Although medieval ideas astir nutrient were precise antithetic to our own, its value was wide recognized. According to Galen, nutrient “is astir apt the astir important of each aesculapian subjects,” and it dominated medieval regimens—many of which dwell astir wholly of lists of foods and discussions of their properties and interaction connected the quality body.
In bid to stay healthy, it was important to cognize astir the qualities of foods, which were categorized arsenic hot/cold and wet/dry, with antithetic qualities having antithetic effects connected the body, and atrocious foods starring to illness. The perceived transportation betwixt fare and wellness was underpinned by aesculapian ideas astir digestion, which was thought to beryllium a three-stage process, akin to cooking, distillation and combustion. In the archetypal digestion, which took spot successful the tummy and intestines, nutrient was turned into chyle, with immoderate superfluities being excreted done defecation. The 2nd digestion happened successful the liver, and produced blood, on with achromatic and yellowish bile (which were, respectively, stored successful the spleen and the gallbladder). In the 3rd and last digestion, the humor was dispersed astir the full body, providing it with the heat, moisture and captious spirits indispensable for life.
Thanks to the English doc William Harvey (1578–1657), we present recognize that humor circulates astir the body, but medieval radical believed that the liver was perpetually generating caller blood—so that digested nutrient was incorporated into the body, and successful a precise literal consciousness a idiosyncratic was what they ate.
So, what did medieval radical eat? Processed cereals specified arsenic pottage and breadstuff were the cardinal components of the medieval diet, though the prime of these foods varied with societal status. Rich radical ate leavened breadstuff made from bully prime wheat, portion the mediocre usually had to marque bash with coarse, dense breadstuff made from barley (which was acold and flatulent) oregon rye (which produced anemic humor and small energy).
Nevertheless, it is wide that wellness was a information erstwhile preparing a meal.
Contrary to fashionable belief, medieval radical besides ate effect and vegetables—though they were alternatively ambivalent astir plants, and considered immoderate of them to beryllium downright dangerous. Brassicas (such arsenic cabbage, cauliflower and broccoli) were an important portion of the peasant diet, but caused some melancholy and nightmares; lettuce was unsafe due to the fact that it was truthful acold and moist, portion turnips and parsnips led to flatulence and lust. There was sizeable wariness astir beans, which were thought to origin flatulence and atrocious humours, arsenic good arsenic confusion, dizziness and wide malaise; peas were much easy digested, and frankincense a overmuch amended option.
Similarly, immoderate fruits were safer than others: citrus fruits improved digestion, particularly successful blistery weather, portion raisins were bully for the stomach, lungs and liver. And nuts were nutritious and bully for the brain.
But galore communal fruits, including apples, peaches and cherries, were viewed with suspicion, due to the fact that they were acold and moist, and produced putrid humours. They could beryllium made safer by cooking, and it is wide that galore radical did devour them. When Petrarch’s doc told him to debar “apples and each benignant of effect from trees,” helium declared himself appalled by “this scorn for the astir beauteous things that astatine the aforesaid clip delight the taste, the touch, the odor and the sight.”
The aesculapian proposal regarding carnal nutrient was arsenic complicated. Butter was warm, moist and nourishing, and produced bully blood, whereas food was a coarse food, hard to digest and apt to origin bladder stones—although a tiny portion astatine the extremity of the repast could amended digestion. Eggs were wide eaten, though the warm, moist yolks were healthier than the cold, moist white. When it came to meat, chickenhearted was wide regarded arsenic the healthiest option: moderately warm, easy digestible and highly nourishing, it was particularly suitable for the delicate stomachs of the affluent and the sick. Pheasant and quail were little wide eaten but had akin qualities, though the second was perchance unsafe due to the fact that of its fondness for feeding connected poisonous plants specified arsenic hellebore. Pork, lamb and mutton were each seen arsenic nutritious meats, but beef was much problematic. It was inexpensive and coarse, produced heavy blood, and was lone truly suitable for manual labourers. Duck, goose and venison were hard to digest, produced atrocious humours, and were champion avoided by everyone.
But, successful crisp opposition to modern ideas, it was cold, bedewed food which was seen arsenic a peculiar menace to health, due to the fact that it generated ample quantities of phlegm. It was, nevertheless, an important portion of the medieval diet—partly for spiritual reasons, partially due to the fact that it was inexpensive and partially due to the fact that radical liked it—and aesculapian experts truthful suggested assorted ways to mitigate the wellness risks. Most methods aimed to lukewarm and adust the fish, which should ideally beryllium roasted oregon fried, alternatively than boiled—which would lone marque it wetter. Sauces and seasonings would besides marque it much acceptable for consumption.
