Mark’s Daily Apple

Medieval Serfs Ate Better Than We Eat

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

You mean Mickey D’s hasn’t been around since the Dark Ages?

Here we are, the wealthiest nation on earth, from any time ever, with the greatest abundance of calories, variety, and nutrition, and wouldn’t you know: medieval peasants were healthier than we are.

The average peasant loaded up on root vegetables (referred to as “pot herbs�), greens, several pints of antioxidant-loaded, nutrient-rich, full-bodied beer, and small portions of grass-fed meat or fresh fish totaling about 8 ounces by days’ end. Daily bulk was provided in the form of millet, oats, and other sturdy, fibrous whole grains. Of course, peasants spent a minimum of 12 hours in hard labor every day, so their bodies quickly burned off the beer and barley.

It’s often repeated that our ancestors lived half as long as we do. That is true, but it’s not as if 35-year-old men of Medieval times were graying and decrepit. They looked much like a 35-year-old would today, only a bit shorter and smaller. People died young, on average, due to pestilence and plague, starvation and war, not genetics. Researchers believe that if you removed such devastating factors, the average peasant would have been healthier and longer-lived than the average Westerner today. While indentured servitude doesn’t sound like a model we want to return to – although I think we could argue we’ve traded it for servitude of another sort – The Man at it again, the successful bastard – long bouts of low-grade exercise focused on moving, pushing, and pulling, coupled with utterly unprocessed, local, organic, fresh foods comprised of plants and protein and fiber, seems like a pretty good recipe for health and longevity to me.

hans s and jurvetson Flickr Photos (CC)

Further Reading:

Would Grok Chow the Cheese Plate?

Which Fork is for the Grubs?

Technorati Tags: medieval diet, peasant food

Posted under: Aaron’s Additions, Aging, Diet, Health, Nutrition, Primal Health

5 comments

1. Tom WIlliams:
   
2. December 26th, 2007 at 1:12 pm

   I believe that medieval folks were probably healthier, with all the lean meat and nutrient and antioxidant rich beer that they consumed. And these people didn’t even have to deal with steroids!

3. Tad:
   
4. December 26th, 2007 at 2:29 pm

   What’s the difference between pestilence and plague?

5. Barry:
   
6. December 26th, 2007 at 2:39 pm

   Technically speaking, pestilence and plague can mean the same thing. But more often pestilence is used in the general sense of the word “disease” while plague refers specifically to the bubonic plague or “black death” which wiped out almost half the European population in the fourteenth century.

7. charlotte:
   
8. December 26th, 2007 at 3:42 pm

   I’ve often thought it ironic that we spend hours sweating it out on pointless treadmills while using all of our labor-saving devices (like cars) when, instead, if we lived (and ate!) like our ancestors we would get plenty of exercise milking the cows and plowing our fields. Of course, I am very grateful to live in a day and age with no plague (thanks for the clarification Barry!)

9. bob:
   
10. December 27th, 2007 at 11:25 am

    Sometimes I wonder if we health freaks (in a positive way) think in tandem hehe.. I just released a write-up called “Eat Like Our Forefathers Did” yesterday! How timely.Charlotte you take the words right out of my mouth.Sometimes I do find those artificial repetitions a little silly.Instead, why not, forgo the car wash, the lift, park a little further, walk etc and then spend less time gym-ing.

Leave a Reply