Image from The American Home Magazine – May 1966 – click to make big.

From the New York Times – May 25th, 2011

“The remaining 80 percent of jobs, the researchers report, are sedentary or require only light activity. The shift translates to an average decline of about 120 to 140 calories a day in physical activity, closely matching the nation’s steady weight gain over the past five decades, according to the report, published Wednesday in the journal PLoS One.”

Did we not see it coming? The workplace, the home front – everywhere the world went “automatic” and “convenient” – somewhere the equation had to shift. If you save energy where does it get saved to? Your belly apparently.

PS- On saving feet – Walking 33 metres a day will have you covering around 122 kilometres a year. Put your phone further away from wherever you are!

More on convenience and telephones.

“When you see it, you know that service and protection are always close at hand.” Convenience and women “saving steps” was a recurring theme throughout the sixties if the contents of my collection of vintage The American Home magazine is anything to go by – and grapefruits – an obsession with grapefruits. The 60’s was an era fixated on telecommunications and what appears to have been a very fashionable fruit. More to come on that in future posts.

Click image to make bigger