The Ration Book Diet

LizzieMaine · Aug 24, 2008

ShoreRoadLady said:
Have you tried carbonated mineral water, possibly with some juice mixed in? It helps satisfy *some* of the must-have-soda cravings.

I helped myself to a lot of soda a couple weeks ago, and my skin definitely paid the price. I can get away with a little bit on occasion, but not a lot, and not often.

We've recently started carrying Saratoga sparkling water at work, and even though I have to pay for it, I find it does satisfy the craving for fizz. Kinda hard to walk past the fountain to get to it though, but I'm adjusting.

The Saratoga comes in a very vintage cobalt-blue glass bottle, for an extra classy touch.

I've not been able to completely kick the soda habit -- last week was a rather grueling one, and I needed the caffeine to get thru it -- but I'm down to a lot less than I was. Before starting this diet I put away an entire case of Orange Crush in about two days, which in retrospect was a very very bad idea.

An interesting note on wartime distribution of Coke -- Coca-Cola actually got an unlimited sugar ration after it successfully argued that it provided a vital service to the wartime public. It didn't hurt that it was also Ike's favorite drink. But most of the product went to servicemen, so the general public had to make do with a sort of ad-hoc Coke rationing -- many stores would only sell it between noon and 5pm.

Dr Doran · Aug 25, 2008

I do love cold fizzy beverages. I always feel 10 degrees warmer than everyone else, so I like to cool down. Cold sparkling water works for me, too. No calories and the faintly mineral taste is pleasant.

desi_de_lu_lu · Aug 25, 2008

I noticed nothing was said of coffee. That is great news!
How about chocolate?

I applaud you for your efforts to curb or cut out entirely that soda you drink. You are saving your teeth for years to come!

I think also, your portion sizes must be smaller also, and thus the weight loss?

Lola Getz · Aug 25, 2008

This thread is very interesting, LizzieMaine! This might sound weird, but what does a typical day's meals look like for you?

This also reminds me of "1940's House". I loved watching the ladies go to the market with their ration books and see what they could get (and what wasn't available) and what they could actually make with what they had. I remember the mother of the 2 boys becoming very upset with her mother for eating a piece of cake, saying that the boys "needed" it more than her! lol Sorry, but if I'm scrubbing the house, gardening all day, volunteering my time and such, I think I could do with a bit of cake too.

LizzieMaine · Aug 25, 2008

Well, let's see -- yesterday's menu was:

1 bowl Shredded Wheat with skim milk
1 cup black tea

Lunch:

Corned beef (2 slices) with Swiss cheese (1 slice) on bulkie roll
1 cup black tea

Supper:
1 can B&M beans
Raw carrot
Ice Water

At work:
1 small popcorn
Saratoga water on ice

Before bed --
1 slice corned beef eaten straight from the fridge

That's fairly typical -- I have the ability to eat the same thing day after day without getting sick of it. Not exactly an Adele Davis diet plan, but it seems to be working. Current weight 145 lbs -- down from 153 at the start of the month.

MPicciotto · Aug 25, 2008

LizzieMaine,

Thanks for setting me straight about fish. Now I guess a broader question. In your experience does the "ration book diet" provide sufficient nutrition on a daily basis? In your estimation did it do so in WW2 when for many people physical labor was more integral to their jobs (Housewives included) then it is today? I ask both from a historians perspective and as a person who is considering the diet. I just wonder about the sustainability. Once you reach an ideal weight will you have to increase your 'ration' or is the diet sufficient enough that your body will adjust to that level of food consumption.

Thanks
Matt

LizzieMaine · Aug 26, 2008

Well, I certainly wouldn't recommend everyone try to live on beans and corned beef -- it's not exactly a balanced diet, and it's liable to cost one a friend or two in close quarters. But in general, the rationing system was designed to be nutritionally complete as nutritional completeness was then understood.

In particular, there was a much stronger emphasis on carbohydrates than is fashionable today -- lots of "quick food energy" was seen as an asset in a time when everyone was liable to be overworked and busy with a lot of physical activity. That same carbohydrate level might not be so healthy for the typical sedentary keyboard-jockey/car-commuter of 2008. So depending on one's own daily routine, one might want to make adjustments.

