Daily Intake

The following table shows the food items taken by male and female workers in heavy and light industry. It also shows the food consumption of those under 20. No other age group is given, because there are no significant differences among them.

These figures show that in the case of:

(a) Men and women in industry only a few differences exist. The most outstanding is that men take more of the first-class protein foods (all meats and cheese); the only exception is milk, of which women have more. In addition women eat more purely starchy foods, such as buns, cakes, and pudding; while we cannot estimate the extent to which men make up for this by eating bigger portions of bread and potatoes, the survey figures show that more men than women eat dry bread.

(b) Men in heavy and men in light industry (including clerical workers) have similar feeding habits; the only difference is that a greater percentage of light workers have more starchy-sugary foods, such as cakes, buns and breakfast cereals, and also drink slightly more milk.

It is interesting that no more men in heavy industry have cheese than those in light industry, in spite of the fact that a number of the heavy workers are allowed an extra cheese ration.

(c) Age groups . Young people under twenty differ from the average only in that a higher percentage take starchy sugary food, and fewer take cheese. The number who take milk or milk beverages is only slightly higher than the average. A greater number of young people eat chips.

Average Intake

In order to interpret the “Total” column it was necessary to make a further analysis of the vegetable, milk, potato and bread figures; this made it possible to find out the percentage of people who had these food items once, twice, or not at all on the day of the interview.

Only 47% of the sample had vegetables , but of these a considerable proportion had them twice during the day.

50% had milk drinks or milk dishes; the other 50% had no milk other than a little in tea.

90% had potatoes .

98% of the sample ate bread .

The majority had some sort of meat at least once during the day.

The number who had made-up-dishes is rather small - an average of 4%. This figure seems to indicate quite clearly that the Kitchen Front and other Ministry of Food publicity had not so far been successful in persuading housewives to include “made-up-dishes” more frequently in their menu.

Nearly 40% ate cheese - a fairly satisfactory percentage.

20% had egg dishes , which must have been made from dried eggs, as at the time of the investigation hardly any shell eggs were available.

Relatively few people ate any form of pulses .

Intake at different meals

The next table shows the food items taken at different meal times.

These figures show that most food items are taken at the midday meal. The greatest percentage eat their vegetables, potatoes, meat and puddings at this time of the day. At the evening meal, a greater number eat cakes, biscuits, etc. than at any other time of day. Tea is most frequently drunk at breakfast, though more than three-quarters of the sample have some in the evening, too. One-fifth has cereals for breakfast.

48% of the sample take some first class protein food at breakfast, such as eggs, cheese, meat, sausage meat, or offal. Practically everybody has a drink, but only 26% (including those having a milk beverage and cereals) take milk.

Mid-morning and mid-afternoon meals mainly consist of starchy foods and some drink other than milk. About half of the sample take either of these meals.

Two-thirds of the sample take a late evening meal. This, again, consists mainly of starchy foods and drinks, but a quarter of these people take milk drinks, and 11% take cheese; this means that one-quarter af all the cheese eaten is taken at this meal.

Potatoes and Bread

The Ministry of Food is at the moment interested in finding out how many people have followed their advice to eat potatoes instead of other foods. One of their most publicised slogans was “Eat potatoes for breakfast three times a week”. It will be seen that 3% of the sample had potatoes for breakfast on the day of the interview. The following table shows the number of people who eat bread and/or potatoes for breakfast.

Even the 3% who eat potatoes have not given up eating bread. At the same time, it is interesting to note that 19% have no bread for breakfast; they are the people who have only a cup of tea, or nothing at all.

The following table brings out an interesting fact in connection with the consumption of bread.

The overwhelming majority of those people who eat in restaurants take bread with their meal, but only a minority of those who dine in canteens do so; (in many canteens no bread is served).

Occupational differences

The next two tables show the food items taken by men and women in different industry groups.

In reading the table and interpreting the differences in the food intake of the different industries, two factors must be kept in mind:

(a) No difference which is smaller than 6% is of statistical significance.

(b) Results might be biassed by sample difficulties enforced by circumstances. For instance, it was impossible to select the dockyard sample properly, as interviewers could not visit certain docks for security reasons. It was also impossible to visit a sufficient number of mines in one region to counteract environmental biases such as the availability of canteens, proximity of the miners’ homes, etc.

The tables are given at the request of the Ministry of Food, who wish to use this material in connection with other information they possess. However, the following conclusions can safely be drawn. A higher percentage of clerical workers consume all the different food items than in any other occupation. The distributive workers follow the clerical worker closely in this respect. Light industry comes midway between the former group and the heavy workers. There is an outstanding difference between clerical and distributive on the one hand, and heavy workers on the other, in the consumption of milk and vegetables. This is especially noticeable in occupations such as building and mining, where men have to bring sandwiches (very often no facilities are provided for buying meals at work); and the number who take vegetables other than potatoes is rather low.

The differences amongst women in different industries follow closely those amongst the men.

Comparison of results 1942 – 1943

As we have already said in the introduction, one purpose of this inquiry was to compare its results with those of a similar inquiry carried out in the summer of 1942. It was hoped to find out any changes in food intake which might have taken place. The food supply had remained more or less constant over this period. Most changes which occurred would have been due to seasonal fluctuations; the extent of these fluctuations was one of the problems with which the Ministry of Food was concerned.

In order not to overburden this report with tables, we are not repeating the tables obtained from the 1942 investigation, and refer the reader to the report (Wartime Social Survey, Food, New Series 16 and 19).

With the exception of a small, but significant, decrease in the number who took milk, raw salads and fruit, no changes in the food intake of the sample had occurred in the winter of 1943 as compared with the summer of 1942. It must not, however, be forgotten that a decrease or increase in a figure of 5% or 6%, which might indicate a change, cannot be recognised as such by our methods, as our samples are so small that the standard deviation of a figure is at least of this magnitude.

The group differences which were found in 1943 also existed in the summer of 1942. Men in heavy industry took more meat and cheese and less milk and starch than men in light industry and young people under 20. There is a much greater number among the clerical and distributive workers who take a large variety of different food items than among the heavy workers (especially miners and building workers).