1980s wellness mainstreaming coincided with the U.S. government's first dietary guidelines and cultural shifts such as fitness trends and more women entering the workforce. Time constraints increased demand for grab-and-go convenience foods positioned as healthy. Dietary fads vilified fat and elevated carbohydrates as solutions for cholesterol and weight. The market expanded with fat-free and sugar-free products that were highly processed and often contained added sugar or artificial sweeteners. Contemporary nutrition favors whole foods, rejects fat vilification, and questions past low-fat, highly processed approaches as nutrition knowledge continues to evolve.
The 1980s were a decade of big hair, big corporate, and big ideas about food and health. Along with the U.S. government publishing its first dietary guidelines at the time, wellness broke free from its former association with folks like your hippie aunt and uncle and entered the mainstream. This was due, in part, to the advent of two cultural trends: fitness and workplace changes, especially the rise of women in the workplace. People had less time for home cooking,
The decade produced a boom of fat-free and sugar-free food and drinks that were marketed as healthier options despite being highly processed and sometimes loaded with sugar or artificial sweeteners. Now, all decades are guilty of representing outdated "healthy" eating ideas, but the '80s are particularly interesting, encompassing almost the antithesis of what we believe today. Fat is no longer vilified, whole foods are preferred over packaged convenience, and diet culture is out.
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