'The Flintstones' say I'm Fat - Really Fat!

I recently found a depressing (if you are overweight) reminder that we, as a nation, used to be thinner than we are now. It came from the a cartoon of all things.

In season 1, episode 28 of The Flintstones titled "Before and After" Fred is the star of a commercial. He learns when it airs that he's playing the "disgusting", "fat", "soft", "slob" of a man in the before photo for a weight loss commercial.

Later when he and Wilma go to complain, he's given a chance to win $1000 by losing 25 pounds and we soon find that this "fat softy" is a whopping.... 225 pounds. Only 101 pounds less than my weight this morning. Sigh.

Yeah I know - "its just a cartoon." It was still a bit of a reality check from a simpler, and apparently thinner, time.