Post World War II Food

Spam, canned meat, and cultural perceptions

• Many commenters praise Spam when prepared well (fried, in fried rice, musubi, kimbap, onigiri), noting strong nostalgia in Hawaii and parts of Asia; others recall horrible institutional versions (school “spam fritters”) that ruined it for decades.
• Spam is seen as both a “poor people’s food” and a luxury gift item (e.g., South Korea).
• Concerns include high salt; suggestions include low-sodium variants, using it as an accent like bacon, or briefly soaking cubes in water (disputed effect on fat removal).
• Some argue it’s “objectively terrible” health‑wise; others counter that almost nothing is terrible in moderation.

Powdered cheese, logistics, and snack-food aftershocks

• Discussion highlights how powdered cheese and other WWII surplus (e.g., dehydrated products) seeded snack foods like Cheetos.
• Several note the logistical advantages of dehydration (weight, volume, shelf life) for feeding huge overseas armies.
• Military food tech is credited with many later supermarket staples.
• One commenter flags an apparent contradiction: the article dates powdered cheese to 1943 but also ties it to 1937 Kraft Mac & Cheese.

Processed / ultra-processed foods and obesity

• Debate over whether WWII surplus and postwar processing “started” the obesity crisis; consensus leans toward later drivers: cheap fast food, hyper-palatable formulations, aggressive lobbying, and larger portions from the 1970s onward.
• Multiple comments stress that weight gain is ultimately excess calories, but others argue focusing on thermodynamics alone ignores complex biology and satiety.
• Disagreement over NOVA’s “ultra‑processed” category (e.g., plain chicken breast vs tofu classification) and whether processing per se or overeating is the main issue.
• Fats vs carbs, sugar vs saturated fat, and the food pyramid spark contentious debate; some blame industry-funded science and sugar lobbying, others point out that all macronutrients can drive surplus calories.

Corporate behavior: Nestlé, tobacco, and food engineering

• Nestlé’s wartime and postwar conduct (e.g., links to forced labor; later infant formula marketing in poorer countries) is criticized as part of a longer pattern of profit over ethics.
• Tobacco companies’ acquisition of food brands in the ’80s–’90s and their role in engineering “hyper‑palatable” products are discussed, likened to Big Tobacco’s earlier tactics.

Rationing, victory gardens, and modern resilience

• Commenters describe WWII rationing’s cultural legacies (e.g., British canned beans, Israeli “Ben Gurion rice”) and government-led education on gardening and preservation.
• Victory gardens are praised as highly optimized small-scale food systems that could still work well.
• Several doubt that modern Americans would accept WWII‑style rationing or collective sacrifice; others counter that societies adapt more than we expect, citing COVID lockdowns as partial evidence, though their necessity and impact are heavily debated.

Military rations, MREs, and cigarettes

• Strong interest in historical and modern military rations (U.S. MREs, humanitarian rations, Soviet “tushonka,” Swiss Army cookbooks).
• WWII and Cold War rations influence today’s snack bars and shelf-stable foods.
• Many remarks on nicotine in old rations: nostalgic or intense experiences from rare cigarettes, contrasted with modern “fire-safe” products and general health harms.

Wartime food imprints on national cuisines

• Examples include: British love of tinned beans; Israeli standard bread and pearl couscous shaped by rationing and refugee influx; Soviet/Russian tushonka derived from U.S. canned meat aid.