Even though they ate the high-fat, high-sugar diet typical of pre-World War II Americans — meat, potatoes, gravy, eggs, garden vegetables, bread, pies, and cakes — the Ontario Amish were remarkably fit. Only 4% were obese and only 26% were overweight.
How did they do it? Hard work — and lots of foot power. Their weekly exercise was equivalent to that of long-distance runners. Men averaged 18,425 steps a day. Women averaged 14,196 daily steps.
This is actually something I have always wondered about. We seem to be becoming more and more obese, yet we have more low fat foods. We have more programs like Weight Watchers only let have you eat like 1,000 calories a day. So what it the deal? It makes no sense. I guess because our predecessors really did a lot more work than your standard 30 minutes of cardio a day.
I also think it has to do with simply being busy all day and not having time to snack. That and not having food at your convenience all the time.
A long time ago, I watched this stand-up comedian go on and on about how ridiculous it is that people go to exercise spas to work out, and pondered on how such things would have been regarded say 100 years ago. She joked that you’d never hear our ancestors say something like…”Yeah, Margie, I’ve found that all this hoeing is really great for my biceps.”
I dunno, I’ve done very little gardening and such, and it’s really hard work…especially in our yard which needed to be leveled first. I figure if I were to do that every day, I could eat anything I want!
I read Laura Ingals Wilder’s “Farmer Boy” a few years back and it was amazing how much food Almanzo’s mom prepared everyday. It was her total occupation from one meal to the next, but they really needed all of those calories for all the work they had to do. A real eye opener for me!!