In the 1950s did people eat snacks between meals?

Question

or did they just eat their 3 meals?

Answer 1

In the early fifties, I was growing up on a midwestern farm. During three seasons, most week-days we started work before sunrise and worked until about 9:30 each night. We ate 6 meals a day, and none of us had any fat on us. There was breakfast; then coffee and fruit and cookies at about 9:15; then a BIG lunch, called dinner, at noon. Another coffee/fruit/cookie meal at about 3:15, a big supper at around 7, and a final "snack" after the work day was over. There was no other eating on week-days.

Answer 2

1

Answer 3

In 1950s U.K. kids usually received a small amount of pocket money to buy sweets but when that money was used that was it - no more. Those sweets would have been eaten on the way home from school or in the evening whilst watching T.V. or doing homework. Mother never bought things which are now thought of as snacks for between meals. She would buy one packet of biscuits (cookies) per week and would make a few cakes on baking day but when these were gone that was it for another week so we all learnt not to be greedy and just had our share. Money was tight. It was the austerity of that time (some items still being rationed after WW2) which made us healthy. We ate food purely as fuel for our body and utilised that fuel by walking a lot and having much outdoor activity in the evenings, at weekends and had plenty more in school also. A good diet and plenty of exercise promote good sleep - another essential for a healthy lifestyle.



If we ever had a packet of crisps it would have been no more than once per week and most of the variations of crisps had not then been invented. The world would be a much healthier place if those greasy horrible things made from corn had never been invented.

Answer 4

During my school days we often had a cooked breakfast (to set us up for the day), had a bottle of milk (one third of a pint) at mid morning break in school and then a proper cooked dinner at about 12.30 p.m. There was no afternoon break once we reached secondary school and we went home 4 p.m. Those of us who had pocket money might buy some sweets as we passed a shop but pocket money did not last all week. The better off kids probably snacked more than the majority did but not in the same way that today's kids snack.



It is unusual to see young people nowadays without either a bottle of coke, a packet of some greasy snack or a pasty or sausage roll in their hands. They seem to be permanent snackers. One wonders if that is because mum is working and there will be no meal on the table when they reach home. Many kids are virtually bringing themselves up today. How sad.



1950s kids arrived home from school to find mum preparing a meal. It would not necessarily be a hot cooked dinner (because we'd had one in school) but it was usually something warm - maybe a beautiful home made soup after mum had spent hours cooking a ham bone and then adding many vegetables to the stock and scraping off the bits of meat, leaving those in the soup after removing the bone. If it wasn't soup it would be something on hot toast (scrabled eggs or beans) or hot crumpets, muffins or pikelets with home made jam. In U.S. you'll have different names for these things I'm sure.



If we ever said that we were hungry between meals mum would tell us to get 'a piece of bread and jam' but if it was not long to go to meal time we were told we had to wait for the meal to be served. No snacking meant no fat people around. There is a HUGE lesson to be learned from that simple fact.

Answer 5

My family was very strapped for money so there wasn't a lot left over after regular meal shopping. If we snacked, it was usually on fruit--especially if mom got a deal on, say, a bushel of apples which would last us a while. Then we could snack at will on those apples. My sister, for some reason I still cannot figure out, always had money to buy a bag of chips or cookies or a donut after school, and she was also allowed to make herself Rice Krispie treats after school, whereas I'd get punished if I so much as took a celery stalk. But my sister was a chubby and mom favored her over me. And my baby sister, growing up in the 60's, was actually provided with an after school snack by mom--cookies and milk or some other thing, plus mom would buy her individual sized frozen pizzas she could cook, or those weirdo jello things (after you mixed them, they'd settle into 3 different layers). But to this day, mom and my sisters are addicted snackers and I don't snack at all.

Answer 6

Fruits and Veggies for sure. They have low glycemic indexes and it takes your body longer to digest these foods, therefore, using up more calories in the process. It is said that these foods are "thermogenic negative calorie" snacks, meaning that, by the time it is digested, you've used up more calories than the food actually contains. That is all I snacked on during my weight loss contest, and I lost a dramatic amount of weight. It made it very easy for me because I get quite hungry and I don't want some measly snack that's going to leave my stomach rumbling 20 minutes later. I scarfed down a ton of fruits and veggies. Warning: You will get gas. And it is foul. Happy Eating! P.S. - Do not eat pretzels and popcorn, as they have starch which is converted into sugar. If you do other foods, try low-fat yogurt, anything whole grain, kashi cereal bars, south beach diet high protein cereal bars, unsalted peanuts, etc.

Answer 7

In our family the meals were huge however dad always wanted ice cream with all the toppings as a snack late in the evening. We always had free reign of the refrigerator but mostly mom was making us iced tea with a lot of sugar in it or listing to us what is in the frig to eat or telling us if we didn't like what's in there we could always make ourselves a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Yes we ate a lot and a lot of hearty meals but we worked hard around the house and walked a lot too so part of it we put into muscles and part we wore off.

Answer 8

I remember homemade cookies and a glass of milk after school, and we always had some kind of desert about an hour after dinner, sometimes ice cream, or cake made from a box mix, sometimes pie for special occasions. In junior high and high school we could buy ice cream cups or bars,, cookies and other snack items from the student store. If we had enough money we would buy a coke at the store on the way home from school, or an ice cream bar at the ice cream truck parked by a side road on the way home from school, or french fries and a coke from McDonald's (new when I was in high school in late 1960's.)



