I was doing some research into the introduction to this week’s sermon and rabbit trailed to a listing of rationing levels in England during World War II. At the start of the war England imported nearly seventy percent of her food supplies, and with the German submarine war, these imports dropped dramatically. How much weight would you lose if you ate the following per week
Bacon and Ham – 4 ounces (4 slices)
Sugar – 8 ounces
Tea – 2 ounces (two teabags)
Meat – 1 lb, 3 oz (four to five hamburger patties)
Cheese – two ounces (two slices)
Eggs (powdered) – 2
Milk (powdered) – 1/2 pint (one glass)
Preserves (marmalade) – 2 ounces
Butter – 2 ounces (1/2 of a stick of butter)
Margarine (horrible by today’s standards) – 4 ounces
Lard – 2 ounces
“Sweets” (pastries, candy, chocolate) – 3 ounces
Plus, for most of the war, a fairly substantial ration of poor quality bread and poor quality potatoes, and a few un-rationed items such as South African snoek (a bad tasting fish).
By the way the clothing ration, by the middle of the war, was about enough to buy one new outfit (suit or dress) a year.
Does this make you think?
