They are the same people now that they were then. Humanity has not become any more weak, fragile, or uninterested in their well-being — it has simply become harder to resist. TV was appointment viewing and cut off late at night. Before the walkman, there wasn’t much option for music everywhere (the scourge was newspaper-readers! but the paper is only so long). And that triple cheeseburger today wasn’t acceptable or available to eat unless you made it yourself. Healthy eating being hard is a product of collective decisions to make it hard.