The carrot and stick approach to eating well
READER Roy Bottomley was looking through an old cookery book and found details of rationing during and after the Second World War. “The weekly ration was 6 oz of meat, one egg, 4 oz of butter, 4 oz of cheese, 4 oz bacon, 12 oz sugar, 2 oz of tea and 2 oz of sweets. Vegetables were not rationed,” he says.
He suggests if such a diet was introduced today the problem of obesity would soon be solved. But was it a healthy diet?
Experts say it was extremely healthy when boosted by the Dig For Victory campaign that encouraged those on the Home Front to grow vegetables and fruit on open spaces and in gardens and parks. Even the moat round the Tower of London was converted into allotments.
Before the war, more than two thirds of British food was imported but much of that stopped when German U boats and ships blockaded the British Isles and targeted merchant convoys.
Pigs and rabbits were reared domestically for their meat and so were chickens as well as for their eggs. Wasting food became a crime by 1940.
Sugar was in short supply as were cigarettes and alcohol, which also helped public health.
Science has shown that each generation gains a few degrees in intelligence over their ancestors, because of environmental and social changes, but one study showed that adult intelligence was boosted much more during the war years, and suggested diet was a contributing factor.
The BBC Teach website says: “Food rationing started in January 1940, four months after the start of World War Two. It ran for the next 14 years and changed our eating habits for more than a generation.
“Throughout the war each person was allocated a scientifically devised weekly provision of specific foods. We often think of rationing as a starvation diet but the daily calorific value was around 3,000 calories. This is up to 1,000 more than we are recommended today.”
On top of rations, milk, concentrated orange juice and cod liver oil were given to pregnant women, children and the elderly.
Ayela Spiro, a senior nutrition scientist at the British Nutrition Foundation, says: “Despite shortages the British population ended the war fitter and healthier than ever. Lack of rationing on certain goods meant we ate more vegetables by the end of the war than we do today.”
Potato and vegetable pies became part of a normal diet and fish and chips were never rationed. Children were cajoled to eat veg by cartoon characters such as Potato Pete and Dr Carrot and were offered carrots on a stick instead of ice lollies.
Rationing was never popular, but it was healthy for mind and body.