Tamara wrote:

<At about 18, I was
stunned to discover that some people ate it only once a week>

<But none of those
who got it once a week only were undernourished.>

I have two brothers. One was born in 1939 before WWII started, I was born in
1943 near the end of it, and my other brother in 1945 right at the end.

The first brother is 5 feet 9 inches tall, I'm 5 feet 2 inches, and the
third brother is 6 feet 2 inches. My mother was 5 feet 6 inches and my
father 5 feet 8 inches.

Although food was rationed, my father did his best with food, growing fruit
and vegetables and keeping chickens and rabbits throughout the war but there
was a limity to the number of animals he could keep in the back garden in
the east end of London. By the time the war ended, although there was still
rationing, he had a good supply of black market food. My mother was a
fantastic cook and, it seemed, could make a meal out of nothing. We had
supplements provided by the government in the form of orange juice and cod
liver oil & malt (never liked that) to avoid deficiency diseases like scurvy
and rickets. The government also published healthy recipes using the food
that was available, mainly vegetables. People were encourages to grow their
own under the slogan "Dig for victory".

I've always been of the opinion that the differences in our heights,
particularly my shortness, were due to the food available to us during our
early growing years. My 9 families of cousins (all living in the east end of
London at the same time) show the same differences.

Although our diets were more vegetables than meat with very little fat, we
were all much healthier and certainly not overweight. I'm sure my dislike of
salads and preference for hot food is due to the comfort found in the hot
food my mother cooked with such care and inventiveness for us.

Jean in Poole
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