War can have a massive impact on how and what we eat.

Disruptions in trade routes, embargoes and blockades of countries, and rationing are all parts of war that can quickly alter the economic and food landscape of a country.

In fact, during World War One, the United States government pushed the message food will win the war.

From rationing ingredients to altering recipes, here are some unexpected ways war has changed the way we eat.

During World War One, the Great Depression and World War Two, milk, butter, eggs and even sugar were either being rationed or were hard to come by for many American families.

Then along came war cakes, or depression cakes, or poor man's cakes, wacky cakes, crazy cakes - These cakes go by a lot of names!

but no matter what they're called, these eggless, dairy free cakes still came out sweet and spongy thanks to a few scientifically proven baking hacks.

Eggs help thicken and stabilize cake batter, which helps them rise and get fluffy during the baking process.

So when eggs weren't available, bakers would use vinegar and baking soda instead.

The chemical reaction of these two ingredients acted as a leavening agent.

The fats provided by butter were replaced by vegetable oil or vegetable shortening and instead of milk, which would help bring the batter to the right texture, hot water was used.

Tea, if bakers were feeling adventurous and wanted to add a little extra flavor.

Sugar might seem like the most important ingredient in a cake, but rations-minded bakers found a multitude of ways to sweeten their desserts without it.

One method, borrowed from the American Civil War, was the boiled raisin cake, which consisted of boiling raisins into a sirup with warm, aromatic spices like cinnamon and cloves.

Bakers also used molasses, corn sirup, maple sirup, and other fruits like apples or pears.

If you're in the mood for a cake but ran out of eggs or dairy, these are surprisingly effective baking hacks.

Also, these cakes are vegan, so next time you're baking for your vegan friends, impress them with an early 20th century wacky cake.

At the legendary Cafe du Monde in New Orleans, they serve up a coffee tradition that has been used throughout several wars across the globe.

In the early 1800s, coffee drinkers started blending their coffee with chicory root, a substitute that has a similar flavor to coffee without all that caffeine.

The practice was really popularized by the French during the Napoleonic Wars.

But the practice of stretching coffee or replacing it entirely with chicory root wasn't just done in Europe.

The French exported that practice across their many colonies, including North America's Louisiana Territory.

With access to the Gulf of Mexico and the Mississippi River, the Port of New Orleans became an important stop in the French coffee trade.

By 1840, when New Orleans was under control of the United States, it was the second largest importer of coffee in the country.

But during the American Civil War, a blockade on the port of New Orleans stopped the flow of coffee from coming in, and as a result, the people of Louisiana used coffee alternatives like toasted barley or wheat, acorns, beets, and the tried and true chicory root.

Though different moments in history necessitated chicory coffee, people still prefer the strong, earthy, somewhat chocolaty flavor of this often misunderstood coffee substitute.

British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher once called Spam a wartime delicacy, but Spam wasn't created for war.

Rather, it was a salty canned meat that rose to the occasion, gaining popularity during World War Two.

Spam was developed in 1937 as a means of selling pork shoulder, a cut of meat that wasn't necessarily flying off the shelves.

Because the United States was in the throes of the Great Depression, it quickly became popular.

It was a budget friendly, shelf stable meat that didn't have to be refrigerated.

It was those same qualities that made it even more popular a few years later, when the U.S. entered World War Two.

The easy to ship cans of Spam became an essential part of the US soldier's diet.

It was also exported to the United Kingdom, whose soldiers also incorporated it into their rations.

But spam really became a global phenomenon where U.S. troops had a presence.

Places like Hawaii, Guam, the Philippines, and other islands throughout the Pacific.

In no time, Spam was adopted into these countries' culinary heritages, resulting in some of the best Spam recipes you'll ever encounter.

Things like Spam musubi from Hawaii, spamsilog in the Philippines, and potoma, Okinawa's twist on traditional onigiri where egg, rice, and Spam are wrapped in nori.

It may be surprising, but a lot of candy brands that we know and love today were actually created because of World War One and World War Two.

Although sugar was rationed during the early 20th century, production of sugary sweets in the United States actually increased.

That's because candy makers like Hershey, Necco, and Mars were developing new candy recipes that the military could use to feed soldiers.

Sugar gave soldiers a quick hit of energy.

It was high in calories, and candy overall is just fun and would boost morale.

Peanut Chews, a famous candy in Philadelphia, were developed in 1917, specifically with the military in mind.

They were portable, high in protein, and had the sugary sweetness that made them enjoyable and gave soldiers the pick me up energy they needed on the frontlines.

That same year, the United States government bought up an entire year's worth of Necco Wafers.

The virtually indestructible candy had a shelf life of two years and could sustain extreme heat and extreme cold.

By World War Two, the military returned to candy makers for more sweet innovations.

M&M's popular slogan "it melts in your mouth, not in your hands" came from the fact that they were developed specifically not to melt when given to American soldiers overseas.

In fact, M&M's were exclusively sold to the military until after World War Two.

But among the most famous wartime candy rations are Hershey's Tropical bars.

Developed in 1943, these chocolate bars were designed to withstand poisonous gas and extreme temperatures up to 120°F, making them a fitting ration for the Pacific Theater.

Whether it was done by Hershey intentionally or inadvertently, the bars were among the only things that soldiers could eat if they got dysentery, which was kind of the only thing that they had going for them, because, according to reports from the soldiers, tropical bars were nasty.

Hershey wasn't required to make the bars taste good.

In fact, the military's only requirement when it came to taste was that it only taste a little better than a boiled potato.

After World War Two, tropical bars became part of standard military rations and were used during the Korean War, the Vietnam War, and were even on board the Apollo 15 mission to the moon in 1971.

Some war era foods were created purely through necessity and disappeared from our kitchens in times of abundance, but others have a life long past the eras of scarcity they were born in.