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.
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.