war and food

One of the last items in my summertime recreational reading was Lizzie Collingham's book, The Taste of War.  It tells how food supplies impacted soldiers and civilians during the Second World War and offers fascinating nuggets:

• The Japanese army found so much soldier dissatisfaction serving typical Japanese food [rice, miso soup, pickles] that they changed to Chinese noodles and western style pork and chicken, which also greatly increased protein consumption.
• Britain gave equal adult rations for morale purposes, but insisted that companies with more than 250 workers create canteens so that war workers could supplement their diets.
• At the start of the draft in 1940, the US found 40% of draftees unfit for service because of problems linked to poor nutrition.
• Congress expanded a school lunch program during the war, but banned any spices other than salt in order to avoid ethnic complaints.
• Coca-Cola won an exemption from sugar rationing when supplying its drinks to military bases.
• Americans ate well, despite the war. Soldiers received on average 2/3 of a pound of red meat every day; US civilians were allowed 2.5 pounds of meat each week -- twice what the British were allowed, which itself was far more than other combatants.

Collingham's broader story is how the struggle for food supplies affected military strategy, but these details are particularly revealing to me.