Obviously we had a lot of snacks and we never felt guilty about it. I still weighed under 100lbs when I graduated from high school in 1969. We were active, (not athletic really), but walked to and from schools, rode our bicycles, roller skated on sidewalks, went to roller rinks for fun, played outside games or hide and go seek in our neighborhoods, walked long distances to visit a friend or go to an outdoor mall. I believe the closest mall was over 2 miles each way. We went to the beach and body surfed all day, in between walking around and checking out the boys, eating hamburgers, french fries, candy, ice cream cones, donuts, salt water taffy just made at the candy store. I don't remember anyone being fat, maybe l out of 50 kids was overweight.

Answer 9

Snacks were pretty rare at my house. We might have an apple between breakfast and lunch or tea and toast before bed.



In the summer, when the vegetable man came around, Mother might buy grapes and let us eat them right away, or Daddy might come home with a cold watermelon and cut it immediately.



We didn't even know potato chips existed, but we did have popcorn sometimes while we watched a Western movie on TV.

Answer 10

As a kid we would eat snacks before dinner. Mostly apples, oranges or bananas. If there were cookies in the house, they usually went into the lunch bag. After dinner, more fruit unless my mom baked cake or had ice cream in the fridge. Sometimes being short on money helps the diet a bit.

Answer 11

Cordial flavoured drinks but they where restricted and a treat. there would sometimes be an apple. and about once a week Mother would bake and we got to have some scones or similar.

The grocery store sold a bag of broken biscuits and we could sometimes take our pick to a few peices.

In blackberry season we would look for some blackberries on the banks

Apart from those memories i can't think of other snacks.

Answer 12

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Answer 13

In our house we were lucky to get 3 meals a day. There was no money for snacks.

Answer 14

i remember that a snack was a treat because we did not have money and it was a good thing because my teeth and my parents and siblings teeth were perfect. we had a plate of food and seldom had seconds. it was hard times for my folks and there was a time we ate nothing but fried potatoes for that was all they had. but we had a roof over our head and daddy did work hard. even when we sort of moved up in the world we still had no after dinner desserts nor sodas and snacks. like i said that was only a treat.

Answer 15

We had snacks but no where near what is available today. We played outside, had no computers, some had television and we listened to the radio. That is why there very few obese people during those times.

Answer 16

Unfortunately, yes, many of us did snack n junk food back in the fifties. I loved potato chips and candy, and even though I was a teeny 97 pounder when I graduated from high school, I do think that junk food was not healthy for me.

Answer 17

as I recall - growing-up in 50s & 60s: dinner usually ended with a small serving of dessert, something sweet like ice cream or small slice of pie...............we would all have a soft drink in mid-evening (not everyone taking what they wanted when they felt like it, but everyone served one normal glass at the same time "your turn to get the Cokes".....otherwise you drank a glass of water when thirsty) ......... Mom might have some brownies made that day, or a box of candy passed around (you took ONE piece). The only time we had what would be considered large quantities was when Dad would make a big pot of pop corn on the stove.



Thinking about it, seems it was more difficult - took longer - to prepare things as compared to the bags of treats in our cupboards now that make over-indulgence so easy.



I think my self-control broke down with home delivery of pizza: an extra-large cost so little more !!

Answer 18

There were snacks - usually fruit, maybe some cheese, or something your mom baked from scratch. Snacking like what you see nowadays was very uncommon.



Don't forge the 50's were post-war and many people were still trying to get on their feet.

Answer 19

I lived on a farm. There were snacks, usually a cookie at 3 PM or so and a glass of milk.

Answer 20

It was rare at our house, but mom would fix things from time to time for treats...like cookies or maybe a cake. She usually was otherwise occupied with 5 kids just maintaining meals. Remember we were still recovering from another war.

Answer 21

Kids would usually be hungry after school (before they started in on their homework), so there would be something like cookies and milk. In cold weather, there would be a cup of homemade cocoa. We didn't sit around and eat cheese crackers, pizza rolls or anything like that, because they didn't exist. We were expected to eat what was on our plates at dinner, so we couldn't "spoil our appetite".

Answer 22

I was in my teens in the 50's and I ate all the time when I could get something to snack on.

Answer 23

not like today but when we did it was always home made, today there are so many things to eat and mst are not good, even though we ate lots of sweats they were made right from the home. no additives added. usually the snacks were at night not all day long like today

Answer 24

Sure. Even as kids, we had a little spending money for the store or the cafe across the street from the school. It isn't any different today where moms say, 'you're going to spoil your dinner!' lol

Answer 25

It depends on the person. I know women were traditionally the cooks & bakers & cook books were loaded with dessert recipes.



Everything is so much better now. We have so many reciped we can use. It's as if it is unlimited. Poeple are only limited by their thinking. So a person could make a different snack everyday now.

Answer 26

rationing was still on in the early 50s. crisps was 1 packet once a week only in salt flavour or cheese and onion.

Answer 27

A coffee break with a slice of cake or cookies was common mid-afternoon for a "pick-me-up."

Answer 28

Certainly - but we didn't have all those fast food places you have today - we either made our own snack bought some cupcakes or candy bar or what ever.

Answer 29

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Answer 30

I did, at 11o/c I would eat a bun or biscuits and in the afternoon a cake.

Answer 31

I did every chance I got. If I had a nickel or dime I'd walk to the drug store and buy a candy bar. ( :

Answer 32

Yes but not store bought one's We had mothers that cooked and ate fruit alot

Answer 33

We did in my family.