SEASONED SOUTHERN STYLE: War Ration Diet Could Strengthen Immune System

Baker's Cabinet, ca 1900

I have been doing research on WWII and the rationing of foods in the U. S. After looking through the first few books, I realized that my own childhood and the way we ate was, in part, a product of the years of cooking with rations during the war. My mother was raised during this time of rationing, so it was a way of life for her. 

World War II affected how people cooked and ate all across the United States. Cooking for the family meant making do with as few ingredients as you had. Since most mothers had lived through the Great Depression, they knew how to stretch the food they cooked. Many redesigned the recipes from the 1920s and 1930s to fit what groceries were available.  Because of WWII, food rationing was a normal part of life. You couldn't just go to the grocery store and purchase whatever you wanted, even if you had the money. Items such as meats, sugars, and cheese were in rationed supply. This was so that the government could ensure that everyone was getting an equal amount of these items and that things were fair.

Candied Yams and Spinach

Now this isn’t a bad thing at all. In fact, it was noted that children and adults benefited from what is now called the food ration or war ration diet. Most were much healthier and had more energy. Many families continued the diet well into the 1950s, as did mine.

"World War II provided a graphic example of how the ravages of these diseases could be totally halted. Norway was one of several western European nations occupied by Nazi Germany during the conflict between 1939 through 1945.  The Germans removed all animal livestock from these occupied countries. The native population subsisted on whole grains, legumes, vegetables and fruit. Almost immediately death from heart attacks and strokes in Norway plummeted. With the cessation of hostilities in 1945 animal products became available as well as an immediate return to the pre-war levels of deaths from these illnesses. It is a powerful lesson in public health about the cause and cure of our most common killer-heart disease." Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn

"But that wouldn't apply to us today. We have different foods now," I've heard others say. Well, I think it should apply. Our "different foods" have caused numerous diseases and 70% of the population is now obese. Besides that, we are in a WAR right this minute. The enemy is COVID 19, and your immune system probably needs a boost. It certainly doesn't need junk food.

Mom's Basic Soup Recipes

Consider the findings of the British historical reality television program made by Wall to Wall in 2001. The 1940s House was about a modern family who tried living as a typical middle-class family in London during the Blitz of World War III for nine weeks. It included rationed food. There are some valuable lessons we can learn from the WWII diet that could help us beat the biggest threats to health today. 

Rosemary Chicken

The Hymers family followed the War Ration restrictions, and meals were prepared from scratch from what we now call clean foods. A 2001 article in THE GUARDIAN made note of some of the surprising changes in the Hymers eating habits. Wendy Moore wrote:

"The proof of the pudding lies in the experience of the Hymers family who volunteered to go back in time and spend nine weeks surviving on austere rations for the series The 1940s House. . . Not only did all the adult Hymers lose weight and show modest health improvements by the end of the experiment but, six months after filming has ended, grandmother Lyn Hymers has stuck with her wartime regime and insists her health has benefited.

'I feel so much better,' says Lyn, 50. 'It really has become a way of life for me.' 

Taking up the wartime challenge was no easy option for the Hymers. The family - Lyn and husband Michael, their daughter, Kirstie, 29, and grandsons Ben, 10 and Thomas, 7- previously ate a typical modern British diet. Their staple fare consisted of ready-made meals, tinned and frozen convenience foods and takeaways. Lyn rarely cooked, had no idea how to bake a cake and enjoyed smoking and drinking. Not surprisingly, both she and Michael, 52, were overweight and unfit.

After nine weeks of spartan rations and, without the benefits of modern time-saving conveniences, heavy physical labour, it is hardly surprising the adult members of the family lost weight. But after just nine weeks, medical tests also showed their cholesterol, blood pressure and body fat levels had fallen moderately and their muscles grown stronger.

Light Jambalaya and Rice

More significantly, despite returning to their 21st-century home comforts, Lyn and Michael have continued their wartime regime, complete with Spam fritters and home-made cooking. While Michael feels more ambivalent about the benefits of his revolutionary lifestyle change, Lyn has now lost more than a stone, feels healthier, fitter and more energetic than ever before and has given up both alcohol and coffee, without the aid of any weight-reduction programme or exercise regime.

Instead of driving to the supermarket for weekly shopping, she now walks daily to her local bakery, grocer's and butcher's shops to buy fresh produce. She no longer buys convenience foods or ready-made meals, but cooks everything from basic ingredients. And while previously she threw away vast quantities of food each week, she now wastes nothing. One day for lunch she may make soup with fresh peas and the following day a broth from leftover pea pods. She is even converted to the delights of Spam, and although she still smokes, she has given up coffee and alcohol because she simply doesn't want them any more.

Grape Nuts Quick Bread

To her amazement, she has not regained the weight lost during the 40s experiment and feels healthier all round. 'I have battled weight all my life with different diets and going to Weight Watchers,' says Lyn. 'But whatever I did, the weight always yo-yoed back to its old level. This time it is just staying off and I am not hungry.'

In addition, she says, her teeth are whiter, her gums no longer bleed, her eyes are no longer bloodshot, she rarely becomes breathless and her skin is as clear as ever, without the aid of expensive creams.

The fact the Hymers lost weight and their short-term health improved confirms nutritionists' faith in the benefits of combining exercise with a diet high in (fresh vegetables and fruit) and low in fat. But more importantly, nutritional experts also argue that a return to aspects of the wartime diet could, for all of us, be the secret to surviving modern-day killers such as cancer, heart disease, stroke and diabetes."

Creole-Spiced Ham and Beans

Bottom line, if you don't have a good immune system and you're not in good physical shape, you're the one the new COVID 19 is looking for.  Besides washing hands and taking other precautions lined out everywhere in the media, I suggest you also throw away all the "junk" and eat good, healthy, clean food. Make meals with grass-fed meat, organic non-caged eggs, lots of vegetables and fruit, if you can. Start up the soup pot again and/or make bone broth for sipping during the day. Give up anything with high fructose corn syrup drinks and junk food, along with anything that has chemical additives. Read the labels! Think smart! Cook smart! and also Exercise daily. You'll be strengthening yourself and your family against this newest threat to our lives and health. And, you need to start NOW. . .

Grandmother's White House Cookbook

I'll be writing more about the War Ration Diet soon. I have adopted many of the recipes in cookbooks written during WWII into our own meals. Since I've pretty much cooked from scratch for many years, the biggest concession we made while testing the War Ration Diet was smaller portions at meals and no "grazing" in between, a habit we have all gotten into. Finding foods without additives and preservatives has become harder, too. But, it is more than worth it. 

For links to healthy, easy country recipes from my blogs, go to bottom of the page and look under SEASONED SOUTHERN STYLE and WHAT ELSE IS COOKING?

For a quick look at the diet of one British woman who inspired me to try the War Ration diet, go to: THE 1940S EXPERIMENT .

Stay Healthy. . .Stay Safe. . .