Hunger During Ww2

Around twelve percent of the world’s population are in food insecurity and malnutrition. Yet, many of us don’t understand what it is like to go to bed hungry. Hunger has always existed, and was effecting more people in the developing countries and the minorities. Countries at war, civil unrest, and famine are and always were at a higher risk of food insecurity. In addition, poverty is another factor for food insecurity. Many of those who are not struggling with going hungry to bed, are not aware of this issue and its effects. This paper will focus on the hunger experience of people during and after WWII in the Soviet Union.

The main source of food for people during and after WWII were macaroni, grains, and bread, and their main drink was water.

Although this may seem as a sufficient diet, there are many factors that should be considered. The water in the rivers and lakes was not clean, and consumption of such water lead to many diseases. Yet, people did not have other options to choose from. The bread that they were consuming was made from cellulose, bran, linseed cake, and cottonseed cake. Normally, cellulose, bran, and linseed cake were used to feed cows, and cellulose is not digestible by people. While cottonseed cake was even considered to be poisonous to consumption. However, when people are hungry, they do not care how to fill their stomach in order to feel at least some satiety. While 100 grams linseed cake contain 25 grams of protein, 10 grams of fat and 12 grams of carbohydrates. Perhaps one 200 gram “bread” that each person received had slightly more nutrients in it. Yet, they nutrients that people were consuming were barely enough to maintain them alive. In fact, many people died from the food deficiency during that time. When people had some saccharin, they were mixing it with the “bread” that they received to somewhat block the bitterness of the bread. In addition, when people were able to find clever or saltbushes, they either made their own bread out of that, or consumed it raw. As a matter of fact, people ate every plant or leaves that they could reach. Trees were leafless bellow the human reach point. Everything that could have been eaten, was eaten.
Sometimes, more nutritious vegetation were available. For example, in the summer, people collected groundberries, raspberries, strawberries, rowan, cranberries, blueberries, blackberries and other nutritionally denser foods. Strawberries are an excellent source of vitamin C, because only 1 cup of strawberries contains 160% of the daily recommendation of vitamin C. Vitamin C is a great antioxidant, which boosts the immune system. Other berries, including blueberries, raspberries and blackberries were a great source of the antioxidants as well. In fact, many of the traditional methods to this day includes usage of berries to boost the immune system and cure diseases. Berries played an important role during starvation times, and saved many people from death. Many berries are also are a good source of fiber. While berries such as blueberries were high in vitamin A and helped to improve vision. Perhaps most of the vitamins and minerals that could be stored in the body, were accumulated throughout the summer. In the late summer and early fall, people went picking mushrooms after a rainy weather. Whereas in the winter, people were searching for rotten, or left and frozen left overs of potatoes and other vegetation in the frozen ground. They were digging the snow-covered soil in order to find something to eat. Every bit of food played an enormous role in the survival, and people did not miss an opportunity to eat. Throughout the starvation time period, food meant life.
Other times, people were able to find some animals, or animal products to consume.

Some days people were able to catch fish. When they did, they ate it in a variety of ways: some preferred to cook it, others were too hungry to waste time and ate it raw. There were times when people were so hungry that they ate their cats, dogs and other pets. In the steppes, some were lucky to find a gopher, or a rat. They were happy to eat anything that they were able to catch to survive: mice, frogs, worms, beetles and other insects. When there were times when people saw a wounded or a dead horse, they had “parties.” This is because one horse can feed many people and it is very rich in iron, zinc, selenium, phosphorus, niacin, vitamin B6 and vitamin B12. Perhaps, one horse’s live was able to save a dozen of

people.
When the starvation was even more severe, people made reckless choices.

During the harder times periods, people did not eat any food for days. Malnutrition lead many people to bleeding gums, shaking teeth, loss of body mass, weakening of muscles and other tissues, and other more severe health problems. In order to survive themselves and to keep some of their children alive, sometimes parents made a decision to kill their weakest child for food. Cannibalism was also seen in other ways. When people saw a dead, or a fallen person on the street, they tore out his body parts and used them to prepare a meal. Not to mention that food deficiency led people to eating non-eatable objects. Before the hard times began, many people used to make salt-pickled cabbage in the wooden containers. When no more cabbage was left in the barrels, people chopped them apart and cooked with them. This is because barrels had absorbed some salt into them. They were used to add some flavor to the food, and in the harder times, people consumed the left over pieces from the barrels. It wasn’t the only wooden product that they consumed. In the severe famine periods, people crushed wood into smaller pieces and consumed it in order to experience some feeling of satiety. Likewise, people crushed boots and belts into tiny pieces and digested it. In the period of hunger, people were ready for anything giving them some hope of

survival.