It's also worth noting that the early '40s first saw the emergence of vitamin supplements as a commonly-available part of the diet -- One-A-Days, Vimms, and other brands were very popular as people began to get in the habit of fortifying their diets with these tablets. This helped considerably in making up for vitamins they weren't getting from foods that might have been in short supply, especially fresh produce.

The Government played an important part in promoting awareness of such nutritional issues -- for example, they actually promoted a game called "Vita-Min-Go" in classrooms, as a way of stressing the importance of a well-balanced diet.

RitaHayworth · Aug 26, 2008

Mac Daddy said:
I found this to be the most insane thing on my travels to America, every portion size is so much larger. I found in most fast food places, our large is your medium. So often I found I had way to much food, and I am a big guy. The litre of cola was a bit much to, and the free refills. In Australia we have to pay each time we want a drink if we dine in at a restaurant. I am surprised we in Australia still came out as the fattest country.

I look forward to further progress reports.

yeah - I cant believe free refills!!! The only free refills I think i have ever seen here in oz is at pizza hut

A work colleague said the same thing of the US when traveling, she couldn't believe how different our portion sizes were.

RitaHayworth · Aug 26, 2008

Miss Neecerie said:
Just a note...technically the zero/light versions are healthwise no better for you...as the chemical sweeteners have their own ill effects.

Please note I drink the diet kind...but have cut way way back...for this reason...so bad for me...the -only- thing the diet version spares is calories.

I went cold turkey off diet drinks. I miss them like mad, but its scary reading what they can do to you.

RitaHayworth · Aug 26, 2008

Lizzie - this sounds like a great idea!

i recently read of a TV programme in England where Dieters went on diets like the Victorians had etc. One girl even had to wear a corset, which she said made eating lots difficult.

here is the page if your interested:

http://www.fabulousmag.co.uk/diets/diet_victorian_diet_issue_007.php

Feraud · Aug 26, 2008

LizzieMaine said:
It's also worth noting that the early '40s first saw the emergence of vitamin supplements as a commonly-available part of the diet -- One-A-Days, Vimms, and other brands were very popular as people began to get in the habit of fortifying their diets with these tablets. This helped considerably in making up for vitamins they weren't getting from foods that might have been in short supply, especially fresh produce.

This is interesting. Yet the vitamin supplement craze continues and has grown in spite of the fact that fresh produce is generally available.

Warden · Aug 26, 2008

There is a book called 'The Ration Book Diet' by Mike Brown available on Amazon about British war-time eating and rationing. I have not read this myself so I can't say how good it is but he has written several other books about wartime subjects which have been quite informative.

I enjoyed the book, but it is not a traditional diet book, rather it gives examples of menus and wartime meals modified for the more modern pallet.

Harry

RitaHayworth · Aug 27, 2008

Sorry - I am hijacking this thread!

But I just came across this article:

http://www.redorbit.com/news/health/852085/ration_book_diet_turned_us_into_a_slimmer_fitter_nation/index.html

Edward · Aug 27, 2008

LizzieMaine said:
The rationing was handled differently in different countries -- in the UK, for example, meat was rationed by points and price: at various times, nobody could have more than 2/- or 3/- worth a week for meat (between 50 and 60 cents a week in 1942 US dollars). That's a bit too thin on the plate even for me!

I remember years ago being in a museum somewhere in England which had a display on wartime rationing (and beyond - rationing in the UK carried on until 1949). They had (I presume plastic!) examples of all the food that an adult would get for a week, alongside a then contemporary (we're talking mid 80s here) British soldier's field rations for 24 hours. I remember wondering how people during the war managed to survive on so little...... and thinking that soldiers today did alright. lol

Warden · Aug 27, 2008

Don't forget you could purchase other food, for example oats, veg and even bread where not rationed during the war. (Bread rationing started in 1946 after the war).

Plus you had whatever you could grow in your victory garden / allotment.

Harry

Paisley · Aug 27, 2008

LizzieMaine said:
Well, let's see -- yesterday's menu was:

1 bowl Shredded Wheat with skim milk
1 cup black tea

Lunch:

Corned beef (2 slices) with Swiss cheese (1 slice) on bulkie roll
1 cup black tea

Supper:
1 can B&M beans
Raw carrot
Ice Water

At work:
1 small popcorn
Saratoga water on ice

Before bed --
1 slice corned beef eaten straight from the fridge

That's fairly typical -- I have the ability to eat the same thing day after day without getting sick of it. Not exactly an Adele Davis diet plan, but it seems to be working. Current weight 145 lbs -- down from 153 at the start of the month.

