In the 1800s, vegetables were considered toxic
Plot twist: Experts said the healthiest thing to eat was beef. 🙃
Dr. James Henry Salisbury was a well known physician and medical researcher, and in the 1850s, he was one of the first researchers to study how germs can lead to the development of diseases. He earned a medical degree at Albany Medical College, worked as a respected lecturer or chemistry, and even initiated the study of various medical issues including alimentation, diphtheria, intermittent and remittent fevers, and measles.
He’s also the inventor of the Salisbury Steak.
Okay, at this point you’re probably like…a man focused on health and disease invented a dish made of fatty meat slathered in gravy?
You bet he did. Why? Because the man believed that vegetables produced poisonous toxins in the digestive system and was the link to diseases such as heart disease, tumors, tuberculosis, and even mental illness. He instructed people to eat more meat — three times a day, in fact — and to limit the intake of vegetables, fruits, starches, and fat.
Not exactly the health advice we hear today, right?
I found all of this out while researching for an article about dishes that American rarely eat anymore (lol) and I quite literally laughed out loud when I read this. A man so focused on health was giving advice that is quite the opposite of what we hear today.
It’s proof enough that what we know about nutrition is still evolving.
Sure, there has been a lot more research in the last 170 years, particularly in the last 50 when we started to really understand what actually happens to our bodies when we digest foods like added sugars and saturated fats. We’ve learned how fiber can level our blood sugars and actually benefit digestion. (Wait, vegetables aren’t toxic after all?) And we also learned that despite Salisbury’s best intentions to heal the guts of the nation, it seems red meat isn’t what helps to heal our guts, but it is in fact the thing he thought was the problem all along: fruit, vegetables, and high-fiber starches.
Here’s what I’m getting at: what if we discover in another 170 years that we were, in fact, wrong yet again? What if there’s something we are woefully missing when it comes to nutrition, some big problems in our diets that we once considered healthy? I mean, we though eating fat free food was the way to better health…until we figured out that added sugars were actually the problem.
We’re also learning that health and nutrition looks different for everyone. We‘re aware of food allergies, but have little research surrounding food intolerances, like how gluten can rip through someone’s stomach, or how sulfites in wine can causes severe hangovers for some and not others. Are these things actually happening? We’re not scientifically sure, but there are a lot of first hand experiences out there that tell us otherwise…
Someone on the Internet might be telling you to go vegan. Or maybe to even go on an all-meat, carnivore style diet. Take what you hear with a grain of salt. Experiment and figure out what feels good and healthy for your body. Learn from principles of long-lasting dietary practices that have evidence of longevity, like the Mediterranean diet. Talk to a registered dietitian who can cater a plan that actually works for you. Don’t rely on what the Internet says. You and your body deserve the best. After all, it’s the only body that you get.
Photo by Nathan Dumlao on Unsplash