#medieval diet

[victusinveritas]

[comedinearchaeology]

Medieval Diet and Food

Food and diet in Medieval times very much depended on the wealth and class of the individual. For the wealthy, much more was available - they would have had access to a wider range of food. One of the main differences was protein source; the wealthy would have had access to meat such as chicken, goose, beef, lamb and if they were near the coast fish would have been on the menu as well. On the other hand, the lower class or peasants would have had a much simpler diet with their protein source being peas and beans added to bread and pottage, a thick soup.

A lot of what was consumed would have been what they could grow themselves. Most people had at least a small area to grow vegetables and some herbs which would be used in their own meals, so meals would consist of a lot of root vegetables as these would have grown easily.

Food was also thought to have a big impact on health.. as I attempted to explain in the video! I'll go in to more detail here:

It was thought that health was influenced by the four humours: blood, yellow bile, black bile and phlegm (shown in the picture). The idea of healthy living was that what you ate should keep these four humours in a balance, so there was no more of one than the others, as an imbalance would lead to illness. All food would have been categorised as hot, cold, moist or dry. So if someone was thought to have an excess of one of the humours, they would choose what to eat based on the properties of the food and which property was needed to restore balance to the body.