I haven’t read the article. Whenever this topic comes up I reflect upon the years at the schools in Southern California back in the 50’s, and the 60’s when we had all the junk food we could handle, and we hadn’t the fat problem then, so why now?
Basically we ate the same stuff then as now. Burgers, fries, pizza, Hostess Cup Cakes, and Twinkies, and they were better back then too, Coca Cola, Pepsi, Grapette, Nehi, but the one thing we did different was we got off our butts, and played Football, Basketball, Baseball, Ditchum, Kickball, you name it we played outdoors, and we played hard, and ran off the weight.
Even if we sat to watch some favorite television show we still got out daily and exercised.
You probably ate/drank less of it and more than likely not as often. I remember sharing a can of coke with two or three others when we had it. Kids now have access to 2 liter bottles.
Your mom probably dispensed other treats one or two at a time and they probably weren’t always available. I watched a step-nephew down a pack of 12 apple juice boxes in one day to wash down his three mini packs of Doritos. (no, he isn’t an active kid either) A child with one little bag of Doritos and one juice box doled out a few times a week in combination of outdoor play time/sports activities will have a much different calories in/calories out ratio.
We didn’t have “junk food” that often as it wasn’t affordable but we always had oatmeal, fruits and vegetables.