Was a Medieval Peasant's Diet Healthier Than Ours?

By. Liliana Kotval

Are our diets more unhealthy than those of our medieval ancestors? When we think of a medieval diet we tend to think of boring food choices with little variety. However, believe it or not, a medieval peasant was sufficiently nourished by locally grown, natural food and extremely fit from the continuous manual labor. When comparing this to the increasingly processed Western diet, it could be wise to learn a thing or two from their medieval eating habits.

Here is what a typical day of eating looked like in Medieval Bohemia:

• Breakfast: The poor ate bread with cheese and onion or soup, while the rich ate fish with wine or beer.

• Lunch: Rather  "lunches ", as this meal consisted of various courses. Soup was the starter, followed by stewed meat with sauce, then roasted meat with honey, sugar, onion, apples, plums, pears, and bread. Other courses included gruel- peas, millet, lentils, rice or other cereals with cabbage, herbs, beets, carrots, or vegetable salad. For dessert, doughnuts, baked yeast dumplings, cookies, griddle cakes, iced muffins, apple pies, and gingerbread were popular. Without access to potable water, a weak beer was constantly drunk by all ages, leading to a persistent state of mild drunkenness. Only the rich had the pleasure of affording exotic fruits, spices, and rice.

• Dinner: like lunch, but usually smaller.

A medieval feast. From expats.cz

Looking at all the ingredients used and the fact that they were locally grown, free of

unnatural preservatives, and low in salt, fat, and sugar, it is safe to say that the medieval diet

was healthier than the processed options we have today. 

​On the other hand, it must be considered, that the poor could not eat a varied diet every day and often relied on just legumes, bread, and eggs for sustenance. Other setbacks to well-being included seasonal fluctuations in crop availability, various diseases, such as plague, tuberculosis, infections, and sweating sickness, famine, warfare, and death during or by childbirth, not to mention illness from poorly preserved food or lead or fungus contaminated bread. These drawbacks were what contributed to the overall low life expectancy; however, some medieval people lived to their 60’s, 70’s or even 80’s. When the harvest was fruitful and the money wasn't tight, a medieval diet could be a delight.

That said, today, we have the privilege of advanced science and healthcare, nearly eliminating the troubles of medieval diseases. Our chances of survival are much higher because of this. Ironically, despite the wide variety of fruits, vegetables, and meats now available and affordable to us, we are eating unhealthy, processed foods, leading to higher rates of distinctive diseases like diabetes, cancer, heart attacks, and obesity. If we were to learn from medieval people and use modern medicine, I would say we would have the perfect formula for healthy longevity.

Instead of going for that processed junk, eat simply like a medieval peasant. Stick with few, natural ingredients (even better if grown from one's own garden) and try roasting some fruit, stewing some meat, and drinking some ale. Or better yet, try the following recipe:

Creamed Fish Starter

To make mortreux of fisch. Tak plays or fresch meluel or merlyng & seth it in fayre water, and then tak awey the skyn & the bones & presse the fisch in a cloth & bray it in a mortere, and tempre it vp with almond melk, & bray poudere of gynger & sugre togedere & departe the mortreux on tweyne in two pottes & coloure that on with saffroun & dresch it in disches, half of that on & half of that other, & strawe poudere of gyngere & sugre on that on & clene sugre on that other & serue it forth.

Mortreux of fisch. From r/Old_Recipes

Did you understand any of that Medieval English? Well, if not, no worries, here is the modern translation:

Ingredients:

• 600g skinned cod fillet

• a pinch of sea salt

• 125g ground almonds

• 2 tsp rice flour or corn flour

• 3 tbsp deep yellow saffron water or food coloring

• 1/2 tsp ground ginger

• 3/4 tsp white sugar

Method:

To make fish mortrews (paté), take fresh cod and soak it in salted water. Remove the skin and bones and press the fish in a cloth to squeeze out the excess moisture and then flake it. Combine the almonds with some of the fish liquid. Strain the almond "milk" and add it to the fish and blend until smooth. Cream the rice flour with fish cooking liquid and heat until thickens. Add to the rest of the mixture. Add the ginger and sugar and then separate in halves. In one half, add the saffron. Then serve.

References:

British Museum. "How to Cook a Medieval Feast. 11 Recipes from the Middle Ages". https://www.britishmuseum.org/blog/how-cook-medieval-feast-11-recipes-middle-ages  

Nativity Seeds. “Medieval Nutrition”. https://www.nativityseeds.com/en/knowledge-base/articles/medieval-nutrition.html  

2marie.cz. “What our Predecessors Used to Eat”. Krčma U dwau Maryí. https://www.2marie.cz/6/en/normal/contact-map/