1940s low fat high carb weight loss

[Todaypicard]

Hi everyone.
Ive been struggling with weight gain since I went back to work after maternity leave 4 years ago, and have probably gained about 10kg.
Recently was reading about 1940s diets (wartime/rationing) and that this was the healthiest period of our past in terms of diet. Obesity was negligible. Diets were full of veg, whole meal bread, potatoes, with meat/cheese/sugar all rationed and therefore eaten in very small amounts. And obviously no processed food! We were also more active. Further reading finds that the countries in the world with the lowest weights and highest health outcomes are low fat/high carb countries like Japan.
I also found a great website called 1940sexperiment where a lady shares all her wartime recipes and has lost a lot of weight in the process.
So…. I’m going to have a go at more wartime eating! It might be a bit dull, but it’s certainly nutritious and filling!
Todays menu: porridge for breakfast, carrots/broccoli/cabbage/potatoes and gravy for lunch, and some vegetable soup for dinner. If anyone would like to join me then please do so!

You just living on veg it’s very very low cal. Zero protein? Japanese diet is very protein rich as they eat a lot of fish. I feel like this faddy and unsustainable I would not be full up

Low fat isn’t always a good thing you do need some of the good fats you would find in fish

Keep us posted OP, I want to hear how you get on. Sounds very tasty to me :)

Didn’t they all get rickets?

Sounds awful, your farts will stink. Japan eats a lot of fish.

I think it’s worth considering that the rationing was an important element, they physically had no access to additional meat, fats and sugars.

Where we can easily have extra/convenience foods, what’s stopping us?

Yes they had healthy diets, compared to previously and now I believe

You'll cut down your calories coming from fat, but will you be able to cut down calories overall given the high carb?

Dont forget that a lot of their calorie intake was used up doing very manual work, walking much further than we do now, washing by hand, cleaning without equipment and white goods, gardening for their food.

Also, as far as Ive read about it and seen programmes about it, they were incredibly hungry

But good luck, I like this sort of thing!

Have a look at the blue zones cookbook. Wholefood mostly plant based communities have a statistically higher chance of reaching old age in good health.

Most people in "western" economies actually eat too much, not too little, protein and far too little fibre. On a wholefood plant based diet you can get more than enough protein from beans/ pulses, oats and protein and good fats as well as fibre and other nutrients from nuts.

The only downside is it's hard to stick to because in our society processed sugar, processed meat etc. are so extremely easily accessible, cheap and require so little effort to get from shelf to stomach when tired and unmotivated!

I think it was the increased physical activity, mainly down to the lack of things we take for granted, they walked everywhere. No central heating. I think portion sizes were smaller too.

Healthy isn't defined by lack of obesity.

This
Are you walking 6 miles to work and back to work down the mines too or are you commuting upstairs to your home office?

Sounds like she is just going to be eating U.K. seasonal veg in the main and that’s it from the sounds of things but even I know that meat and fish was available during rationing so I don’t understand why this diet is so limited.

Allowances fluctuated throughout the war, but on average one adult’s weekly ration was 113g bacon and ham (about 4 rashers), one shilling and ten pence worth of meat (about 227g minced beef), 57g butter, 57g cheese, 113g margarine, 113g cooking fat, 3 pints of milk, 227g sugar, 57g tea and 1 egg. Other foods such as canned meat, fish, rice, condensed milk, breakfast cereals, biscuits and vegetables were available but in limited quantities on a points system.

I’m old enough to remember when snacking was completely frowned on as was eating in the street as deemed common by my Mother. There was processed food in the 1970’s but it was very much a treat and hardly ever eaten. Plus portion size and drinks, stuff like fizzy drink was a treat every few weeks. My family didn’t have a car, I remember doing a weekly shop with my Mother, the woman never went to a gym in her life but could carry many bags of shopping the mile home.

I have put on a bit of weight as post menopausal and I also had two bouts of illness and then DH had an accident and I had to look after him, plus putting him in the recovery position put my back out badly. I usually walk an hour a day. In the last 9 months I have been inactive for 4 months so a weight gain.

I am tackling it now. I am using a smaller 1970’s dinner plate so portions are a bit smaller but plate still full and going low carb and looking at actual calorie content.

My Mum spent a lot of WW2 hungry, the amounts were very small. Just cut down on carbs, processed food, drink more water, do not snack and exercise more. You need some protein in your day.

Your meal plan for the day seems to be lacking in protein. I'm all for eating loads of veg but surely you need some protein.

Yes, this. Blue Zone diets are low in protein, about 65% is complex carbs: purple sweet potatoes, seaweed and other dark green, leafy vegetables. Pulses. On Sardinia they eat more dairy than on Okinawa, but it’s still stuff that takes considerable time to make, like Pecorino Sardo. Basically poor man’s diets and protein sources are expensive in terms of both cost and time (you have to raise the animals, let the cheese mature, milk the sheep and goats or catch the fish).

I absolutely believe this can work @Todaypicard and fingers crossed. I have been eating like this for a couple of years now and once I decided to lose weight by cutting my previously huge portions my weight just melted away and I actually have a hard time maintaining. Happy to join you and share inspiration 😊

It’s mainly from the lack of sunlight. Air quality back in the 1940s and 1950s was much much worse (London Smog 1952).

Everyone’s thoughts are really valuable, thank you.
we eat a lot of oats, pulses, beans anyway as are just about vegetarian!! The very occasional bit of chicken or fish once a month

And we don’t eat much processed food anyway.
today I didn’t have time for breakfast, had a lentil and vegetable “shepherds pie” with green veg for lunch, and tonight will have crackers/boiled egg/raw veg and fruit

But obesity is unhealthy

Don’t forget to do all your washing by hand and walk or take the bus almost everywhere!! Jokes aside, Physical activity was a major part of every day life.

Wasn't that to do with lack of vitamin D because sunlight literally couldn't get through smog etc? Rather than diet so much?

Are you going to walk miles every day and carry groceries home on foot, do the laundry by hand, beat the rugs in the street, clean the carpets with a manual sweeper or dustpan and broom, scrub the front step every Monday, make bread by hand, use a manual push lawnmower etc etc? I suspect all that activity had a lot of do with people being thinner, as well as eating a lot less than people do now.

There's a lot of protein in random things

3g in one potato ( not large , so probably have more than 1 )

Another 3g if the porridge is made with milk
Veg soup would usually have beans or lentils - another 5g and a slice of bread another 3

Then lots of 1 -2 grams for each of the various veggies - it sharp adds up - 80g Brocilli about 2.5g for example

Has anyone tried The Stone Age Diet, popularised by Dr Mackarness?

What are you defining as low in protein?

Are you using a calculation of grams or are you just looking at types of food and it not being particularly high in meat/cheese/fish?

Because thats not how protein is measured

This was a great thread

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/foodandrecipes/4946325-world-war-2-rationing-challenge-too-much-food

During WW2 my family in France ate rabbits, vegetables that had been just for animals like parsnips and Jerusalem artichokes, and margarine made from fish oil.