Blackfriars Lecture: The Healthy Medieval Diet

There are many myths about medieval food: lots of spices, too much meat, far too much feasting and fasting, no fruit and vegetables, frequent famine. This talk will try to dispel some of the myths by describing some typical foods and eating behaviours from the 14th and 15th centuries. Were medieval people more or less healthy than us? Did they listen to what their doctors had to say? How did poor people cope compared to the rich? The talk will start by exploring what we mean by ?healthy? and what it meant then. It will then go on to consider medieval methods of maintaining and restoring health through diet and consider to what extent these ideas were put into practice at all levels of society. 

Contact admin.imems@durham.ac.uk for more information about this event.