In 2020 and 2021 I watched a bunch of videos that discussed or demonstrated the eating habits of ordinary English people during WW2. Prior to the war, Britain imported a large proportion of the food. Because they were unable to import much during the war, there were severe shortages of many foods. The Ministry of Food put together a plan to produce as much food as possible on their country's farm land. In addition they heavily encouraged citizens to grow gardens anywhere they had space. The sparse foods that could be bought in shops were stretched substantially with homegrown produce.
When the war was over, the government analyzed statistics for disease and mortality during the war compared to that from before the war. Despite suffering some severe shortages of purchasable foods, the English were actually healthier by the time of the war's end. The hypothesis is that the people were eating far more vegetables and locally grown fruits which led to better health, better body size, and this reduced mortality from disease in the general population.
I was thinking about this as I was putting together tonight's dinner. I served meatloaf, rice, fruit and one vegetable. I was fleshing out the few purchased ingredients with homegrown produce. I packed the mini meatloaves with celery, garlic, tomatoes, herbs, and onions, all from my garden.
I sautéed the green beans that I grew in my own yard in oil and seasoned with garlic and soy sauce.
The plums were picked from our tree yesterday.
I even added more garden herbs and a diced tomato to the gravy.
If I take away all of the foods that we grew for this meal, there would only be ground beef, 1 slice of homemade bread, brown rice, salt, black pepper, vegetable oil, sesame oil, a spoonful of flour for the gravy, and soy sauce.
It's unknown if we'll live longer or be healthier than if we'd eaten more of the Standard American Diet than our usual meals chock-full of fruits and veggies. But I do know for certain that we spend less for foods than if we ate the SAD. And our meals are tastier because of how I cook and all of the garden produce that I use.
I totally agree! But will add that I'm sure you feel much better also! We eat quite similarly. Therefore if we travel and eat at restaurants or stay with friends, we eat very differently for a short time. And, we just don't feel nearly as good and our bodies do not function as well either.
ReplyDeleteHi Linda,
DeleteWe experience the same thing when eating out or staying with family and eating differently. By the end of a vacation, we're all looking forward to eating home-cooking again.
That was an interesting study about the British eating, but it's not surprising from what we understand now. We are like most Americans and could benefit from eating more fruits and vegetables. We make an effort, but there is still room for improvement. It's very satisfying when you are using food that you've grown, isn't it?
ReplyDeleteHi Live and Learn,
DeleteIt does take effort to eat more fruits and vegetables. I have to have that goal in mind when putting together meals. Right now we're trying to use up garden celery. So I'm trying to add it in most dinners in some way or another. Yes, I love that so much of our food in summer and early fall come from our own garden. Satisfying!