h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Surely not. The rates of cardiac heart disease, strokes and respiratory failure dropped dramatically when rationing was introduced. But started to rise again when SPAM started arriving in the UK as a part of the US support for the war effort.

The reason for the drop in disease was that the UK was suddenly having to eat a low fat, high carbohydrate diet based around bread and potatoes (neither of which were rationed during the war). It did the Nation's arteries a power of good


(Of course getting bombed and shot at did, on occasion, undo all the dietetic hard work.)

What I want to know is how the Nazi blockade managed to filter the food supplies so well. How did they manage to blockade all the bananas, but allow all the suet and SPAM through? That knowledge could be invaluable to future generations.

The SPAM came across the Atlantic, where as the bananas came from the Mediterranean which had way more Nazi ships in it.