A History of the Ministry of Information, 1939-46
3. CONSUMPTION OF POTATOES AND BREAD
When the same question was prompted, as described one result was obtained for potatoes and bread: -
Table 3
| Potatoes | Bread | |
| % | % | |
| More | 57 | 23 |
| Less | 4 | 19 |
| Same | 39 | 55 |
| Never eat | - | - |
| No answer | - | 3 |
| SAMPLE | 2269 | 2269 |
A breakdown by age again shows that a smaller number of the over-50s eat more potatoes and bread:-
Table 4
| Potatoes | Bread | |||||
| Under 35 | 35-50 | Over 50 | Under 35 | 35-50 | Over 50 | |
| % | % | % | % | % | % | |
| More | 66 | 59 | 47 | 29 | 25 | 16 |
| Less | 4 | 5 | 4 | 19 | 20 | 19 |
| Same | 30 | 36 | 48 | 48 | 52 | 63 |
| N.A. | - | - | 1 | 4 | 3 | 2 |
| SAMPLE | 578 | 880 | 795 | 578 | 880 | 795 |
A comparison of Tables 2 and 3 shows that many more people say that they use more potatoes, if prompted. There is no proof as to which of the two methods gives more reliable results; probably, the true result lies somewhere between the two. In the open question, some people may have forgotten to mention potatoes-in the prompted question, some may have untruthfully said they use more potatoes, because they thought it would be unpatriotic to admit that their potato consumption had not increased.
Only six families out of the whole sample did not eat potatoes.
About 23% say that they eat more bread, and 19% say they eat less. It is interesting that a similar relation between more and less eating was found for a number of food items we investigated on another occasion (cake, custard powder, cornflakes). What causes such a constant relation between the number of people who say that they eat more of a food and those who say they eat less, we cannot yet say, but we are continuing research on this question.