S3E31: Really! Dieting Was A Thing In History?

Medieval Recipes & Eating Right in Renaissance. Ozempic, Wegovy, Mounjaro - expensive weight loss drugs that are all the rage now.

Okay, let's get something straight away. In centuries past, diet didn't mean weight loss. In fact, it wasn't until the 18th century that researchers, and later society, began to see fat and obesity as health and, unfortunately, a social issue.

Going back to history, what did people eat to stay healthy? That continues to be an important question today. In fact, it consumes many health-conscious people. But it also pertains to weight loss drugs, because experts warn that it's not enough to take Ozempic, Wegovy, Mounjaro. You also have to eat right to stay healthy!

So, during the Renaissance, the answer to the above question depended on the type of body you were born with, your constitution. So, are you sanguine, phlegmatic, choleric or melancholic? These psychological terms dictated what best fit your physiology.

Dr. Ken Albala, my guest for this episode, is the author of Eating Right in the Renaissance. He is a professor of history at the University of the Pacific, and has written and edited more than 25 books about food and nutrition history, including Cooking in Europe, 1250 to 1650. To learn more about Dr. Albala and his many projects and publications, you can visit his academic and also personal homepage.

Obviously, eating right not only helps you lose weight, but, more importantly, it helps you stay healthy and fight the onslaught and progression of many diseases. In a conversation with Dr. Gil Rabinovici, a Distinguished Professor in Memory and Aging, in the Departments of Neurology, Radiology and Biomedical Imaging, at the University of California, San Francisco, I learned that eating right also helps with treating the symptoms of Alzheimer's disease. In that conversation, I asked Dr. Rabinovici why don't we have a cure for Alzheimer's disease. He gave a compelling explanation to that question, and additionally shared some good news - that while we don't have a cure for Alzheimer's Disease yet, we have learned how to live long and productive lives with Alzheimer's. You can listen to my conversation with him here: https://bit.ly/HbN-S2E7s

I hope you enjoy these episodes.

Adel

Host of the ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠History Behind News⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ podcast

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