[Report 1941] / Medical Officer of Health, Guernsey.

  • Guernsey (Channel Islands). Council.
Date:
1941
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1941] / Medical Officer of Health, Guernsey. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    10/30 (page 6)
    at the end of the last war, had been seen until the end of the year when cases began to occur. As the year progressed, so our diet became more and more restricted, and the rationed foods were as follows: — Bread, 4J lbs. weekly; separated milk, J pint daily; fats, 6 ozs. weekly (4 ozs. butter and 2 ozs. of cooking fat); with 6 ozs. meat, 2 ozs. cheese and ij- ozs. of jam; all three weekly but not always available. Also 3 ozs. sugar weekly, and sometimes beans and barley flour or macaroni. In addition, labourers doing heavy work were allowed an extra ij lbs. of bread weekly; young people under eighteen years of age had an extra 3 ozs. of sugar weekly and children under two had one pint of full cream milk daily, or two pints on medical certification, whilst other children under 14 had one pint of full cream milk daily; otherwise their rations were the same as those of adults. Extra milk was allowed to some 400 people on health grounds and diabetics had an extra 4 ozs. of butter weekly. The standard rationed diet given above is only a subsistence diet, i.e. of 1,500—1,600, caloric value daily, which is just sufficient for a man resting in bed, but for a man doing moderate work, another 1,500 calories are required, and for a heavy worker, at least 4,000 calories, or a further 1,000 calories daily are required. Part of these additional calories should be furnished by addi- tional protein and fat, as not only must the quantity of food be sufficient, but also the quality, i.e. the food should contain the different constituents in the correct proportion, and there should be sufficient of each, i.e. of carbohydrate, of fat, and of protein, with vitamins and minerals also in sufficient amount. If these requirements are not obtained, daily wear and tear cannot be com- pletely replaced so that health and strength are bound to suffer and loss of weight is usually progressive. The obtaining of extra food became more and more difficult during the year, and towards the end of the year, the great standby of most people, potatoes, became scarce and difficult to obtain. Vegetables such as parsnips, turnips, contain little nourishment and prac- tically no protein or fat, whilst supplies of beans and peas, which are rich in protein, could often not be obtained. Small supplies of barley flour were avail- able at times. On the whole, those living in the country have come off better than those living in the Town and St. Sampson’s. With regard to children, although the milk ration must have greatly helped to maintain their nutrition, I cannot hut think that the nutrition of a large proportion of the children must be suffering in comparison with ordinary times. For adolescents, from the age of 14 upwards, no extra rations have been available, and there is certain to be a deterioration in their health and physique as compared with the normal. To sum up, the present diet is insufficient for most of the population in