More World War II Great Takeaways

Continuing on from yesterday, can you believe this?

Orange Juice at the Breakfast Table

It wasn’t just hygiene habits and fashion trends that came out of World War II. America’s wartime focus on health and nutrition led to food and beverage staples that resonated for decades — the orange juice craze among them. In order to ensure troops were getting enough scurvy-preventing vitamin C, the U.S. government worked on a viable alternative to cumbersome fresh fruit. Together, the Florida Citrus Commission and U.S. Department of Agriculture attempted to improve upon canned orange juice, which already existed but was not yet popular. Their collaboration led to a breakthrough: evaporating the liquid from fresh juice to produce a juice concentrate.

The innovation arrived too late to be utilized by troops during the war, but in 1946, Minute Maid orange juice made its way to American breakfast tables. It wasn’t an immediate hit, however — it took a 1949 ad campaign by Bing Crosby to kick-start the enduring breakfast staple.

A Vitamin a Day

In 1941, during the nascent days of the nation’s focus on nutrition, President Franklin D. Roosevelt convened the National Nutrition Conference for Defense to address concerns about national vitamin inadequacies.

As the U.S. entered World War II, the focus on nutrition became urgent; vitamins were seen as crucial not just for preventing deficiency but also for maintaining peak health a nd morale. By the mid-1940s, the country’s so-called “vitamin famine” was being tackled with new multivitamins such as Vimms, Stams, and the still-popular One A Day.

After the war, the demand for vitamins remained strong, and the habit of taking multivitamins, rooted in wartime health strategies and marketing, persists in American culture today.

So, we have all of these things because of World War II!