Leigh Elder Eat for keeps

This week, I'd like to share a popular excerpt from our new book with you. I decided a novel way to look at what's happened during the last 50 years would be to do so through the eyes of an imaginary person who has miraculously come to life after passing away, in say 1963.

Let's see how Uncle Bill views this strange new world he hasn't seen for more than five decades. We meet at a cafe in a popular shopping mall.

He's startled by the hissing and roaring noise the espresso machine makes and also by the huge size of the muffins, scones and other food on display.

He remembers the day when he used to take the family to the Bon Ton Tea House once a fortnight for tea and cake. He says the portion sizes were about half the size they are today.

After a cappuccino, we walk across to the supermarket. Imagine his surprise when he sees it's massive size and the thousands of food items.

Uncle Bill is fascinated by the two-metre high by 20-metre long cereal aisle with more than 100 different cereals.

'Crikey, my old Four Square used to only have rolled oats, Weetbix and Cornflakes.”

Of course there are many processed food items like pasta, pizza and yoghurt, which he's never seen before.

Now it's time for lunch and off we go to the food court.

While we're sitting, he nudges me and quietly says: 'Why are so many people today so huge? I cannot believe the difference from my day”.

I think to myself, we only have a short time together, so I'll give him a short version.

'Well, Uncle Bill, all this incredible range of food and drink options you've seen actually results in people getting really confused about what they should be eating; and this has generally resulted in a lack of balance in what we eat.

'With all these new-fangled electronic devices and most families owning two cars, people tend to rely on them a lot and we are generally far less active than you used to be.

'We're really hoping all this is going to turn around soon.”

Uncle Bill listens to all this and nods wisely. Goodness knows what he's thinking. He's probably suffering from 'future shock” at this point.

While all of the above is obviously make-believe, it does give an insight into how dramatically our environment and lifestyles have changed during the last 40 years.