Things people did in 1965 without a second thought, and what they cost you now.
- Skipped breakfast when they weren't hungry. Now it is intermittent fasting, with an app, a podcast and a forty-pound book explaining what your grandfather did on a Tuesday for free.
- Drank from the tap. Now it is reverse-osmosis, remineralised, glass-bottled and four pounds a litre, because the tap is suddenly beneath us.
- Went out without sunscreen. Now it is reckless UV exposure, factor 50 reapplied hourly, on an overcast February morning in Glasgow.
- Had three eggs for breakfast. Now it is a cholesterol risk and a worried chat with a doctor still reading off a leaflet the science binned years ago.
- Put butter on their bread. Now it is saturated fat exposure, gently steered toward a tub of fourteen ingredients, not one of them a cow.
- Walked somewhere because that was how you got there. Now it is a logged step count, a heart-rate zone and ninety-pound carbon-plated trainers for the trip to the corner shop.
The factory settings of 1965 turned out a population leaner, fitter and far less medicated than the one now filling the waiting rooms. None of it was for sale, because none of it was a product. It was simply what people did, before someone realised you could sell it back to them at a markup. It still costs nothing. It always did.