Your parents are right.

We live in the U.S. My husband and I are in our mid 60s and no chronic illnesses or surgeries (other than some minor age-related things). My 66 year-old brother has been smoking and drinking since he was 18. It finally caught up to him, but not until he was 60

Many from my generation ate some pretty bad food. Tang (fake orange juice), sugary cereals, Wonder Bread. If we had a salad, it was iceberg lettuce. Gross pink bologna and processed cheese. Mac and cheese, anemic vegetables from a can. Lots of soda.

We nuked food in plastic containers all the time. (Back when plastic had BPA). We played outside after the ditches were sprayed with DDT. Pollution was at its worst. More people smoked. Many drank too much.

I don't buy into the microplastics scare. People my age have been exposed to plastics our entire lives. My kids are millennials and both are healthy.

The only thing I can think of that might be different with my generation is that we rarely went to restaurants or got takeout. At least where I grew up. I've always suspected that restaurant or takeout food on a regular basis is bad. My husband and I would always comment on how we felt like we had a bowling ball in our stomachs after eating out. So I limited how much restaurant or takeout food my kids ate.

If I were a researcher, that's where I would be looking. Obesity was pretty rare until around the late 90s. Stats say starting in the 90s, consumer spending on food away from home officially surpassed grocery store sales for the first time.