5 health lessons we can learn from the 1950s 4 are easy things you can do at home

“Happy Days” are here again?The viral tradwife movement, which encourages women to be homemakers and men to be breadwinners, has some people waxing nostalgic for the 1950s.In a recent nationwide survey on US values, nearly half of Americans indicated that life was actually better in the ’50s.Republicans were more likely than Democrats and independents to say that our culture has changed for the worse.In some ways, public health is notably better than 70 years ago.

People are living longer, healthier lives thanks to preventive care, earlier and more accurate diagnoses through improved technology, new drugs, medical devices and procedures and enhanced treatment options.There’s also a deeper understanding of the need to limit alcohol, sugar and cigarettes and get adequate sleep, exercise and nutrition.“There is a wider variety of fruits and vegetables in the supermarket.There’s more focus on using less pesticides [on food],” Josephine Connolly-Schoonen, an associate clinical professor of family medicine and executive director of the nutrition division at Stony Brook Medicine, told The Post.“So I would say that’s a positive,” she continued, “and there’s a bit of a move recently towards grass-fed and [pasture-based] ways of raising animals.”Despite this progress, the US is experiencing more obesity and diabetes than ever before.Connolly-Schoonen, who authored “Losing Weight Permanently with the Bull’s-Eye Food Guide,” shared five health lessons that we can learn from the ’50s and apply to our daily lives.Leave it to Beaver to embody the ’50s trend of the happy nuclear family.Families grew food in their backyard gardens and kids watched their parents prepare meals before sitting down together at the dinner table.

Restaurant food was reserved for special occasions.Fast forward to 2024.Americans on average dined out nearly five times a month and ordered takeout three times a month.“When we eat out, we really don’t know the qualit...