Gut instinct of a bygone era

Sweet nothings for hungry kids

Readers were left in no doubt what the paper thought about German and Italian soldiers being given sweets and chocolate.

“Sweets go to enemy prisoners – not to our children,” read the headline above a story about how ration packs filled with “boilings and chocolate of the best quality” were going to German and Italians in Scottish prisoner of war camps.

“Thousands of pounds of the finest quality British sweets are being eaten every week,” the story continued. The “sweet bounty” should instead be going to British children, said one sergeant, adding his own children “could be doing with more sugar”. Proof that we’ve always been a nation obsessed with what we eat can be found in this front page article. It blamed deficiencies in people’s diet and unclean crockery for an illness that struck down hundreds of people in Doncaster.

Symptoms included inflammation, swelling and infection of the gums and was said to be caused mainly by a lack of vitamin C.

The Sunday Post’s resident doctor added: “Our chief source of vitamin C is fresh lemons, oranges, grapefruit and green uncooked salads. We don’t get enough of some of these. Green vegetables should as far as possible be eaten uncooked.”

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