Reaganomics. MTV. Power suits and shoulder pads. The ‘80s were loud, proud — and surprisingly healthy at the dinner table.
That’s according to Jodi Velazquez, an award-winning author, television co-host and mom on a mission, whose new book “Know the Enemy: Preventing Weight Gain, Diabetes & Disease” makes the case for reviving vintage nutrition.
The Post sat down with Velazquez to learn more about what raising a daughter with diabetes taught her, where today’s food culture went wrong and how to feed your family like it’s 1985.
Finger pricks and food fights
When Velazquez’s firstborn was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at just 19 months old, she and her husband left the hospital with a bag full of medical supplies — and no clue what the future held.
What followed was a crash course in survival. Velazquez was suddenly on 24/7 duty, pricking her toddler’s finger every two hours to check blood sugar levels.
“That’s where I really got my education, because I was able to see what every single food did to her, and what exercise and lack of exercise did to her,” she said.
By the time her daughter turned 10, Velazquez had logged nearly 30,000 finger pricks and administered 8,700 insulin shots — all while trying to shield her child from a food culture built on sugar, temptation and processed junk.
But it wasn’t always this way.
Supersized and sedentary
In her new book, Velazquez highlights several factors she thinks have contributed to America’s growing waistline.
Flash back to 40 years ago: People ate out less, and when they did, it was usually local spots serving fresh, balanced meals.
“The scary thing is that if you were born after 1990, you were born into a world saturated with fast food and oversized portions.”
Jodi Velazquez
“In the ’70s and the ’80s, we didn’t eat fast food every day or every week,” she said. “Our diets were more consistent.”
Fast-forward to today, and research shows that many Americans no longer regularly fire up their stoves at home. Our concept of the “dining out experience” has also shifted from sit-down family restaurants to quick, cheap, ultra-processed meals on the go.
Just look at the numbers. Velazquez notes that there are now more than 25,000 fast-food chains in the US, a staggering 1,000% increase since 1970.
McDonald’s alone has exploded from 1,000 restaurants in 1968 to more than 14,000 today. Starbucks, meanwhile, has added more than 10,000 new stores since 1982, she writes.
But it’s not just the number of fast-food sites that has changed — it’s what’s on the menu.
Take soda, for example: In the 1950s, a typical soft drink was 6.5 ounces and 85 calories. By 2014, that ballooned to 20 ounces and 250 calories — nearly triple the size, and triple the sugar, Velazquez points out.
Why the bloat? Blame consumer demand and fierce competition among fast-food chains.
“Everybody wants to have the new thing, the tastiest thing, the craziest thing, the biggest thing, and people fall for it,” Velazquez said. “I think it’s marketing.”
Today’s fast-food frenzy also means our eating habits are wildly inconsistent compared to the more streamlined diets of the past.
“If you’re eating a six-inch hamburger with french fries at a fast-food place one day and the next day you have spaghetti and meatballs at home, that’s a very different variation in fat, sugar and salt,” Velazquez explained.
For diabetics, this means erratic blood sugar levels. For the rest of us, it leads to peaks and valleys in our energy levels.
Parents, Velazquez said, struggle even more these days to track what’s going into their children’s bodies. Consider the classroom rewards, birthday treats and after-school sweets during playdates or day care — just a few sugary temptations that accumulate throughout the day.
“If you’re a parent and your child doesn’t have an issue like allergies or diabetes, there may not be a need to tell you,” she said. “So that means parents might not even know that their kids are getting all of these calories outside of the house.”
Worse yet, the concept of three square meals a day is becoming a thing of the past.
“We have the availability of food everywhere now,” Velazquez said. “I think a lot of people are grazing all day, getting packaged and processed foods here and there.”
But Velazquez emphasizes that time between meals is essential for our bodies.
“Breakfast, lunch and dinner gives your pancreas time to have a break. It gives your insulin time to work,” Velazquez said. “You might have two or three hours in between meals, and I think that’s a lost concept for a lot of people.”
Despite consuming lower-quality foods in larger portions more frequently, we’re moving less than ever. Studies show a significant decline in physical activity in recent decades, driven by factors like the rise of desk jobs, the convenience of automobiles and modern technology.
Taken together, these factors have ignited a nationwide crisis, with nearly 260 million Americans expected to be overweight or obese by 2050. This puts them at increased risk for a laundry list of serious chronic health conditions, including heart disease and stroke.
“The scary thing is that if you were born after 1990, you were born into a world saturated with fast food and oversized portions,” Velazquez said.
“Now there’s an uptick in young people getting diabetes, and those people don’t have anything to revert back to,” she added. “They don’t have those basic, good nutritional habits.”
Looking backward for a healthier future
Raising a diabetic child in the 21st century wasn’t easy for Velazquez. It required trial and error, diligent tracking, extensive research and even some negotiating with her daughter.
But the effort paid off: Today, Marlo is a healthy, thriving 26-year-old.
The lessons Velazquez learned while managing her daughter’s diabetes reshaped her entire household’s approach to food. Now, she’s passing those insights on to others.
How to eat like the ’80s in 2025
Returning to the basics of “vintage nutrition” is the essential foundation for making sustainable, practical changes to your everyday diet, Velazquez explained.
“To feed your family like it’s 1980 means just avoiding those high sugar and unhealthy fat foods that are out there, being active, having consistency in your diet and just having breakfast, lunch and dinner, with maybe a very small snack in between,” she said.
A lot of these changes start right at home.
“When I go out, I seem to overeat because the portions are bigger,” Velazquez said. “When I cook for myself, I have more energy and I feel better. I eat well and I don’t eat a lot of high sugar and high fat foods. I can control how much salt goes into my meals.”
“It doesn’t have to be bland, like hospital meals, but it also doesn’t have to all be sprinkled and dipped and battered,” she continued. “I think that’s where we crossed the line.”
To help families remember the core principles of vintage nutrition, Velazquez created a simple acronym: Follow the ABCTs.
- A: Avoid unhealthy, high-fat and high-sugar foods.
- B: Be active and avoid being sedentary, especially after meals.
- C: Consistency in your food choices.
- T: Timing.
She also has a clear message for parents: “Always lead by example. If you’re overeating, your kids are going to do the same thing.”
In her book, Velazquez emphasizes the value of getting kids moving, teaching them how food affects their bodies and inviting them into the kitchen to learn those lessons firsthand.
She also encourages parents to rethink how they talk about weight with their children.
“Little subtle reminders are great, like telling them here and there about trying to keep your weight in a good range because it’s healthier for your body, not because of the way you want to look,” she said.
