Well, I was born in 1953 (getting so I don't want to admit it, but ...) and grew up in the 50s and 60s and ...
When I learned to cook it was very common to use meat products for shortening and for seasoning. Still is, actually. :) Hey, leftover sausages or bacon can make very tasty green beans! :) Bacon drippings gives eggs that "down home" flavor.
People like that kind of cooking. Why? It tastes good! :)
When I think back to my teen years, places like McDonalds, White Castle, and Wetsons were common. They really didn't have the Big Mac or the Whopper back then, just regular burgers, which were not really that large, but nobody ate just one. :)
I don't know. My family is lucky I guess. I'm a few pounds over what I weighed in my teens, but I'm certainly not obese.
When I think back, we were toally bombarded with ads for sugar cereal, candy bars, soda (no diet yet except for Diet Rite which was NASTY) and of course we kids just downed humongous portions of Sugar Frosted Flakes, long before those "part of this nutritious breakfast" days. Amazing we didn't all die from sucrose poisioning! :)
Of course the school lunch back then was based on the Basic 4, having been demoted from the Basic 7 a while back. Main dish was always meat, hot dogs, hamburgers (well, they had some meat in them, I guess), meat loaf, deepfried fish, and nobody developed a heart condition in the
7th grade back then. :)
Fast food outlets will sell what sells. Economics 101.
I really think that the advertisers are being blamed when it's not (totally) their fault. I also think parents are being blamed when it's not (totally) their fault either.
Is childhood obesity really as rampant as "they" say? As I look at kids playing in the neighborhoods, yes, there are some chunky ones, but no more than when I was young. (I guess, though, that the real Mouse Potatoes will not be the ones you see playing in the street, huh?)
It's my impression that the current generation is by far healthier than past generations. We can now prevent and treat countless conditions that once plagued us. Obesity can be treated more effectively than back in the 50's, like other conditions. (Diet, exercise, are still quite effective.)
I almost cringe at thinking back at the cigarette ads that bombarded us all, adults and kids alike, during the evening TV hours! (Not to mention magazines!) If there's any product that WILL hurt you when used as directed, this is it! These ads have been off the air for 30 years are so, and guess what, they now say that smoking is again on the rise among teenagers.
Oh well ...