The diet of our precursors was represented by plants and animals. This is to satisfy (still) human needs in proteins and lipids of about 1g / kg body weight each and about 100 grams of carbohydrates per day….

1. The history of nutrition
Giorgio Pitzalis
www.giustopeso.it
First part
The diet of our precursors was represented by plants and animals. This is to satisfy (still)
human needs in proteins and lipids of about 1g / kg body weight each and about 100 grams of
carbohydrates per day. Few plant products were then suitable for human nutrition, as
cellulose and lignin, the main structural components of plants, are not processable from the
human digestion. Those plants were then available for human nutrition mainly fruit and
berries (to cover the needs in carbohydrates and water), and semi nocispeci to cover the
needs in lipids and proteins. The rest consisted occasionally in animal products readily
available without tools and weapons (arthropods and other small animals).
What they ate the ancient Egyptians? Essentially the diet was based on bread (also spelled
flour leavened). The mixture could be enriched with fat, milk, eggs and spices, and with the
addition of figs and dates, you could also prepare sweet buns. The beer (quite different from
the modern) was very popular and appreciated by the Egyptians. It was a dense and highly
nutritious drink. The initial procedure of processing was common to that of bread. They were
prepared using the loaves of barley flour and you would cook only superficially, so as to leave
the inner raw and facilitate the subsequent fermentation that was occurring within large tubs
in which the so-called loaves from beer were crumbled, wet and left to rest with the addition
of flavoring substances, such as juice, dates, figs and carob. A wide variety of vegetables
enriched the table of the ancient Egyptians. Among the most consumed vegetables were
onions and garlic, sweeter and smaller than modern ones. Legumes were an important source

2. of protein for those who could not normally afford meat: in addition to chickpeas, broad
beans, peas and lentils, the Egyptians ate a native legume called Lubia, similar to the bean.
They were also spread many species of cucurbits, such as pumpkins and watermelons, and
cruciferous vegetables such as cabbage and radishes. Among the wild plants they were
appreciated parts of the papyrus and water lilies, in particular the water lily, the
hallucinogenic properties, and the lotus flower, whose seeds, ground into flour, could be used
to make a type of bread.
Were abundantly available dates and figs, eaten fresh or dried and used for the preparation of
sweets and as aromas during fermentation beverage. Even the carob was used as a sweetener
and could be cooked to prepare a kind of jam.
The oil was used both as a condiment, both for the preservation of food. The most common
were the oil extracted from the seeds of Moringa, very sweet and can keep a long time without
turning rancid, and sesame oil, with emollient and laxative. The olive tree instead hardly grew
in Egypt and olive oil was mainly imported. The aromas and spices were usually used to flavor
foods. Cumin and coriander were the most used, but were also found traces of celery and
parsley, myrtle, thyme and fenugreek, similar to curry; Instead pepper and cinnamon were
imported products. The meat then came to the table of the lower classes rarely, during special
holidays or during funeral celebrations, when the foods were distributed in honor of the dead.
The meat of cattle, roasted or stewed, was a delicious dish, which alternated the products of
hunting, wild animals of large size, such as the Oryx, buffalo, gazelle, ibex, chamois. The reeds
along the banks of the Nile were also the ideal environment for the practice of bird: ostriches,
pelicans, herons and cranes, geese, ducks and quails were not only used in the kitchen, but
they were also bred for the supply of eggs . The fish, readily available and cheap, was part of
the daily diet of most Egyptians and constituted a great alternative to meat. Instead of beer,
wine was a luxury drink that only the upper classes could afford. The vinification took place in
an almost similar to ours and, although the grape wine was the most popular, is also produced
one of dates, figs, very alcoholic, and pomegranate. The milk was difficult to maintain long-
term and this was consumed straight from the cow, still hot, or left to ferment naturally to
obtain a sort of butter or cheese. Honey was considered a valuable product, used in the
kitchen for the preparation of sweet or fermented drinks, in order to increase the alcohol
content. It was a product used in the medical field, thanks to its emollient and antibacterial.
They produced several quality, using flower nectar or honeydew; with honey diluted in water
and left to ferment was produced mead.
The food of the ancient Greeks. Iliad heroes ate roasted meat, especially kids, lambs and beef;
also they drank red wine, very dense and sour, which was diluted with water and honey.
Cheese Iliad and Odyssey speak little: it was mostly consumed goat's milk. Very important
element was the oil, while they were almost absent fruits, vegetables and fish, consumed only
in emergency situations. Odyssey power appears much more varied: the cultivation of wheat
and barley alongside horticulture and consumption of vegetables and salads and, in addition
to the fire, appear other ways to cook the food.
From the fifth century. B.C. the fish becomes the main dish nutrition Greek. In classical Greece
during banquets they were consumed olives, cheeses, wild onions (also known as wild onions
with a bow), various types of vegetables, cakes, fruits like figs and myrtle, all kinds of meat
and game. As desserts were appreciated starches, a kind of puddings and cakes or sweet buns,
all sweetened with honey. The Greeks loved the bread, in the form of cakes, soft rolls, often
flavored with rocket and thyme. They particularly appreciated the strong flavors and sour and
grew great use of spices, especially safflower, thistle, coriander and cumin; among the
condiments it was used marjoram, mint, myrrh, pepper, silphium (plant now extinct) and
thyme. The lower classes made extensive use of legumes, especially lentils, in the form of

