How have our food habits changed in 70 years?

In 1952 nearly half of all households ate no meals outside of the home and only one fifth ate one dinner a week out.

The first Wimpy Bars opened in 1954, selling hamburgers and milkshakes, and proved extremely popular.

The 1960s saw our hunger for quick and easy meals grow rapidly. Frozen peas had grown in popularity and the consumption of flour, a cupboard must-have for decades, started to fall.

In the 1970s as more families were able to buy fridges and freezers the popularity of convenience food reached a new level. By the end of the decade, almost all families (95 per cent) owned a fridge.

By 1983, the average person ate three meals a week outside of the home.

By 2015 retailers were selling food in bigger packages – with the average supermarket pizza increasing from 200g to more than 250g in the last two decades.

Pies, muffins, bagels, pizzas and packets of crisps are sold in larger packets than they were in the 1990s.

Eating habits: 1950s v modern day

Then: Sugar, butter, cheese, margarine, cooking fats and meat were still rationed

Now: 2,900,197 tonnes of sugary foods were consumed in the UK last year

Then: 1% of men and 2% of women were obese

Now: 36% of UK adults are obese

Then: Average female was a size 10

Now: Average female is a size 14

Then: Average female weighed 136lb 

Now: Average female weighs 154lb

Then: 14% of population owned a car

Now: 75% of population own a car

Then: A typical breakfast was bacon and eggs

Now: Cereal is the most popular breakfast option

Extracts taken from Boudicca Fox-Leonard from www.telegraph.co.uk