Thus the doc Peter of Spain (who aboriginal became Pope John XXI) suggested that oil, vinegar, vino and spices should beryllium utilized to “consume the moisture of the fish.” And Maino de Maineri warned that lamprey (which was “very dangerous,” though “tasty successful the mouth”) should beryllium killed by immersion successful wine, prepared with a spicy jelly oregon breadstuff sauce, and cooked precise thoroughly.
Such recommendations reflected a wider content that it was imaginable to marque foods healthier done cautious mentation and cooking—to the grade that immoderate historians person suggested that medieval cuisine was fundamentally applied dietetics, with cooks utilizing their cognition of the properties of idiosyncratic foods to nutrient steadfast dishes. There is immoderate grounds to enactment their claims: galore look collections included dishes particularly for the sick, and the celebrated fourteenth-century English cookbook The Forme of Cury was written successful consultation with “maistres of physic.” But it seems apt that lone the wealthiest households had entree to specified expertise, and determination were ever tons of different considerations astatine play, specified arsenic religion, show and taste.
Nevertheless, it is wide that wellness was a information erstwhile preparing a meal. For example, it was wide believed that cooking methods could alteration the properties of a food—so that beef, which was people dry, should beryllium boiled (to lukewarm and moisten the meat), whereas moist pork should beryllium dried retired by roasting. Most vegetables were dry, and truthful needed boiling, but onions—which were highly moist—should beryllium fried, to adust them retired a little. Fruits were mostly moist, which was wherefore it was safer to devour them cooked (preferably roasted oregon baked) and frankincense dried out.
Adding flavourings was different fashionable mode to marque nutrient some healthier and tastier. Honey was the astir communal sweetener; its warmth and dryness meant that it was bully for aged radical and those with acold complexions, though it could origin thirst, itching and tummy problems. Sugar was precise overmuch a luxury commodity, though it became much wide disposable from the mid-fourteenth century—and whereas we fret astir the dangers of eating excessively galore saccharine things, medieval radical focused connected its warm, moist qualities (which made it bully for the lungs, kidneys and bladder), and saw it arsenic a steadfast option.
But they shared our concerns astir salt, which was utilized for seasoning but was besides an important preservative for meat, food and immoderate vegetables. Warm and dry, successful tiny quantities it could beryllium a utile appetite stimulant and flavouring, but excessively overmuch would adust the body, pain the blood, adust retired the stomach, harm the eyes and brain, and origin itching. Consequently, cooks were warned not to oversalt food, and sometimes soaked preserved goods successful h2o to region the excess.
Herbs were besides popular, and galore offered important wellness benefits. Parsley, for example, generated bully humor and provoked urination and defecation; sage was bully for the tummy and nerves, and mint warmed the tummy and aided digestion. And spices were overmuch much wide utilized than we often assume, particularly towards the extremity of the Middle Ages, arsenic they became cheaper and much wide available; adjacent successful twelfth-century London, it was imaginable to bargain flavourings specified arsenic pepper, cumin and saffron. Medieval elites were peculiarly fond of saffron (hot and dry, it comforted the bosom and liver and aided digestion), portion capsicum (which was considerably cheaper and truthful much wide used) was precise blistery and dry, and bully for stimulating appetite, improving digestion, dissolving upwind and removing phlegm from the chest.
Furthermore, digestion was often compared to a cooking process—and conscionable arsenic it is important to travel the look erstwhile preparing a meal, this meant that foods indispensable beryllium eaten successful the close order.
Many of these flavourings could beryllium incorporated into sauces, which were highly fashionable and had some culinary and aesculapian benefits. They could stimulate appetite, positive they continued to vigor nutrient and to assistance with digestion aft it had been eaten. Sharp, vinegary foods were thought to beryllium particularly healthy, and were often utilized to tempt those with mediocre appetites to eat: the Salernitan doc Matthaeus Platearius (d. 1161) suggested that hard-boiled eggs chopped up and stirred into mint and vinegar sauce, oregon toast soaked successful vinegar, were bully for this purpose. And mixing could beryllium utilized to modify ingredients, truthful that dishes which combined saccharine and bitter flavours (such arsenic vinegar and honey) were amazingly common.
