VITAMIN BREAD BOOT CAMP - White Bread: A Social History of the Store Bought Loaf - page 60

are coming to the rescue. … The new vitaminized flour will give modern America strength for defense
in war.” 28
The message echoed out from the advice columns of Good Housekeeping:
The Army and Navy are using enriched flour and bread because of the extra health values they offer
at no extra cost. You're in the Army, too! It's your patriotic duty to give your family these health val-
ues by using enriched bread and flour. 29
to national advertising campaigns:
Enriched bread—a contribution to national defense. … The vitality, the vigor, and the health of our
citizens is of prime importance in our national defense program. 30
to local ad campaigns in cities and small towns across the country, like this one from Syracuse, New
York:
Cabako Bakery—Defense Through Health 31
to the bully pulpit of the U.S. Public Health Service:
The time has come when it is the patriotic duty of every American to eat enriched bread. Don't buy
plain white bread. 32
The message couldn't have been clearer. As a Fleischmann's ad run in thirteen cities and three national
weeklies declared, vitamin deficiency was “a bomb so powerful that it could stun a whole city—leave
all the people, young and old, dull, stupefied, fumbling.” Bread fortified with Fleischmann's enrichment
products was “the defense weapon the U.S. Government itself is urging the whole country to accept.” 33
Red Cross and Civil Defense nutrition classes instructed housewives across the country to choose en-
riched bread. Listen America , a national radio program broadcast weekly during 1941 and 1942, put the
same message in living rooms. Anthropologists developed strategies to communicate the importance of
enrichment to immigrant groups, and The Modest Miracle , a Hollywood short feature sponsored by the
Federal Security Agency and Standard Brands, touted vitamin bread in theaters. Meanwhile, community
“Nutrition Weeks” sponsored by bakeries and government agencies combined nutrition classes, educa-
tional film screenings, and bakery specials. 34
These efforts didn't fall on deaf ears. Industry studies reported large increases in demand for enriched
bread in the wake of propaganda campaigns. “Probably no other food and nutrition program has ad-
vanced so rapidly as the national movement to fortify cereal foods with vitamins and minerals,” General
Mills vice president R. C. Sherwood announced in an address to the American Public Health Associ-
ation. 35 Through their combined efforts, government officials, the media, and private companies had
built a foundation of awareness such that the significance of enrichment need no longer be explained.
Enriched bread had become “the biggest sales asset of recent times in the food field,” according to a
grocery trade magazine. When, after the war, a U.S. Department of Commerce pamphlet offered career
advice to demobilized GIs, it could confidently recommend commercial baking because “the war-time