Changing tastes

Sam Montel, our online nutrition expert, gives an overview of how our eating habits have changed since the 1950s.

Over the past fifty years we have embraced new ideas and trends, partly as a result of growing cultural diversity and our more exotic travels.

Much of what we eat is a part of our culture and it's strongly influenced by the types of foods we can grow locally. So meat and dairy products, bread and potatoes continue to be important even if, for some of us, they now tend to be in the form of hamburgers and frozen chips rather than the traditional roast beef and boiled potatoes.

Although the main components of the British diet haven't changed, what has changed is how we put them together and what we add to them.

The main constituents are still basically bread, milk, meat and potatoes. But it's still relatively low in fruit and veg and we're eating less fish now than we did in the 1940s and 1950s.

Here is a more detailed look at some of the changes in our eating habits that have taken place since the early 1950s:

Milk, dairy products and eggs

During the Second World War people were encouraged to drink milk because of its high nutritional value, and this was particularly important for children.

Our high consumption of milk continued until the mid-1970s, but since then we've been drinking less milk.

This is partly because other drinks, and particularly soft drinks, have become more popular. But the good news is that we're now choosing more skimmed and semi-skimmed milk than whole milk.

While we're eating about the same amount of cheese and cream as we used to, yoghurt has been increasing in popularity since it became available in the 1970s.

The number of eggs we eat peaked in the mid-60s and has been declining since. We now eat less than half the number of eggs we ate in the mid 1950s and 1960s.

Meat, poultry and fish

When beef, lamb, pork, ham and bacon became available again in the early 1950s, after the years of rationing, not surprisingly there was a sharp increase in the amount people were eating. But since then the trend has reversed.

In contrast, chicken and turkey have increased steadily in popularity. Once just thought of as a Christmas treat, we're now eating as much poultry as beef, lamb and pork put together.

The amount of fish we're eating has actually decreased since the 1940s and 50s. But even back then we weren't getting enough oily fish. The recommendation is to have two portions of fish a week, and one of these should be oily.

As the number of ovens and microwaves we own increases, we're choosing a steadily wider variety of frozen and chilled meat products and ready-prepared meals.

Fats and sugars

We continued using around 300g of spreading and cooking fats and oils per person per week all through the 50s, 60s, 70s and 80s.

But since then we have really cut down to only 186g per person per week.

However, we're still consuming quite high levels of 'hidden' fats in cakes, biscuits and convenience foods, we're just not baking or cooking so much of our own any more.

We're also using less sugar. As well as the decline in home baking, we're making fewer drinks, such as home-made lemonade, and we're doing less pickling, sauce and jam-making.

Many people have also cut down on sugar in their tea and coffee. So much so, that domestic usage of packet sugar has declined steadily since its high point in 1958, and it's now lower than it was during Second World War rationing.

Cereal products

Once white bread started being baked again, after years of the unpopular brown 'national bread' during the war, the switch to white bread was one of the most dramatic shifts in the British diet over the past 50 years.

However we're now eating less bread and although white bread is still the most popular, recently we have been eating more brown, wholemeal and other types of breads.

Rice and pasta are more popular than they were, but as a nation we're still only eating relatively small amounts.

In 1950, people were munching their way through 190g of cakes and pastries each week (that's about three-quarters of a Victoria Sponge), today the figure is closer to 89g (about three mini rolls).

This is despite the increase in variety available today. But before we pat ourselves on the back for being so virtuous, this is probably because as well as cakes and pastries, we now have the extra temptation of many new varieties of frozen and chilled desserts.

The move away from home baking towards buying processed foods is highlighted by the fact that we're now buying almost 70 per cent less flour than we did in the 1950s (206g per person per week in the 1950s compared to 67g today).

Of the major cereal products, only breakfast cereals have shown a small but consistent growth in popularity over the past 50 years.

Fruit and veg

Despite the fact that vegetables are packed with vitamins, minerals and fibre, consumption has been declining over the past 50 years.

We're buying fewer fresh potatoes, but more chips and crisps. Over the years there has been a big drop in the amount we're buying of:

• traditional British greens, such as cabbage, kale and sprouts
• root vegetables, such as carrots, turnips, swedes and parsnips
• canned veg

Instead we're turning to fresh imports, such as courgettes and corn on the cob, and frozen exotic veg, such as mange tout and bean sprouts.

We're eating more fresh fruit than we did 50 years ago. While canned fruit has become less popular, we're turning to more exotic varieties and out-of-season imports.

