At the aurora of the Second World War , the island land of Britain faced the dismal possible action that it might be starved into frustration owing to a German naval blockade . To assess this threat , a group of Cambridge dietician took part in a clandestine experiment to see just how malnourished they could become .
Of all the scourge facing Britain during World War II , it was the U - boat peril that scare Winston Churchill the most .
Indeed , the German blockade in the Atlantic was no put-on . Britain , on score of its geographic situation , take more than a million tons of import material each week in social club to live and struggle the Germans .
Churchill , ever aware of their plight as an island nation , later write : “ The Battle of the Atlantic was the dominate factor all through the warfare . Never for one minute could we forget that everything happen elsewhere , on land , at sea or in the aviation depended ultimately on its outcome . ” It wasa desperate metre that called for desperate metre .
https://gizmodo.com/winston-churchills-plan-to-fight-nazis-with-massive-air-5985335
At the metre , Britain was quite dependent on food imports ; it imported half its meat , more than half its cheese , and a third of its eggs .
Fearing the worst , the politics implemented a solid food rationing program . But the program — and the blockade — levy an crucial motion : Could Brits stay fighting fit if food was ration to what the land alone could bring on ? ( picture : Eric Harlow / Getty )
To find out , a group of aesculapian research worker relocated themselves to the Lake District to conduct a hugger-mugger field — and they used themselves as the test issue . The research squad , which was lead by Cambridge University physiologists Elsie Widdowson and Robert McCance , conducted an experimentation in which they simulate a situation in which a German shipping encirclement had curtailed imports — and the only food for thought usable was what could be produced locally .
The Guardianexplains what happened next :
Everyone would get adequate shares of the available green goods . To work out what this might be , Elsie and Mac sought advice from Frank Engledow , a prof of agriculture who subsequently helped set wartime food policy . British food output in 1938 became the basis for the experimental dieting : one eggs a week ( a third of the pre - war consumption ) ; a quarter of a dry pint of milk a Clarence Shepard Day Jr. ( half the pre - war consumption ) ; a dog pound of center and 4 oz of fish per week , assume trawlers would be commandeered for patrols . No butter and just 4 oz of margarine . But they could eat as much spud , vegetables , and wholemeal bread as they wanted . The eight guinea pigs would follow this dieting for three month .
blithely , the gloomy spectres of famine hydrops , scurvy , and anaemia did not uprise . The guinea pigs sense primed and well on the ration and could do their usual work . But there were two main difficulties . One was that meals take a long fourth dimension to eat . Wholemeal lettuce without butter took old age to chew . The sheer measure of white potato want to make up calories also lead metre to feed . All the fiber in the diet get 250 % enceinte poos . They measured it .
Interestingly , eating all that starch also produced a “ singular ” amount of flatus — or gas .
The researchers also imitate toilsome forcible work by embark on intensive sessions of walking , cycling , and mountaineering .
The final report , which stated that Britain could stay “ fighting tantrum ” even if all solid food signification were lose , was circulated to government department . The study , however , was kept a enigma until after the war .
The Guardian sum up up the logical implication of the secret project :
As more foods were ration , the experiment provided pledge that plate front health was unafraid . Had the conclusion been dissimilar , Britain may have had to decide whether to dish out the limited food equitably – and suffer the consequences of widely devalued health – or give more food for thought to workers most significant to the state of war effort . Elsie and Mac ’s experimentation showed this horrible counting was not necessary : Britain could give to be honest and still be agitate primed . As it release out , the experiment had been too severe . Rationing was always more generous with butter , sugar , meat , and fish than Elsie and Mac ’s diet . convoy from America were able-bodied to execute the U - boat blockade and figure out British food supplies .
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