One thought I had, inspired by the sorts of reality shows we watch

[xiphias]

The only reality TV I've ever watched has been the PBS stuff -- 1900 House, Manor House, Frontier House, 1940 House, and Colonial House. Okay, also Rough Science.

Something that occurred to me is that in all of those shows (except Rough Science, which is doing something different) every single person on it lost weight. Even the lord and lady of the manor in Manor House. And were therefore healthier at the end of the shows than the beginning.

Boy. We Westerners have a truly impressive degree of gluttony. Even the upper-class rich parasite classes ate less, and exercised more, than we do.

Comments

[unquietsoul5.livejournal.com]

I don't remember hearing that the folks in 1900 house lost weight, and would consider it very strange when one looks at the diet of the period of the middle and upper class. (I believe that's the show that used London as the city of choice etc.)

The folks on 1940 house were also living under the rationing system of the war, if I remember which severely reduced food intake. Generally if you remember WWII is what caused the USA to institute school lunch programs, minimal standards of eating and the nutrition 'pyramid' into national health policy because they had to turn away so many would-be soliders because they were suffering from malnutrition to begin with. Women on the homefront had to live without much in the way of meat, sugar, milk, butter, and other staples of the American Diet.

As for the folks involved being healthier - that may not be as true as you think. Remember that I believe they ended up with food poisoning and a form of Dysentary on one show (the medieval one I believe) and I suspect the level of salt intake by the folks on the Colonial House was way too high (they were mainly eating salted fish and other stores, not the grain and livestock that the colony was supposedly producing).

Exercise level, of course, was higher in all cases. That's what happen when you go to a car-crazy society like we have today.