9
votes
Accepted
Is it true that many great ancient warriors were vegan?
So officially, would carry wheat and barley but they ate whatever they could find,
Armies back then were principally fed with wheat, the soldiers would have likely ate plain whole wheat bread ...
- 2,313
9
votes
Accepted
Were shipboard gardens ever typical?
Since the question specifies the Age-of-Sail, we're concerned with the period between 1650 and 1850. The link between nutrition and health on long voyages was only really established in the last half ...
- 19.8k
9
votes
Did starvation or malnutrition occur in indigenous American societies?
Hunter-Gathers
Absolutely all hunter-gatherers live "hand-to-mouth", malnutrition is common, and starvation is not just a "risk" - it is a permanent threat.
This should be obvious because they ...
- 27k
9
votes
What is the science behind lead not contributing to the fall of Rome?
For the question of lead pipes, the 2014 paper Lead in ancient Rome’s city waters, by Hugo Delile et al, probably contains more than enough detail to answer the question. The authors concluded that:
...
- 77.2k
7
votes
Accepted
Did the average height of men in late Victorian England decline due to poor nutrition?
The statistical illustration published by the BBC of Hatton's data is misleading, The Economist is different:
The original paper is Timothy J. Hatton: "How have Europeans grown so tall?",...
- 80.8k
3
votes
Were shipboard gardens ever typical?
If gardens were common on ships of the age of sail, then we would expect them to appear on ship's plans and on ship's models (which were manufactured as a type of blueprint prior to the ship's ...
- 4,777
3
votes
What is the impact of history on food habits in India?
an average Indian diet, especially in the rural parts of India
generally consists of more carbohydrate and less protein or other
nutrients.
From a larger historical perspective, this is exactly ...
- 23k
3
votes
What is the impact of history on food habits in India?
Until India became independent, the question wasn't so much whether the diet was balanced than it was whether there was enough food to not starve. There have been a few famine threats since, but ...
3
votes
How did early farmer societies "know" about protein contents of peas and lentils?
Summary: we do have evolutionary very old taste receptors that detect proteins, and we probably have rather well regulated protein intake. Knowing that this is protein is not necessary to achieve this....
- 736
2
votes
Has scurvy occurred on land outside the Russian Far East?
I remember a news report on the radio, decades ago (so I can't provide a source, sorry).
Parents went on a long holiday trip and gave their 16 to 18 year old children the house keys, a phone number ...
- 17.7k
2
votes
Did starvation or malnutrition occur in indigenous American societies?
From a New York Times review (Don't Blame Columbus for All the Indians' Ills) of the book The Backbone of History: Health and Nutrition in the Western Hemisphere:
What had not been clearly recognized ...
- 348
2
votes
How did early farmer societies "know" about protein contents of peas and lentils?
A detail worth considering is that high-protein pulse crops also happen to be nitrogen-fixing. In other words, higher protein crops would have also improved the quality of the soil. Growing them ...
- 23k
1
vote
Why do certain foods (i.e. wheat and rice) dominate our carbohydrate intake?
You might want to read Chapter 8: Apples or Indians in the book Guns, Germs, and Steel.
That chapter essentially claims that those staple crops provide relatively high nutrition relative to their ease ...
- 440
1
vote
Did people have better nutrition before agriculture?
Nutritional advice is relative and changes according to fashion. When I was a kid, eggs were 'out'. No more than 2-3 eggs per week. And drink milk. Lots and lots of milk! Three pints (large glasses) ...
- 22.7k
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