Board index » nutrition » WW2 ration diet, is this the best?

2004-04-19 07:55:06 PM
I've often heard that the diet given to civilians during WW2 was one
the best. As a nation, civilians were suppose to be the healthiest
they'v ever been.
If everyone ate the way they use to do during WW2 would we become
healthier?
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"gareth" <garethsouthgate@mail.com>wrote in message
before WWII was very inadequate. At the time of the General Strike, for
example, the working class often had to live on a basic selection of bread,
lard, potatoes and tea. Once WWII started, however, such national policies
as the giving over of land for use as so-called 'victory gardens' and
allotments, plus a more equitable distribution of what food there was thanks
to the policy of 'rationing', meant that a lot of people were eating
significantly better, and quite a few people were no longer eating too much.
My own shy suggestion is that 'if everyone ate the way they did during
WWII', a significant number of people - those who currently subsist on
crisps, coke, fries and burgers etc - would become healthier. But an equally
significant number of other people with more sensible diets probably
wouldn't.
E.G.
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Weren't sugar, coffee, chocolate, butter, etc rationed? And ... "Reach for
a Lucky instead of a sweet!"
Skinny
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On Mon, 19 Apr 2004 19:43:25 +0100, E Gardiner wrote:

med nutrition
Physiological impacts of diet

"Skinny" <no@no.com>wrote in message
Re. food rationing, there's some good basic info here:
www.livingarchive.org.uk/nvq03/julia/rationing.html
E.G.
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On Mon, 19 Apr 2004 23:21:24 GMT, Skinny <no@no.com>wrote:
They told us that the armed forces had first dibs.
Ora
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Do you think the key to rationing was "not eating too much" and
"eating what you need"?
I read that ration foods were limited in terms of variety. I heard
about vegtable gardens being set up but overall variety seemed to have
been limited.
According to my search, eggs, fat, sugar and meat were limited. I also
read (rather suprisingly) that fruit was limited. I dont know about
apples or berries but on the whole people seem to have got away with
eating less variety of produce. Maybe there wasn't the worry of
chemical fertilizer that you have today but it does seem like people
had less choice of foods. Yet, people were apparently healthy. I dont
quite get this.
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On Tue, 20 Apr 2004 00:42:45 +0100, E Gardiner wrote:
year old Barbie doll.... Scary to think the firsthand facts and memories
are lost -- such as novels current at the time by Angela Thirkell and
others. Or even the close second-hand memories, by people whose parents had
lived through it.
Skinny
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"gareth" <garethsouthgate@mail.com>wrote in message
Yet, people were apparently healthy. I dont
-Chad
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www.nutrition.org.uk/information/rationing/wartime.htm
"Many people were better fed during wartime food rationing than before
the war years. Infant mortality rates declined, and the average age at
which people died from natural causes increased"
I am looking for more data.
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Chad C. writes:
obesity is a separate issue.
--
Transpose hotmail and mxsmanic in my e-mail address to reach me directly.
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On 19 Apr 2004 04:55:06 -0700, garethsouthgate@mail.com (gareth)
posted:
Most problems of affluence come from overeating.
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On 19 Apr 2004 18:40:43 -0700, garethsouthgate@mail.com (gareth)
posted:
People were likely healthier (if they actually were) coz they would
have eaten less calories and done more exercise. This can bring a
health improvement in most folks.
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On 20 Apr 2004 02:40:36 -0700, garethsouthgate@mail.com (gareth) wrote:
Maybe it had something to do with penicillin which was introduced in USA and
England during 1942.
Ora
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garethsouthgate@mail.com (gareth) writes:
parts of the world is pretty limited in variety. Modern supermarket
food varieties depend on greenhouses and shipping food all over the
world. That amount of variety isn't needed to be healthy.
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Skinny <no@no.com>writes:
buying food with ration coupons, and there are still some old WW2
soldiers alive.
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g
"Chris Malcolm" <cam@holyrood.ed.ac.uk>wrote in message
been quite clearly deficient in such nutrients as
Se, I, vitamin D, and vitamin A. Iodine is the
most conventionally accepted problem nutrient.
Hence, the iodine fortification programs found
in various nations.
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you be doing less exercise. I guess though, they would have been doing
more house work. They probably would have taken more time to do house
work and less driving as well.
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