Nutrition History (from Parts Unknown)

In episode 4 of Nutrition History from Parts Unknown, we are taking it back 500 years to the glory days of bread, a time when Europe’s medical community was unanimous in its praise of bread as a health food. Bread became Renaissance Europe’s most widely celebrated dietary staple. It was thought to promote wellness through a number channels: Its sticky and elastic gluttinous proptires were considered essential to a well-functioning digestive tract its warm, moist thermic properties were perfectly suited to, and promoted, an ideal moist and warm human body temperament, and finally it placed second only to meat in terms of providing pure nourishment. A complex and convoluted dietetic system, highly influenced by the medical thinking of Ancient Greece and Rome, informed these pro-bread takes, which we are going to delve into on today's show.