Sam's verdict

A nutritional overview

Many of these dietary changes reflect current nutritional advice.

Since the 60s we've been consuming fewer calories from household food (this doesn't include eating out). However, there are an increasing number of people who are overweight or obese. The reasons for this are not clear. But there are a few possible explanations, such as:

• we are now much less active than we used to be so we need less energy from our food
• we're preparing less food at home, so as well as the food we buy for eating at home, we're also eating takeaways and eating out
• we may be eating more snacks and sweets than we are admitting to in surveys

Most of our energy comes from carbohydrates (starchy foods and sugary foods) as it did in the 1950s.

The proportion of energy in our diets coming from fat is about the same as in the 1950s. In the 1960s and 1970s the energy from fat in our diets increased but since the late 1980s we have been consuming less total fat and we've also cut down on saturated fat, which takes us nearer the target levels (35% food energy from total fat, 11% food energy from saturated fat).

This may be due to the general switch from whole milk, butter, margarine and lard, to semi-skimmed and skimmed milk, vegetable oils and low/reduced-fat spreads.

There have been considerable changes in the types of foods we're eating. This means that the main sources of nutrients in our diets has been changing.

For example, in the 1950s, most of our vitamin C came from potatoes, which were plentiful during the war when fruit wasn't, whereas today we get the majority of our vitamin C from fruit and fruit juice.

In 1950, tea was the most common drink for children - today it's soft drinks. In fact, children aged 4 to 18 drink two-thirds more fizzy drinks than milk (National Diet and Nutrition Survey).

Many children today are getting a high proportion of their energy from sugar, and some of this is down to soft drinks. But, of course, tea was often sweetened with sugar and too much tea can reduce absorption of iron, which is needed for healthy blood.

Rationing ended in 1954. After years of compulsory restriction, we were free again to indulge our tastes for meat, butter, sugar, eggs and white bread.

The wartime diet was not popular. However, rationing in the 1950s was able to provide a generally healthy diet. This is despite the fact that its energy content was comparatively high and the fat was almost entirely saturated. It was also higher in salt, but it didn't contain the innumerable convenience foods we have today, and women were expected to prepare most foods in their own home. It was also low in fruit, especially in the winter.

Generally it was thought of as monotonous and dull - and it would be difficult to convince people today to eat in the same way.

Food barometer

• Consumption of semi-skimmed milk overtook whole milk in 1993
• Bananas overtook apples as the fresh fruit market leader in 1996
• Over the past ten years we've started buying more non-traditional types of bread, such as French, naan and pitta bread, ciabatta and bagels
• We're drinking 12 times as much bottled mineral water at home compared to the mid-1980s
• In the 1980s we made our move from butter to soft margarines and today, reduced-fat spreads are the preferred option. We've also switched from harder cooking fats to vegetable oils such as olive oil, which, believe it or not, 25 years ago was only available in chemists.
• Newly available vegetables, such as mushrooms and exotic salad leaves (such as rocket, radicchio, chicory and baby spinach) have grown in popularity compared with traditional veg like swedes, parsnips and Brussels sprouts.

(Source: National Food Survey, 2000)

Conclusion

Health
Following significant changes over the past few years, the British diet is probably as healthy as it's ever been. As a nation, our intake of saturated fat is decreasing in line with Government targets. But we are not there yet. We still need to reduce our consumption of fat, sugar and salt, and eat more fruit and vegetables.

There is still more work to do to build on this progress (and that includes being more physically active) if we are to see a reduction in conditions such as heart disease, stroke, some cancers and obesity.

Celebrate variety
There is more choice available to us than ever before. We can choose from an enormous range of fresh and convenience foods throughout the year. This means we can choose a varied and balanced diet, rich in fruit, vegetables and starchy foods, with fewer foods high in fat or sugar. However, the fact that we are not yet meeting the targets for fat and sugar indicates that we are not necessarily choosing this type of diet.

Comparison to the 50s
During the Second World War, rationing and food shortages meant that people had to adapt to eating patterns that were very different to those we can choose from today. Any comparison needs to recognise the other social and cultural differences, including the availability of foods.

In many ways, the nutrient content of the 50s diet was similar to today. In the 50s, most of the energy (calories) came from carbohydrates (starchy and sugary foods), and this is still the case today. However, in the 1950s, a higher proportion came from starchy foods, such as bread and potatoes. The fat content of the 50s diet and today's are similar, although in the 50s the majority of fat was saturated.