IMC 2016: Sessions
Session 1514: Food as Treatment, I: Diet and Health
Thursday 7 July 2016, 09.00-10.30
| Organiser: | Wendy J. Turner, Department of History, Anthropology & Philosophy, Augusta University, Georgia |
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| Moderator/Chair: | Iona McCleery, Institute for Medieval Studies / School of History, University of Leeds |
| Paper 1514-a | Food for Thought: Diet and Mental Health (Language: English) Index terms: Daily Life, Medicine, Mentalities |
| Paper 1514-b | Dietary Advice for the Pregnant and Nursing Mother (Language: English) Index terms: Daily Life, Gender Studies, Medicine, Women's Studies |
| Abstract | This series of panels engages food as both treatment for illness and the reverse, the medieval misunderstanding of food as treatment. Further, some of the papers look at how dietary deficiencies led to medical misunderstanding of health conditions, at how art and literature treat food as symbolic of good health and virtuous living. All together, the three panels on 'Diet and Health', 'Curatives for Ails', and 'Beliefs, Deficiencies, and Appetites' provide an overview of the connections between food and health in the Middle Ages. This first panel investigates food as a medical treatment for health conditions, especially long-term illness, and as a preventative for illness. The interest here is in prescription food or links between diet and health. The papers have particular interest in patients with mental health issues, who are pregnant or nursing, and who are suffering from 'leprosy'. |