Food and Medical Practice

By Josie and Peyton

Diet and Nutrition • People depended on grain for their diet • “Just price”: most people believed in this medieval idea prices

should be ‘fair’ and imposed by government decrees – This idea clashed with the free-market philosophy [Smith]

which was favored by government officials , economists, and landowners. • Food riots and public disturbances

• Vegetables considered ‘poor people’s food’ + fruit limited to summer

• Everyone loved meat and eggs but the poor couldn’t obtain it. In contrast, the rich could legally kill game and enjoyed fish, meat, sauces, sweets, cheese, and nuts. [no fruits or veggies for them]

Diet and Nutrition [cont]

• Only in the Low Countries and Britain did the people eat meat.

• Regional dietary differences in 1700 northern, Atlantic Europe ate better than southern, Mediterranean Europe – Poor of England and Netherlands probably ate the best

The impact of Diet on Health

• Nutritional advantages for ordinary diet: grains + field peas and beans + whey, cheese and eggs [protein] =adequate diet [in normal times]

• Key dietary problem: getting enough green veggies to get vitamin a and C [scurvy problem for sailors on long voyages]

• The rich ate too much and lacked vitamin A and C = gout and scurvy

• New methods of farming brought new patterns of food consumption like the potato

The potato, market gardening, bread, and sugar

• The potato replaced grain as primary food for the poor especially in Ireland

• The potato was accepted in the rest of Europe more slowly but became a staple

• Growth of market gardening and greater variety of vegetables – Lemons, oranges from Portugal and West Indies

• Rising incomes and new tastes = shift from whole-grain black/brown bread to white bread= decline in bread’s nutritional value

• There was growing consumption of sugar • In conclusion growing nutritional decline

Medical Practitioners

• The enlightenment focused on laws and nature gave rise to number of practitioners and experimentation/research in medicine – Faith healers believed demons and evil spirits caused

disease [esp. in countryside] – Women excluded from medical professions

• Urban cities: apothecaries sold expensive drugs, only which a few worked like strong laxatives and regular purging: considered vital for good health

Physicians

• Frequently bled or purged people let people die

• Apprenticed in their teens for several years of training who mainly came from rich families – Worked on similar patients

Surgeons

• Made considerable medical/social progress – Amy surgeons led the way

• However they didn’t have painkillers [people died of shock] and performed surgery in midst of filth bacteria and infection

Midwives

• Suspected of witch-craft in 16th/17th c. • Orchestrated labor and birth for women – Male surgeons avoided this – Discredited by surgeons for economic reasons

Hospitals and Medical Experiments

• Hospitals kept in poor condition – Crowded, no fresh air, and hospital reform began in

late 18c century due to Diderot’s article – Nurses were old ignorant, greedy, and often drunk

women• Mental hospitals savage – Mental illness misunderstood and inhumanely

treated – Violent patients were chained to a wall and forgotten

Medical Experimentation

• Intensified in second half of 18th c. – Creative quackery involving discovery of electricity

• Greatest triumph: conquest of smallpox– Started with Lady Montagu [English aristocrat] who

learned about practice of smallpox inoculation – Edward Jenner, country doctor, practiced Baconian

science and in 1796 performed his 1st vaccination on a young boy – more successful vaccinations

– Helped lay foundation for science of immunology in 19th c.

Multiple Choice Questions• Which class had a better diet?

– The wealthy– The poor

• What occupation was often suspected of witchcraft?– Midwives– Surgeons– Physician

• What new food helped the poor a lot from not starving?– Tomato– Corn– potato

• hgch