But this did not mean that foods should beryllium carelessly combined. Medical experts had beardown ideas astir what foods could beryllium eaten together. Although food was often soaked successful liquid earlier cooking, the encyclopaedist John Mirfield (d. 1407) warned his readers that they should not devour food with beverage oregon wine, due to the fact that this could origin leprosy. They should besides beware of mixing dense and airy foods, which were digested successful antithetic ways, truthful that combining them could pb to incomplete digestion and putrefaction.
Furthermore, digestion was often compared to a cooking process—and conscionable arsenic it is important to travel the look erstwhile preparing a meal, this meant that foods indispensable beryllium eaten successful the close order. Maino de Maineri (who was penning for an highly affluent audience, his employers including respective bishops, and the Scottish king Robert the Bruce) suggested that a repast mightiness commencement with confections of pistachio, marzipan, candied hazelnuts oregon dates, to unfastened the stomach. After this, dishes should beryllium served successful bid of digestibility, from the easiest (such arsenic a elemental broth, which was blistery and bedewed similar the stomach) to the hardest (heavy fruits specified arsenic apples, grosser meats specified arsenic beef, oregon different risky foods specified arsenic eel oregon cheese). Further confections, specified arsenic candied ginger oregon spiced wine, could beryllium utilized to adjacent the tummy astatine the extremity of the meal.
There was besides tons of proposal astir erstwhile a idiosyncratic should eat. From a aesculapian perspective, the perfect was 2 meals a day, some taken betwixt midday and nightfall, to let the digestive process to beryllium decently completed—and non-medics echoed this advice. For example, the atom merchant Paolo da Certaldo thought that a self-respecting antheral would devour lone meal and supper, due to the fact that “This is however a antheral should live—eating astatine each hours is however an carnal lives.” Similarly, the fourteenth-century French nobleman Geoffroy IV de la Tour Landry urged his daughters to signifier bully habits which would basal them successful bully stead passim their lives, claiming that “Taking refection erstwhile a time is an angel’s life, doubly is simply a man’s life, but eating galore times a time is simply a beast’s life.”
In practice, galore radical look to person eaten 3 meals a day, particularly towards the extremity of the Middle Ages, though meal was often comparatively precocious by our standards. Indeed, galore radical look to person gone to Mass oregon done immoderate enactment beforehand; successful August 1346, William Byschop, a Cambridge labourer, had already done a important magnitude of digging erstwhile helium sat down astatine the bottommost of a pit to devour his breakfast, and it collapsed successful connected him. Lunch, the main repast of the day, was usually eaten astatine astir midday, followed by a airy supper successful the precocious day oregon aboriginal evening. There is immoderate grounds that radical did devour astatine different times—snacking during enactment breaks, oregon successful the evening—but this was frowned upon.
Nevertheless, the value of moderation was clear, and astir radical recognized that eating lone what you needed was bully for some the assemblage and one’s manners. Thus Hildegard of Bingen asserted that “someone who eats and drinks with moderation volition person bully humor and a steadfast body,” portion Peter Fagarola warned his sons “Beware of eating excessively overmuch and excessively often, particularly during the night.”
But however overmuch nutrient a idiosyncratic should devour could alteration importantly passim the year. For 1 thing, Christians were required to execute regular fasts, which usually meant abstaining from definite foods and/or restrictions connected erstwhile 1 could eat, though particularly devout individuals sometimes abstained completely. In thirteenth-century England, Christians were expected to debar nutrient each Wednesday, Friday and Saturday during Lent (when eggs and dairy products were besides forbidden), Advent and connected immoderate saints’ days (or the eves of their feasts) —although definite groups, including children, the sick and elderly, large women and manual labourers, could beryllium exempted.
Although it is casual to presume that specified affluent individuals were simply playing the strategy successful bid to indulge their dietary preferences, their claims were undoubtedly compatible with modern aesculapian theory.
And the analyzable narration betwixt nutrient and bodily vigor meant that everyone needed much nutrient successful the wintertime than during the summertime months, and should change their fare according to the season. Fortifying foods specified arsenic reddish nutrient were bully successful the wintertime months, whereas lighter, cooler foods specified arsenic young chickens and lettuce were champion successful the summer—and eating precise blistery foods could origin gout. For akin reasons, radical who lived successful acold places needed to devour importantly more, truthful that a Pole mightiness devour much successful a azygous time than an Italian would devour successful fractional a week.
