The news of an English woman who managed to save and lose weight with a diet inspired by the rations and recipes of the Second World War makes us smile.
That is, she managed to lose weight by eating like she did in the war.

Yet it is so.

The divorced Carolyn Ekins, mother of three and obviously overweight, fanatic of the history of the Second World War, would have made a curious experiment on herself.
She called it ” the 1940 experiment “.

SLIMMING BY EATING LIKE A WAR: EXPERIMENT 1940

Putting aside precooked food and ready meals, spending less than two pounds a day he would have radically changed his diet, buying fresh food and basic necessities such as the rations arranged for families during the war period.

A rationed weekly shopping of grain cereals, ham, cheese, sugar, butter, cooking fat, plus bread, fruit and vegetables. All in small portions, which Carolyn would have made enough to cook exclusively “old fashioned” recipes (ie grandmother’s recipes ) and eat no more than two or three times a day for genuine cuisine without additives .

Pies, soups, homemade cookies that allowed her to lose a few tens of kilos.

The before and after photos are impressive.
Carolyn looks like another woman, and with her genuine weekly shopping of just fourteen pounds a week, less than twenty euros, she managed to lose weight by eating easily. In fact, she weighed over 160 kilos before the experiment, today she weighs 110.

And she managed to make a huge saving not only in calories, but also economically.
The result is that she now writes books in which she collects her recipes and explains how you can live healthy by going back to eating as it once was.

Who wants to try a similar experiment?
If you are a history buff, and at the same time want to lose weight, here’s how you can do the same experiment as Mrs Ekins.

HOW TO LOSE WEIGHT EATING LIKE IN WAR (OR LIKE ONCE)

First of all, it will be necessary to read some recipe books of the past to immerse ourselves in the past and find inspiration.

Dcomedieta recommends these readings.

1940-1944 War Recipes For Simple Simple Cooking.

Women and cooking in times of war. From ’39 to ’45 .

Resistance in the kitchen. Wartime recipes to resist in times of crisis

150 War Recipes: How to prepare 150 Economic Recipes and with Simple Ingredients

Finally, make a weekly grocery budget that is at least half what you currently spend. It will be very difficult at the beginning, it will be necessary to make a list and follow it without impulsive purchases. I help you with this data.

In 1940, a family in Italy could afford half a kilo of sugar a month. 400 grams of butter or cooking oil per capita. Two kilos per capita of pasta, bread, rice. This means that a pack of sugar must last you two months, that two kilos of pasta or rice or bread must last you a month, that in a month you cannot consume more than a glass of oil and 200 grams of butter. That you can eat meat once a week, using offal and scraps for other dishes, such as broth or soups.

But it’s an experiment, isn’t it? At the end of which you will certainly give much more value to food, considering snacks and biscuits a luxury.

See also. The grandmother’s diet to lose 3 kg per month.