We're Not So Different Food 5: Dietetics
Oct 1, 2021
Discover the fascinating diets of Medieval people and how they balanced their four humours through food. Learn about the role of dietetics, its Greek origins, and its connections to Hippocrates. Explore the Salerno school's health rules and the importance of regimen sanitatis in public health. Delve into how different foods affected the body and shaped acquired tastes. Finally, uncover the links between social class and food choices, revealing a rich tapestry of medieval culinary practices!
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Dietetics As Preventative Medicine
- Medieval dietetics treated diet and exercise as the first line of medicine alongside pharmacy and surgery.
- Diet aimed to prevent illness by balancing the four humors rather than modern calorie-focused dieting.
Food Mapped To Humors
- Medieval dietetics derives from Hippocratic and Galenic humoral theory, linking food properties to health.
- Foods were chosen to correct individual humoral imbalances, not for general nutrition alone.
Train Yourself To Acquire Tastes
- Persist with unfamiliar foods to acquire tastes; bodies learn a food isn't poisonous after repeated exposure.
- Eleanor trained herself to like anchovies by intentionally eating them multiple times until she enjoyed them.
