“Beer and wine were invented because drinking water was unsafe.”
No, people have generally always known how to find clean drinking water and understood its importance. Beer and wine got made because they were delicious, nutritious, and got ya drunk.
“Medieval Europeans needed spices because all of their meat was rotten.”
No, they had the same physiology we do and would have been just as disgusted by rotten meat. They would eat fresh meat when in season, and they knew how to preserve it by smoking, salting, drying, pickling, or fermenting it. Medieval Europeans wanted spices for the same reason we do, because they taste really good.
“Beer and wine were invented because drinking water was unsafe.”
No, people have generally always known how to find clean drinking water and understood its importance. Beer and wine got made because they were delicious, nutritious, and got ya drunk.
Sounds like someone who misheard a different fact. Which is why sailors drink low proof alcohol on long voyages. Because they couldn’t safely store water for such a long time. Water turns green and becomes undrinkable if you store it in a barrel. It’s one of the things that helped unlock ocean travel in the 1400’s.
Alcohol occurs naturally in nature. It did not need ‘inventing.’
No, people have generally always known how to find clean drinking water and understood its importance.
Citation very needed. People thought some water to be better than others, and the Romans went as far as building out aqueducts to their favourite springs, but an understanding it can cause water borne disease, and that it can look and smell fine but be bad, is decidedly modern. Health effects weren’t necessarily thought to be confined to drinking either - holy water and baptisms being an example where just contact was thought to confer something.
The spices thing is legit, though. How long would you last eating no spices whatsoever? Trading gold for an equal mass of pepper suddenly doesn’t seem so dumb.
I’ll dig up the sources when I can but you can find writings from Ancient Rome to Medieval Europe describing good water to drink (clear, cold, fast-moving, odorless) versus bad water (stagnant, dirty, smelly). Of course they didn’t know why the good water was better than the bad water and, as you said yourself, it wasn’t a complete picture, but they most definitely knew which water to drink and which to avoid. It’s why you find settlements along fresh water sources and why people have always dug wells.
One thing I don’t see mentioned a lot is that water has always been the most commonly consumed drink simply because making beer is resource-intensive. I don’t doubt that people would have tried to drink only beer if they could get away with it, but it just wouldn’t be practical when the stream is right over there.
Sure, they knew drinking something gross was likely to make you sick. If your nice clear river is downstream from a public lavatory, would they see a problem with that, though? Probably, they’d only worry if it was close. Bad smells and weird sounds (like got Bach in trouble) are similarly mentioned as sources of disease.
As for alcohol, I should point out it has the effect of alcohol, and getting drunk is popular. If it was about safety, making a nice herbal tea (or actual tea if available) is easier and faster and much more effective at killing bugs.
Im totally sure these are just myths. Its like the americans traveling abroad asking for coke in the bottle. If your traveling and getting something from an inn you know the alcohol is likely safer than whatever standards they have for water. I mean they did not have germ theory but over time people would realize alcohol is safer. If your poor you will eat some marginal things and hide the flavor although granted spices were expensive till they were not and its pretty well known wealthy people put a bunch on to show off and when it got cheap that is when the fancy cooking with proper pairings became a big thing. poor people getting spices im sure at some point was like. omg! you had to be a lord to have a meal like this when I was a kid.
I mean they did not have germ theory but over time people would realize alcohol is safer.
I mean, that would just lead to germ theory (which was kicking around as a minority theory before the microscope). In reality, people will ascribe their problems to all kinds of crazy things, spirits and demons being the most popular. If something is actually poisonous and kills or maims 100% of the time, they’d catch on, but health correlations that are a crapshoot went unnoticed for centuries, because a lot of people were just violently ill from a lot of things.
“Beer and wine were invented because drinking water was unsafe.”
No, people have generally always known how to find clean drinking water and understood its importance. Beer and wine got made because they were delicious, nutritious, and got ya drunk.
“Medieval Europeans needed spices because all of their meat was rotten.”
No, they had the same physiology we do and would have been just as disgusted by rotten meat. They would eat fresh meat when in season, and they knew how to preserve it by smoking, salting, drying, pickling, or fermenting it. Medieval Europeans wanted spices for the same reason we do, because they taste really good.
Sounds like someone who misheard a different fact. Which is why sailors drink low proof alcohol on long voyages. Because they couldn’t safely store water for such a long time. Water turns green and becomes undrinkable if you store it in a barrel. It’s one of the things that helped unlock ocean travel in the 1400’s.
Alcohol occurs naturally in nature. It did not need ‘inventing.’
Citation very needed. People thought some water to be better than others, and the Romans went as far as building out aqueducts to their favourite springs, but an understanding it can cause water borne disease, and that it can look and smell fine but be bad, is decidedly modern. Health effects weren’t necessarily thought to be confined to drinking either - holy water and baptisms being an example where just contact was thought to confer something.
The spices thing is legit, though. How long would you last eating no spices whatsoever? Trading gold for an equal mass of pepper suddenly doesn’t seem so dumb.
I wonder if holy water ever gets swapped out? How many hands and babies have been dunked before it’s changed?
I’ll dig up the sources when I can but you can find writings from Ancient Rome to Medieval Europe describing good water to drink (clear, cold, fast-moving, odorless) versus bad water (stagnant, dirty, smelly). Of course they didn’t know why the good water was better than the bad water and, as you said yourself, it wasn’t a complete picture, but they most definitely knew which water to drink and which to avoid. It’s why you find settlements along fresh water sources and why people have always dug wells.
One thing I don’t see mentioned a lot is that water has always been the most commonly consumed drink simply because making beer is resource-intensive. I don’t doubt that people would have tried to drink only beer if they could get away with it, but it just wouldn’t be practical when the stream is right over there.
Sure, they knew drinking something gross was likely to make you sick. If your nice clear river is downstream from a public lavatory, would they see a problem with that, though? Probably, they’d only worry if it was close. Bad smells and weird sounds (like got Bach in trouble) are similarly mentioned as sources of disease.
As for alcohol, I should point out it has the effect of alcohol, and getting drunk is popular. If it was about safety, making a nice herbal tea (or actual tea if available) is easier and faster and much more effective at killing bugs.
Im totally sure these are just myths. Its like the americans traveling abroad asking for coke in the bottle. If your traveling and getting something from an inn you know the alcohol is likely safer than whatever standards they have for water. I mean they did not have germ theory but over time people would realize alcohol is safer. If your poor you will eat some marginal things and hide the flavor although granted spices were expensive till they were not and its pretty well known wealthy people put a bunch on to show off and when it got cheap that is when the fancy cooking with proper pairings became a big thing. poor people getting spices im sure at some point was like. omg! you had to be a lord to have a meal like this when I was a kid.
I mean, that would just lead to germ theory (which was kicking around as a minority theory before the microscope). In reality, people will ascribe their problems to all kinds of crazy things, spirits and demons being the most popular. If something is actually poisonous and kills or maims 100% of the time, they’d catch on, but health correlations that are a crapshoot went unnoticed for centuries, because a lot of people were just violently ill from a lot of things.