> It was thought that the cold English climate made English stomachs hotter than those of their Mediterranean neighbours and so better able to digest a meat like beef, which was also more tender in England as the cattle fed on pasture.
I see nutrition science hasn't improved much since Shakespeare's time.
No discussion of food and diet beliefs of the time is complete without considering the beliefs of medicine at the time. The article only obliquely hints at this "although it had to be considered whether or not a specific meat was suited to one's "humour", occupation, and even nationality". It's a belief that seems to have held from ancient Greek times and shares much with ancient Chinese and Egyptian beliefs.
The four humours were associated with different qualities, personality types and body types, and consisted of 4 basic substances we were all made up of. Food was thought to be important means of cure and compensating for the humours, and balancing those elements.
It's basically a set of beliefs that dominated for 2,000+ years.
I wonder how many people actually adhered to much of this. Just because some authority says something about food doesn't mean everyone believes it or follows the advice.
