[giantg2]

"office workers in 1950"

What percentage of people filled that role then vs now and how does that compare to obesity rates? I assume both percentages were much lower in the 50s. Not to mention, many of the tasks that are automated today (or don't exist at all) were manual tasks back then. So they may not have been exercising explicitly, but it's likely their chores required manual activity that would qualify as low or medium intensity exercise... except maybe the richest ones that had servants of some sort do it for them.

[hellbannedguy]

And many were smokers.

[ginko]

Ooh, that's an interesting correlation. The number of smokers dropped a lot since the 80s, essentially right when the obesity epidemic started:

https://ourworldindata.org/smoking#the-rise-and-fall-of-smok...

Nicotine is known to suppress hunger

[giantg2]

It's also possible that nicotine triggers epigenetic changes that affect the metabolisms of future generations.