The Diet of the Plague What Went Wrong?

When it comes to the effect of a good idet, one has to look at the Diet of the Plagues.

I didn’t know much about the Plague that attacked Europe circa 1347 to 1351. This was also called the Black Death or Bubonic Plague. I heard of it and the large amount of people that died but didn’t know what it was about. So, when I saw a documentary on TV, I watched it.  I also read Dr. Berg’s findings on this Plague.

At the end of the show, they talked about how it was the microbes that caused this, and that man’s deadliest enemy was the tiny microbe. That was scary, but is it true? (microbe: a very small living thing, especially one that causes disease, that can only be seen with a microscope)

When we consider this Black Death, the question is this: what made it so that this bacterium could spread throughout the continent and kill that many people? What came before it, and what may have precipitated this kind of devastation?

Was the Black Death simply a strong bacterial infection that spread through rats and took out huge parts of the European population? Or were there other factors at play that put people at higher risk for infection in the first place?   To answer these questions, we can look at some recent findings from bone evidence for answers.

These findings point to some interesting facts about the Black Death. And they may give you a new way to look at why the Black Death may have become one of the deadliest diseases in human history.

These facts point to the idea that it might not have been that the bacteria itself was so deadly, but the fact that people were undernourished and deficient in important immune-boosting nutrients.

Now, an interesting part of the show talked about how after 1/2 of the population was killed by the plague, that there was now more food to go around to those who survived, and they even had luxury foods like fruit, vegetables and meat. What? Luxury foods?

Recent bone evidence showed 3 important findings:

Recently, 25 skeletons of bubonic plaque victims were found in a London cemetery. The bones of the victims revealed three important findings. These included:

• The bones showed signs of rickets. Rickets is a sign of severe vitamin D deficiency.
• The bones showed signs of malnutrition.
• The bones showed signs of injury.

Diet of the Plague

All 25 skeletons (each one a victim of black death) showed signs of vitamin D deficiency, malnutrition, and injuries   Now why is any of that important? Because it points to the connection between serious infections and dietary factors.

For example, vitamin D is a hormone that is one of the most powerful immune modulators out there. If you are deficient in vitamin D, it will make you highly susceptible to infections of any sort. That might have been a major player in the spread of the Black Death.

Yes, it seems that before the bubonic plague, the diet of most of the populace was grains. If you follow it back that was because there had been a famine earlier. It was the Great Famine of 1315-1317 and started a series of famines till 1325.

There was not enough food, and this created the grain diet. The European medieval diet for most of the population was largely made of grains – wheat, rye, oats and barley. It might have been the world’s first whole grain or multi grain diet. The grains were boiled whole in a soup or stew, ground into flour and made into bread, or malted and brewed into ale. Although I know that some people claim that grains are good for you (mostly the people who grow and process grains) but that sort of diet is not healthy. How much vitamin C and other needed nutrients is there in these grains?

#3. The Great Famine led to malnutrition before the black death spread.

There was a Great Famine in 1315-1317, related to bad weather and crop failure. A famine leads to widespread malnutrition, with people not getting the nutrients they need to stay healthy and fight off disease. Along with malnutrition comes deficiencies in vitamins and minerals that are required for proper immune function.  Taken together, these facts help us to see that factors like vitamin deficiencies can play a really vital role in making us susceptible to disease.

When it comes to the black death, deficiencies in things like vitamin D and vitamin C could have made a big difference. Because people did not have sufficient levels of these immune-boosting vitamins, that may be why they were more likely to get infected and die of the Yersinia pestis bacteria.

What does this type of diet do to the immune system and the body’s general health?

If you read the biological effects that the plague had sometimes it attacked the lymph glands, and sometimes the respiratory system.

What was the cause of this epidemic? Was it the microbes or the populaces starved and weakened bodies that easily succumbed to the microbes? The body’s immune system first becomes compromised. *

It is interesting that recent plagues such as Ebola are also connected to starving populations. A shortage of food is a problem that had been prevalent in the countries hardest hit by Ebola.

No, man’s deadliest enemy isn’t the microbe, but his bad diet. And in our current environment, it is the fact that he allows himself to eat foods lacking in nutritional value and that can lower his immunity and makes him become effect of many things including microbes.

The Diet of the Plague – A Great Famine led to malnutrition before the Bubonic Plague

There was a Great Famine in 1315-1317, related to bad weather and crop failure. A famine leads to widespread malnutrition, with people not getting the nutrients they need to stay healthy and fight off disease. Along with malnutrition comes deficiencies in vitamins and minerals that are required for proper immune function.

Taken together, these facts help us to see that factors like vitamin deficiencies can play a really vital role in making us susceptible to disease.

When it comes to the black death, deficiencies in things like vitamin D and vitamin C could have made a big difference. Because people did not have sufficient levels of these immune-boosting vitamins, that may be why they were more likely to get infected and die of the Yersinia pestis bacteria.

This deficiency is applicable to any pandemic.

Recommended:

A Healthy Diet 

How did 4 French Thieves protect themselves during the plague?

Read about Essential Oil Combination

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