July 3, 2012 12:14 pm
Vintage Summer Tips From the U.S. Government: “Overeating Is Overheating”
In the early 1940s, in the years after the country had entered World War II, the American government had a particular interest in keeping workers on the job:
The government offered summer health tips. Source: National Archive
The health tips are actually pretty good, considering they’re decades old. (Sunburn is painful!) And with the heat records being broken this summer across the land, we can all use a reminder that Overeating is Overheating.
(Via Philip Bump)
More from Smithsonian.com:
The Battle for Food in World War II
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“pretty good, considering they’re decades old” Why must we always think that any information or technology older than a few years (used to be a few decades but things move quickly these days) is not only outdated but inaccurate and primitive? We are perhaps not the most informed or skilled creatures that ever existed, but we are probably the most arrogant! Being a designer for needlwork and garment patterns, I find it especially distressing that people in past times are often depicted wearing just a sheet or animal skin, or a very rudimentary version of the finely detailed structures that were really worn. Remnants that we have from thousands of years ago show a much more sophisticated picture of the skills developed by people millenia ago, but our current opinion of just this part of their society would have us believe that all of their interactions and culture must have been barbaric. Now, we are told that ideas a few decades old are surprisingly valid, continuing the attitude that we can safely disregard anything that is not absolutely current. With that attitude we stand to lose much and force ourselves to relearn what we might have had handed to us in some cases. It’s a shame.
Comment by Robin Burns — July 8, 2012 @ 10:51 am
Robin Burns – couldn’t agree more! I know find myself asking doctors which version of the “latest thinking” we’re on regarding everything from nutrition to medical intervention. The good ones generally sound like my grandmother. That’s not to say that I and/or most of we wouldn’t be dead without antibiotics or totally crippled without body part replacements.
BTW – clothes today are only cheap (even the expensive ones) certainly neither sewed or constructed.
Comment by livia y — July 10, 2012 @ 7:50 am