5K
Mid term goal: 2:54:59 marathon
Long term goal: To say I've been a runner half my life. (I started running at age 45).
Return To Racing
Heck, we're more fit now than our 20 something millennial kids.
Healed Hammy
All well spoken and I agree.
IMO the a major factor behind the lack of activity is societal. When I grew up there were far fewer fences in neighborhoods, thus promoting interaction amongst the kids. Pick up baseball, kick the can, flashlight tag... We also had unfettered run of the area, sometimes I'd leave at 10:00am and return close to 5:00pm, Mom had no idea I was in the local stream trying to dam it up, or building tree forts, or roaming the woods.
Society frowns on roaming kids. We fence our yards to keep our dogs in, to protect our kids, and try to insulate us from our neighbors. Another major reason is the abundance of foods. Back in the 1960's, Mom shopped once a week (usually after Dad got paid) and we had to stretch out the food. Pop tarts were a special treat. We had far, far fewer snacks, and didn't eat as often. Now with cloistered kids and abundant pantries, of course the kids are fatter and slower.
Fatter kids = slower kids. They may not be as inactive as we think, but clearly they are fatter and slower.