Tag: Food
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Milk in medicine
The mammary glands are believed to have originated as glands in the skin of synapsids. These were the predecessors of mammals some 300 million years ago, and the function of their skin glands was to provide moisture for the eggs they were laying. When mammals came on to the scene, the function of the mammary…
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Vegetarians, vegans, and compassionate eating
Photo by mali maeder on Pexels Our ancestors, who lived swinging from limb to limb in the trees, ate nuts and berries and killed animals to eat them. With the development of agriculture and civilization, some people developed pangs of conscience and felt that animals also have an unalienable right to life, liberty, and the…
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Poison at the dinner table
Mithradates of Pontus, the Royal Toxicologist, testing poisons on a prisoner. Robert Thom, 1951. US National Library of Medicine. Putting poison in food has long been an expeditious way of disposing of one’s enemies. The many poisons traditionally available for this purpose include hemlock, aconitum, arsenic, cyanide, belladonna, and strychnine. Using food tasters to avoid…
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Pica: Eating starch and clay
The habit of eating non-nutritious or nonfood substances goes by the name of pica and strikes one as a rather peculiar phenomenon. It applies most commonly to people consuming starch or clay, but at different times and in different areas people have also eaten paper, dirt, soap, cloth, hair, ice, pebbles, charcoal, chalk, hair, or…
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The history of apples is the history of mankind
“Just a little longer.” Crop of photo by CasparGirl on Flickr. CC BY 2.0. The apple has been intertwined with human civilization for thousands of years. References to apples can be found in history, literature, religion, and folklore. The wild ancestor of the modern apple tree, Malus sieversii, originated in Central Asia and was domesticated…
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Eating cheese as medicine
Photo by Mustang Joe on Flickr Cheese has been part of human fare since the dawn of history. Already about 7,000 to 8,000 years ago the Sumerians were making cheese from milk by curdling it with enzymes from animal stomachs to prevent it from spoiling. They used it for food, but also for medicinal purposes,…
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Feast or famine: Food in the art of Bruegel
Howard Fischer Uppsala, Sweden The Peasant Wedding. Peter Bruegel the Elder, 1566–9. Via Wikimedia. “Famine was part of everyday life.”1 Pieter Bruegel the Elder (1525–1569), one of the most accomplished Netherlandish painters, often used peasant life as his subject. The survival of peasant agricultural society depended entirely on the success of their crops.…
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Beets
George Dunea Chicago, Illinois, United States All but the most lionhearted would experience a sinking feeling on finding they have passed blood in their urine. With Sir Walter Scott they might wonder if changing the vowel A to I means they would soon be making earth. They would be greatly relieved to find out…
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The anorexia of aging
Alexandra Mignucci Albany, New York, United States “Vegan Meal.” Photo by Marketa, 2013, on Flickr. CC BY-SA 2.0. While working at a medical home for patients with Alzheimer’s, I became fascinated by the difference in how much food the patients would eat when sitting at the table as a group versus when I would…
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The ancient history of beer
Carol Sherman Chicago, Illinois, United States Cylinder seal (left) and modern impression (right) depicting two people drinking beer through long straws, found in Khafajeh, Iraq, c. 2600–2350 BC. Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago. Beer is a short word with a long history. According to the World History Encyclopedia, it is the world’s…