SUMMARY OF FOOD AND DRINK ACROSS HISTORY

Since the dawn of the human race, food and drink have kept us alive, but how has what we put into our bodies changed throughout history?

STONE AGE HUNTING AND GATHERING (30.000 BCE)
The appearance of homo sapiens some 35,000 years ago (the Paleolithic era) starts to reduce fish stocks, as man hunts and eats them. The mammoth, wildebeest, zebra and others are hunted seasonally on their respective continents.

THE BIRTH OF IRRIGATION (6.000 BCE)
The first irrigation systems appear in Egypt and Mesopotamia (now Iraq and Iran). Water spilling over the banks of the Nile is diverted to fields to water the crops and then drained back into the river at the right time.

THE MAYANS AND CHOCOLATE (c.400)
Mayans eat chocolate on a daily basis. They drink a mixture of cacao and chilli, and use the liquid as a substitute for blood in some rituals, while cocoa beans are also used as currency.

ROMAN FEASTS (5th.Century)
The cook book 'De Re Coquinaria' (On Cooking) by Apicius is compiled from documents of the 4th and 5th centuries. It offers menus including sows’ udders stuffed with milk and eggs, and boiled ostrich with sweet sauce.

DAILY FARE IN MEDIEVAL ENGLAND (1350)
During a day toiling in the fields, a peasant would burn about 3,000 calories; their food intake had to be much higher than it is today.
● Bread 2,240 calories,
● Beans 1,394 calories,
● Ale 584 calories,
● Turnips 140 calories.
● Total calories 4358

RISE OF COFFEE HOUSE (1650)
The first English coffee house opens in Oxford. More open over the coming years, popularising the drink and becoming the chosen haunt for literary figures like Samuel Pepys.
London’s ›first coffee house was opened by a Greek servant called Pasqua Rosee in 1652, in St Michael’s Alley, Cornhill.

THE FIRST THANKSGIVING (1621)
In 1621, the first Thanksgiving feast, upon which future celebrations across the United States and the world would be based, takes place between the Pilgrims of Plymouth and the Wampanoag Indians.

EAST INDIA COMPANY AND TEA (1600)
Taking advantage of trade with Asia and India, this trading body forms at the end of 1600. It imports spices and other goods, and in the 19th century becomes a prominent importer of tea from China.
Charles II’s queen, Catherine of Braganza, got a taste for tea in Portugal, and popularised it in the English court.

FOOD FOR A WORKING DAY (1820)
Breakfast emerged in the 17th century for the working classes, but with the Industrial Revolution, the most important meal of the day becomes essential for bosses and workers alike.

WORKHOUSE GRUB (1773)
Workhouses grow in number as Sir Edward Knatchbull’s Workhouse Test Act is passed by parliament. Food here is lacking, but when it is available, it consists of bread, water and porridge.

THE LONDON GIN CRAZE (1730)
● In 1730, there are an estimated 7,000 gin shops in London.
● 10 million gallons of gin are distilled each year at the height of the craze.
● It is recorded in 1743 that 2.2 gallons of gin are consumed per person per year.

IRISH POTATO FAMINE (1845-1849)
As Irish potato crops are ruined by the Phytophthora blight for several years, famine is widespread. Half the country depends on potatoes in their diet, and the population decreases by more than 2 million.

FOOD IN THE TRENCHES (1914-18)
3,240,948 tons of food is sent from Britain to soldiers in France and Belgium
300,000Ž field workers are employed to cook and supply food
3,574 calories a day are needed by soldiers on the front line.
‘Bully beef’, or corned beef, was the bulk of a soldier’s diet and their biggest source of protein. They ate six ounces per day.

THE FIRST FAST FOOD JOINT (1921)
The White Castle burger restaurant opens in Wichita, Kansas. Their clean, white restaurant tackles the idea that hamburgers are unsafe, leading the way for McDonald’s and other fast food chains.

BIRTH OF FACTORY FARMING (1923)
Mrs Wilmer Steele, a housewife in Delaware, USA, becomes the first factory farmer. She turns a flock of 500 chicks, to sell for meat, into a broiling house with 10,000 birds by 1926.

WORLD WAR II RATIONING BEGINS (1940)
● Less than one-third of the food Britain consumes when rationing begins is made there.
● Each person is allocated one egg per week.
● Allotment numbers rise from 815,000 to 1.4 million.

EATING IN SPACE (1962)
John Glenn is the first human to eat in space, consuming apple sauce aboard the Friendship 7 craft. It was not known previously whether humans could swallow and digest without gravity.

NO MORE FREE MILK (1970)
Margaret Thatcher, British education secretary and future prime minister, gains the moniker ‘Milk Snatcher’ as free school milk is abolished for children over the age of seven. The policy is pushed through by the Treasury.

In "All About History", issue 35,2016, excerpts pp.13-15. Adapted and illustrated to be posted by Leopoldo Costa.