3. soups, for their high protein content. Real delicacy was garon (garum Latin), a sauce that was
obtained by macerating together small saltwater fish whole, salted and dried in the sun. The
recipe was then somewhat restored in the Middle Ages by the monastic groups present on the
Amalfi Coast, which in August used to store salted anchovies in wooden barrels (mbuosti);
under the action of the salt, anchovies lost liquid seeping through the cracks of the barrels.
Power in Ancient Rome
The diet of the first inhabitants of Rome was represented mainly of vegetables and grain. The
production of the bread was of three qualities: one candidus, made of fine white flour,
secundarius always white but mixed with flour and finally the plebeius or rusticus a kind of
bread. Later, by the Etruscans he came to Rome in the habit of eating a food more varied and
rich in protein made up of both that game from farm animals. And when Rome came into
contact with the Greeks in the Hellenistic period of Ancient Greece from them he learned to
appreciate the fruits of olives and vines that had used until then, especially for religious rites.
From the age of Augustus, with the conquest of the East and the intense commercial relations
with Asia he arrived in Rome "everything that the earth produces beautiful and good 'and the
Roman power is refined: the food is understood as pure livelihood began in imperial times to
replace, even with the use of spices and aromas, taste and food culture, passing by the pure
power to the flavors.
The Romans divided their normal diet in three meals a day that at the beginning were called
ientaculum, dinner, vesperna and when it disappeared, was replaced by prandium. Rarely the
Romans devoted much attention to the first two meals that were never very nutritious and
most of the time abolished one of the first two. Martial describes his ientaculum consists of
bread and cheese, while the prandium consisted of cold meat, vegetables, fruit and a glass of
wine mixed with water. For the majority of the Romans before rushing to work the breakfast
was simple: a glass of water or something left over from dinner the night before and how to
prandium the poor and the common people certainly did not come back home for dinner but
most of the time They ate in tabernae where you could eat with bread commoner simple
dishes consisting of boiled eggs, cheese, vegetables and drinking wine mixed with hot water in
winter or cool in summer. He used to flavor foods with garum. The solid part was left by
maceration of small fish was the 'allec made to look like for our taste anchovy paste, but more
aromatic. For the main meal it was then dinner, which was for most of the first two equally
frugal meals. In essence, the vast majority of the Romans ate normally sitting on benches
(rarely on chairs) and around a table, as we do. In fact, Rome and the whole of society at the
time, consisted of a very broad popular layer made from poor or very poor, living in narrow
little rooms mostly for rent, with no kitchen, in the uncomfortable and dangerous islets, tall
houses up to eight floors. As the only crowded culina (kitchen) placed in the atrium of the
building common, a sort of courtyard, many were reduced to cooking the best with a warmer
in the middle of the room to prevent fire, and others were buying even in boiling water
thermopolium below (the bar at the time). These people could never afford couches (who
want a domus, a large house with spacious rooms and servants) and fine dining, if not - during
the Empire and putting aside savings - for the wedding dinner in triclinia rental put available
from tabernae (taverns). The time at which began the dinner was for the majority of the
Romans the same, the one that followed the bathroom: around 13-14 in winter and 15-16
after the summer. With the recognition of Christianity in 313 times Trimalcione are now
finished and the admonition of St. Ambrose, "who indulge in food and drink, does not believe
in the afterlife" is now the sign of a policy aimed at moralizing religious authorities remove
any excess, also as regards the power.
To be continued ....
Apicius, De Re Culinaria (Leiden: Sebastianus Gryphium), 1541

4. Jacques André. The alimentation et la cousine à Rome. Les Belles Lettres. Paris 1981
Antonella doses, Fançois Schnell. Eating with the ancient Romans. Rome 1984
Nico Valerio. The board of the ancients. Oscar Mondadori. Milano 1989
Case C. The kitchen in the ancient world. Archeology and history of food from prehistory to
the Middle Ages. Laurum 2009
Flandrin, J.-L. - Montanari, M. (ed) History of Food. Laterza 2011