I’ve lost almost 3 lbs this week. There AMAZINGLY have been no ups and downs, and no bingeing during the whole of this experiment and after the first few weeks, there have been no cravings. I am METICUOUSLY recording the data for what I am consuming living on WW2 rations for an adult. The only difference at the moment for me are the following things…
a) I am currently using plant based proteins such as tofu or faux meat (sparingly) instead of meat (as I don’t eat meat or fish). HOWEVER, I will be cutting out the faux meat at the end of the week (a lot of the plant based alternatives are ultra-processed) and will rely on extra beans and legumes as people would have done during the war.
b) I am NOT eating desserts on a daily basis during the week as I want to lose weight. I will save my desserts and baking until the weekends so for instance I may well have “bread and butter pudding and custard” on Saturday and a large slice of “country house cake” on Sunday!
c) I am currently not taking my sweet ration. I know I have a problem with sugar cravings when it comes to my mind and body so for now my sweet ration isn’t forthcoming.
I worked out that if I was having a dessert once a day and was taking my sweet ration, my daily calorie intake would roughly be 1940 kcals which was the recommended minimum caloric intake for a woman of average weight (more if you were in a manual work occupation). Essentially I am now eating in a way now that would sustain a healthy weight in the future.
Below you will find the data for fibre, protein, sugars, fats, saturated fats, salt and carbohydrates last week. To me they look OK although I will have more of a focus on protein rich foods this coming week to bump those levels up a bit.
I thought you might be interested and as this essentially is also an experiment about living on WW2 rations and the impact it has on my health and weight, I am trying really hard to record all the data accurately!
C xxxx
This is really interesting and I applaud your hard work, both on the blog/book and on the day to day work of documenting it all.
I happen to have a little book of handwritten recipes which was passed on to me and I wondered if you would be interested in it? A friend of a friend died in 2024 aged 100, it was her mother’s recipe book and while not all the recipes are from the days of rationing, some certainly are, as they include for instance dried egg!
I would be delighted to send the book to you, it can go to the charity shop or in the paper recycling afterwards. Please let me know.
Oh gosh dear Harriet, I would absolutely treasure this forever AND no doubt add some of these recipes on my blog or how about adding one or two in the readers recipes section of my upcoming book? I really want to preserve the recipes used by people who lived before us. My email address is 1940sexperiment@gmail.com – I will send you my address.thank you again, this is truly wonderful xxx. c
Well done on the loss and a LOT of wonderful green on your stats :D, you can do this Carolyn!
Thank you, I was pleasantly surprised when I looked at the week long data following a week of living on WW2 rations xxx
Well done.
Beans, lentils, nuts and seeds have provided nourishment for many centuries. They were an essential part of the vegetarian meals in WW2, and I would trust them far more than something synthetic, created for profit in a laboratory and factory.
We share a 100g bar of high % dark chocolate, without added lecithin, for our ration. A Sunday treat which lasts me all week. It has so cured my Snickers, Bounty, and Mars addiction that I don’t want them any more. Some weeks we forget to have our good chocolate and the bars stay forgotten in the cupboard.
Good that you will be swapping ultra processed foods for beans, lentils etc. Would you be able to give exact weekly allowances of all rationed foods per week including food on points? That would be brilliant.