Congratulations on losing weight and drinking less soda. It's not easy.

I, too, often like the same things over and over again. I ate Life cereal every day for years. But I think it might have contributed to some food sensitivities that I now have.

When you say you don't really like vegetables, do you mean the kind you grew up on? Our parents' generation tended to overcook things and slather them with butter or cheese. I find I like vegetables far better when they are steamed and seasoned, or roasted with a little olive oil (like the fries I mentioned). It's a whole different taste.

A few I enjoy:

Sweet potatoes or yams. Bake like a potato or cut into 1/2 inch slices and steam in the pressure cooker for 7-8 minutes and mash. Cheap, and highly nutritious.
Carrot salad. Grate a carrot and sprinkle with dried fruit or nuts. Add cole slaw dressing.
Cauliflower with bell peppers. Steam for 10 minutes and top with Annie's red pepper dressing.
Chicken soup with kale. Kale is highly nutritious and sort of takes on the flavor of the soup. Just throw in a few leaves when you make your soup.

LizzieMaine · Aug 27, 2008

Well, that's quite possible -- the only vegetables we ever had when I was growing up were boiled cabbage, spinach, carrots, string beans, peas, and corn. The spinach, peas, beans, and corn came out of cans, except for a few weeks in the summer when we'd get some fresh from a farm stand. Lettuce was a rare and exotic thing, served only on those occasions when "tossed salad" was called for. Cucumbers we usually only saw in pickle form.

So I really didn't have much of a chance to develop a taste for them -- and I really couldn't stand cooked vegetables except for corn on the cob. They were cooked just as you described -- boiled to a paste. (My mother, whatever her other strengths, could not cook at all, and my grandmother's talents leaned more to the fish and meat than the vegetable...)

I do like vegetables raw though -- when I was little I used to grow a bed of carrots behind the back doorstep and I'd pull them up and gobble them down before they had a chance to get much beyond the infant stage.

Our main side dish was always potatoes -- baked, mashed, or fried, we ate them by the ton, and I lost my taste for them (except, alas, as french fries) somewhere around 1969.

Miss Sis · Aug 27, 2008

Well if you like raw vegetables then it's worth trying them in that state rather than cooked and seeing if you like 'em better that way. You can eat loads of veges raw, just give them a good wash first!

I don't really like cooked carrots at all (although I'll eat them if they're put infront of me) but love them raw. Tastes do change as you age as well.

Also it does make a HUGE difference if they aren't overcooked and I'll second the steam them idea. Personally, if I don't get my fill of fresh fruit and veg daily, I start to feel ill after about 2 - 3 days, so I have a pretty healthy diet all in all.

Paisley · Aug 27, 2008

Fresh Pumpkin

I guess our mothers went to the same cooking school. lol

I believe canned foods were overcooked to prevent food poisoning. And canning non-acid foods requires cooking for a long time at a high pressure to begin with.

Lizzie, I bet you've never had the treat of pumpkin pie made with fresh pumpkins. (Don't they grow a lot of them in New England?) Again, it's a whole different flavor and texture from the canned goop.

Anyway, you get a small cooking pumpkin, stab it a few times through, and bake it at 350 until it's spongy (about 1 hour). Let it cool and scoop out the flesh.

You can use the flesh to make pie or chocolate chip pumpkin cookies. Some people make soup out of it; I've never tried it. Freeze whatever flesh you don't need right away.

Paisley · Aug 27, 2008

Miss Sis said:
Personally, if I don't get my fill of fresh fruit and veg daily, I start to feel ill after about 2 - 3 days, so I have a pretty healthy diet all in all.

I've noticed that eating vegetables (greens, etc., not starchy ones) improves my mood. They contain lots of little nutrients and substances that you need to look and feel healthy.

A nutritious dip that I like is to mix cottage cheese and plain, low fat yogurt and some green onion and spices. You can also add salsa instead of green onions.

The Ration Book Diet

LizzieMaine

Dr Doran

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desi_de_lu_lu

Practically Family

Lola Getz

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LizzieMaine

MPicciotto

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