Matters were further analyzable by the information that custom, property and complexion each shaped what a idiosyncratic could and should eat. As John Mirfield wrote:
people are accustomed to dine 4 times a day, and yet are not harmed by it . . . others devour beans and pugnacious and past beef; and immoderate devour foxes and innumerable things of that nature, and yet they accidental that they are astir steadfast and support well.
According to the wide circulated encyclopaedia On the Properties of Things, the champion foods depended connected the individual, “For galore foods that are wholesome for a steadfast antheral are poison to a sick man.” While a bittersweet idiosyncratic should “eat a capable magnitude of nutrient that agrees with him, truthful that helium becomes invigorated anew from food,” overeating erstwhile blessed turned “the humours that are successful one’s humor . . . into the tempests of fevers.” Complexion besides determined what a idiosyncratic should eat, truthful that (for example) ail and capsicum were bully for the phlegmatic, but “venym” to a choleric person. A person’s property and concern would power their dietary requirements; successful particular, sedentary individuals needed little nutrient than their labouring counterparts, due to the fact that “hete is beardown successful travailinge men and feble successful restinge men.”
Doctors besides suggested that nary nutrient would suit a idiosyncratic truthful good arsenic that of his autochthonal place—so that galore twelfth-century English soldiers died during Irish campaigns due to the fact that of the “unaccustomed foods” and “change of diet.” When Gervase, a Durham-born cleric, became incurably sick portion studying successful Paris,
the corporate sentiment of each the doctors was that the sick antheral should spell to his autochthonal onshore arsenic rapidly arsenic possible, and determination should, supra each else, bask the foods connected which helium had been nourished from childhood. For . . . it was thought that the nutrient connected which invalids were brought up was much effectual than immoderate medicine.
Such considerations were taken truthful earnestly that the Catalan friar Francesc Eiximenis (c. 1340–1409) complained that, if it was up to doctors, nary 1 would ever accelerated oregon bash penance; they encouraged their patients to obsess implicit their bodies to the detriment of their souls. People utilized aesculapian proposal to marque excuses for themselves, claiming that “doctor’s orders forestall maine from eating much abstemiously” oregon “if I don’t devour well, I’m not bully for anything.”
His constituent is borne retired by the grounds of the papal registers which (especially towards the extremity of the Middle Ages) were littered with dispensations to high-status individuals specified arsenic Humphrey, duke of Gloucester, who successful 1434 was allowed to execute alternate works of piety erstwhile “he cannot accelerated connected relationship of his health.” As aboriginal arsenic 1248, Alexander II of Scotland (r. 1214–49) was permitted to interruption the Lenten accelerated “by the proposal of his confessor and physicians”; 2 centuries later, James III (r. 1460–88) was allowed to devour “flesh, eggs and milkmeats successful Lent and connected different forbidden days,” “the eating of food being precise harmful to his health.” In 1481 Edward IV of England was granted his ain dispensation, “the pope having learned that food is injurious to his health, and that if helium made a agelong usage thereof his beingness would beryllium successful danger.”
Although it is casual to presume that specified affluent individuals were simply playing the strategy successful bid to indulge their dietary preferences, their claims were undoubtedly compatible with modern aesculapian theory. St Thomas Becket cured respective radical who became sick aft eating fish, including John (a Pontefract monk with a “young and sickly” complexion, who was frankincense incapable to tolerate the salmon that was a staple of the monastic diet) and Juliana, a caller parent sickened by overindulging successful “some harmful fish.”
And immoderate affluent radical did instrumentality their diets precise seriously. Edward IV’s tribunal physicians were reportedly required to “stand muche successful the kynges beingness astatine his meles, councellyng his grace whyche dyet is best” and astir the aforesaid time, the duke of Burgundy employed six physicians to execute the aforesaid task. The affluent were besides precise alert of the hazard of poisoning; arsenic good arsenic rejecting thing which smelt oregon tasted bad, they mightiness usage emerald, coral and ruby (which were each thought to alteration colour if poison was present) to place unsafe dishes. If the worst happened, cures for poisoning mostly aimed to provoke vomiting, sometimes followed by phlebotomy a fewer days later.
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From The Medieval Guide to Healthy Living. Used with the support of the publisher, University of Chicago Press. Copyright © 2026 by Katherine Harvey
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