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Want to get a very small 'taste' of what a UK Workhouse diet was like in ca. 1834?
Go into a large supermarket (take a large shopping trolley for the full effect) and 'load up' with the contents of a typical lunch for a workhouse inmate in 1834. that is, 6 ounces of meat (if you were male, just 5 ounces for women), and an iunspecified amount of vegetables, let's say also 5 or 6 ounces. 1 ounce = 28.35 grams so we're talking 170 grams here. That is the size of a rather small piece of meat, maybe 1.5 x a small thin pack of sliced ham (I found one that weighed 110 g). Assume the same for veg, 170 grams is the weight of one medium sized carrot (not a large one).
That's your whole lunch (dinner was similar size) - a few slices of ham and one medium sized carrot, sititng there looking very small and frugal and lonely in your huge trolley. No pudding, no tea (only water was allowed), definitely no alcohol.
More detail, an image of the entire week's typical workhouse menu, at year 1834 on these 2 files.......
http://fooddeserts.org/images/000Food.htm
http://fooddeserts.org/images/000price.htm
Unlike now, obesity was strongly negatively associated with poverty.
Dr Hillary J. Shaw
Director and Senior Research Consultant
Shaw Food Solutions
Newport
Shropshire
TF10 8QE
www.fooddeserts.org
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