EUMIND- Healthy life

In this report we will discuss our topic Healthy life by means of interviewing our parents and
grandparents. Then we will have a clear view of how healthy we are and more importantly
how healthy they were. We will also be comparing our results as lifestyles may vary from
family to family. In the end we will know what was average in the Netherlands. We have
taken notes of our interviews and we will now share them with you. – Kiek, Joost S & Noortje
 Interviews

Renée van Koppen (Pelt)

My mother lived on the emmalaan 11 in Driebergen when she was my age. Her family
consisted of about 30 people, including uncles, aunts and nieces. Her parents were divorced
and she lived with her mother. They also rented some rooms in the house for extra money.
Her mother needed the money because she was studying. Her father had his own company.
My mother was a big fan of the Beatles, so when John Lennon was murdered it came as a
big shock for her. Princes Beatrix also became queen of the Netherlands when she was
about my age.
My grandmother was obsessed with eating healthy and organic food when my mother was
my age. She also cooked meals herself in the weekends for extra pocket money. They
usually bought their groceries in supermarkets and organic farms. They also produced their
own fruits, like apples and pears in the backyard. They also produced their own herbs.
My mother had a lot of exercise; she played tennis, she did
ballet and she cycled a lot. Her mother also did tennis. There
were obviously enough opportunities for them to exercise and
live an healthy life. At school there also was physical education
like we also have nowadays. My mother still doesn’t know for
sure whether they lived a healthier life. This is because she
thinks that we know more about health now.

Ruud van Koppen

My grandfather lived on the Orangeplantage 45 in Delft when he was my age. He had 12
siblings and he came from a very big family. Of course, some members of his family had
been killed during world war 2. When he was fourteen my grandfather lived with ten people in
one house. His younger brother died and three of his siblings were already married. His
father was headteacher in high school and he was head of the evening school. His mother
stayed at home and cared for the family. In 1953 there also was a big disaster were a large
portion of the Netherlands flooded.
Their family was eating quite healthy; they didn’t really have money for candy and other junk
food. They ate fruit and vegetables, meat two times a week and fish once a week. They got
their food from separate shops. They got meat from the butcher, vegetables and fruits from
the vegetable shop and so on.
My grandfather exercised a lot as he went fishing, he walked to school, played football and
he went ice skating. There was enough opportunity for children to stay healthy. This was not
true for adults as neither of his parents played any sports. This was because they had to
work and it wasn’t normal to go jogging yet. My grandparents do think that people lived a
healthier those days. They think that we play on our computers too much instead of playing
outside.
Ron Slootbeek
My dad lived on the julianastraat 15 in Lisse, he lived there with
his brother, sister, father and mother. His mom was housewife
and his father had a wood shop located in a space below their
house. One of the things he specifically remembers from when he
was a child is a life aid action for Africa, because although it was
really special because the whole world was helping one continent
is also just was a huge party.
The food served at his family was almost always healthy: meat,
vegetables and potatoes, except for on Saturdays then his mom
would take out the friar which was not very healthy. He bought food in the supermarket and
only his brother practiced sports, he did tennis and windsurfing. My father himself did not do
any sorts of sports but there if he had wanted to there were sufficient facilities. The school he
was on only had gym classes.
He thinks that children in his time had a healthier life than children I 2018, this he thinks
because although children sport more there is more fast-food and children play outside less.

Elizabeth van Splunter

My grandmother lived together in one house with seven people. Her mother was a housewife
and her father was a shopkeeper in a bicycle store. She lived on the saxen weimarlaan 2a in
Amsterdam. One of the international events she remembers from when she was a teenager
was the war in New Guinea. This made a very big impression on her because there were
children in her class who actually came from New Guinea.
To the standards of her time she thinks that she lived reasonably healthy, she almost always
ate potatoes, vegetables and two or three times in the week meat. She bought food at local
stores. She and her sisters did gymnastics and her brother did korfball. For these sports
there were enough facilities. In school she had 2 sports classes every week.
She thinks that children in her time had a healthier life than children in 2018 because we play
more outside and for them things like candy or sweets were a luxe product not affordable for
the average child.

Marieke Landwier – van Maanen

Marieke is Kiek’s mom. She lived in Voorburg. She has 2
brothers and her parents both had 2 siblings as well. When
she was 14, it was normal to have 2 kids on average. Her
father was a director of a shipping company and her mother
was studying theology. A specific fact she remembers from
the news when she was about 14 were that the Berlin wall
came down and all the communist countries in Europe
vanished (except Russia), it was on the news a lot. Another
specific piece from the news she remembered was the
ending of Apartheid in South Africa. This meant black people
there were no longer abused, locked up and discriminated
there. She specifically remembers it because people from
South Africa came to visit a lot for her parents and her. This
is also how she learnt to understand and speak a little bit of
Zulu.
At the time she was 13, she ate healthy according to the average standards, nowadays,
having potatoes, meat and vegetables nearly every day is not considered healthy because
we now know you need to have variety in nutrition. She did not get any sweets or sugar from
her parents. She bought it in secret sometimes. Her family bought their food at the local
supermarket where you could buy about everything you can buy nowadays. There were less
sweets and drinks with tons of sugar in them, though.

