I'm an undergrad designing my own major of nutrition from a historical standpoint, and I'm in a class that's usually open only to graduate students called The Historian's Craft. We are trying to be better readers and writers of history, with a narrow lens of 1946. We've been reading mostly about Eastern Europe. Our final project is very open-ended... We are submitting a proposal for reasearch that we would hypothetically conduct as graduate students, and using the assignment to hone our skills on databases and other scholarly internet resources, and in libraries.

Most importantly, we are to make clear our questions, arguments, identify and engage with our sources actively, including supplying an annotated bibliography, as well as address the historiography and scholarship of the topic by familiarizing ourselves with previous histories.

My questions are: What were the mass consciousnesses in the US, especially among chooser & spender matriarchs, of nutrition, during WWII and up until 1950? What did the American dinner table look like in terms of macronutrients in 1946? (I will be comparing this to very brief descriptions of more accessible data dealing with the same question applied to the years 1975 and 2015.) What was the timeline of the US's reaction to European issues dealing with famine and the movement to lobby for subsidization of the crops corn, wheat, and soy? How were middle-class American families affected by rationing efforts during the war?

My argument is that the American dinner table changed dramatically because of the availability of corn, wheat, and soy. This spiked availability was a political reaction to the possibility of Americans going hungry. What I hope to address in my eventual research, in a later semester not so focused on the post-war era, is that the increase in portion sizes in the US and the rise of the obesity epidemic is related to very concerted efforts of policy makers inspired by food shortages in Europe following WWII, and that ultimately, issues of obesity are fueled by the strength of the agricultural industry's ability to produce corn, wheat, and soy on such an enormous scale.

Literally ANY scholarly source dealing with ANY of these questions/topics would be greatly appreciated. I also would like to posit the idea that some medical conditions that have become more prevalent since 1975, like autism, certain mental illnesses, and type 2 diabetes can also be traced back (possibly) to the availability of corn, wheat, and soy-based products. I am a ketogenic success story, not just in the ~80 lbs I lost, but also because I have a mental illness that is only manageable with strict limiting of carbohydrates and supplementation with dietary fats. I have a very, very strong bias, but I am aware that this research may lead me to a contradictory conclusion. I am OK with that.

If I have used any terms incorrectly in this post, please forgive me and feel free to correct me, but please don't assume that I'm bullshitting with my studies or this assignment. I'm a straight-A student, but unfortunately because of my mental health, my success in college is following literally no high school education... I was in the hospital the whole time :( There is A LOT that I never learned, and so my hypotheses here might not be as informed as they should be, at this point in my academic career.

If you've read this far, THANK YOU! I am starting with google scholar and when my SO gets home I will be attempting work on JStor, although I have a lot of issues using computers and I'm very intimidated by the databases I'm supposed to be using. Any isolated articles, videos, or sections of published books that I can look at directly would be so, so great. I'm really excited about this project, I expect to have fun with it. Yay!

And... TL;DR I need sources on the nutrition of middle-class American families around the year 1946. (The real topic is much more interesting, though.)