When Britain faced starvation during the Second World War, survival did not depend on speeches or slogans. It depended on numbers. Calories. Vitamins. Cold facts about what the human body could endure. Elsie Widdowson understood that theory was not enough. If scientists were going to tell the public how little they could eat, they needed to live it themselves. So she did. Day after day. Widdowson and her colleagues followed the same strict rations given to civilians. No extra food. No special al