For physical activities, she did gymnastics and horse riding. Her brothers did soccer and
hockey. They also had PE lessons two times a week at school where she would do baseball,
sprinting, soccer and lots of other sports. They also had sport tournaments. Neither of her
parents practiced a sport. In her neighborhood, there were a lot of sports clubs. A lot of
children lived in Voorburg so it was smart to get children to move like this.

Marieke thinks children in her time and in our time were about equally healthy because
nowadays people are way more conscious about what they eat and about what is healthy but
also, much more sweets are available.

Anneke Landwier-van der Meer

Anneke is Kiek’s grandmother. She had 4 brothers which was about average in a Catholic
family. Her father’s family had 8 children and her mother’s family had 5 (there were more kids
but they died early which was normal for that time because there was no antibiotics yet).
They lived in a little village called Leidschendam. The profession of her father was working at
a vegetable garden. Her mother stayed at home to take care of her children, to wash, to
clean and to cook. Directly after primary school she began to work to earn money for her
family. This meant she did not have a further education. When Anneke was 14, the important
things going on in the world were the Cold War, the Hungarian Revolt, the wall in Germany
was built and there was a crisis going on in Cuba and she noticed her parents were worried
about a war breaking out. She got the news from the radio for one hour on Sunday and her
whole family would listen to it.

In the Netherlands, the life expectancy became 30 extra years. 8 years because of
Healthcare, 10 years because of improved nutrition, 12 years because of improved hygiene.

Around the time that Anneke was 14, she and her family ate healthy for the time they lived in.
There were almost no processed foods. She ate a lot of vegetable because her father would
take them home from the garden he worked in. Also, a lot of the vegetables we know now
(which we import) were not eaten at that time. They had never heard of peppers and
broccoli. They did eat a lot of beans, spinach and cauliflower. On Wednesdays and Sundays,
they ate meat and chicory. If they needed food, they would buy some at the market. They
produced enough vegetables by themselves in the garden behind their house, traded them
for potatoes or meat from other families. Every Thursday, a store delivered their groceries,
things like soap, jelly and peanut butter.

Family members did not practice sorts at all, that including the fact that Leidschendam was a
really small village, there were not enough children to set up a sport club of some sort. There
was a sport center, where mostly adults went to stay in shape, though only the wealthier
ones. A lot of the children did not feel the need to sport because they had PE in school and
mostly boys would play outside all the time playing soccer and baseball which means they
moved enough. The girls would help their mothers so they did not go outside that much.

Her opinion is that children nowadays are about equally healthy as children from her time.
Children in her time were outside way more in the fresh air. Also, children now have way
more sugars, fast-food and snacks. Although, Healthcare has improved drastically and there
is more of a variety food now.
Opinion on group question
What could you do to have a healthier life?
Firstly, we all think that if we wanted to we could all sport more and we all think that if we
wanted to we could do more things outside like walking, playing soccer and also with warmer
weather just making your homework outside. We also think that we could all eat healthier
and look more at what exactly we eat.

Comparison
Comparison parents

Similarities
1. Everyone ate meat, vegetables and
potatoes.
2. Most of the interviewees did many sports.
3. Every interviewee lived in a small town.
Comparison grandparents
Differences
1. Some families are very big but also some
very small.
2. They all remember different things.
3. The amount of money the families had is
different.

Similarities
1. All big families
2. They all ate about the same things.
3. They all did not eat candy (very often).
Comparison grandparents and parents
Differences
1. They lived in really different places.
2. The amount of sports they could do were
different per city.
3. They all remember different events.

Similarities Differences
1. they still had the same kind of meals 1. there were less housewives later
2. most of them practised sports 2.there was a bigger variety of food later
3. Candy still wasn’t widely available 3. families were smaller later on

Conclusion
Although the food of our ancestors had less variations, they did eat healthier than we do
nowadays and although they were outside more they did less sports. So, has the lifestyle of
the families become more or less healthy? We think that our ancestors were healthier than
we are. The amount of time we nowadays spend behind the computer is idiotic. Because of
that we are outside less, we move less and we eat many things without burning any calories.
There is in our age also the fact that we can buy things like candy and chocolate at almost
any time every day. Because of all these reasons we believe that the lifestyle of the families
has become less healthy.