How do coffee, chocolate and tea subvert the medical thinking of 1500 years?

When Italian botanist Prospero Arpini went to Egypt in 1580, he discovered a world with strange bananas, bright red poppies and huge baobabs. After returning to Europe three years later, Harpignies divided his discovery into two volumes, namely "Egyptian Plants" and "Egyptian Medicinal Plants". In their illustrations and descriptions of the magical flora in the Middle East and North Africa, there is a strange plant observed: coffee tree.

Your mocha coffee is named after the birthplace of coffee trade. A brief history of American chocolate. The incredible medical history of chocolate syrup science explains why chocolate should be tasted, not the history that scarred Europeans think coffee is the devil's healthy food. Part II: This plant can not only find its way in the daily rituals throughout Europe in the Middle Ages and Renaissance, but also subvert the medical thought thousands of years ago.

"* * * Egyptians used it to cook soup (hot drinks) and drank wine instead of wine; It is sold in all their public places, just like wine is around us, "wrote Arpini, whose works made him the first European to describe Egyptian medical care.

Harpignies and other doctors soon began to try to describe the health effects of coffee. But doctors are trying to understand the influence of coffee and two other newly imported drinks-chocolate and tea. These all arrived at the same time in the middle of16th century. European tourists to South America describe chocolate; People who travel to China describe tea; The coffee described by Arpini comes from North Africa. With the development of Mercer International in16th century and17th century, the demand for these three kinds of drinks increased sharply.

These imported drinks have brought a major problem to today's doctors: how they were integrated into the dominant medical theory at that time, that is, the concept of humor in the body fluid theory can be traced back to ancient Greece. Writers including Hippocrates and Galen believe that the human body consists of four kinds of body fluids: blood, phlegm, black bile and yellow bile. The key to this pseudo-medical system is balance. The idea is that everyone has a unique body fluid position, and if their bodies are out of balance, diseases will befall them.

Therefore, medicine at that time was very personal, as David Gentil wrote in the book "Food and Health in Early Modern Europe: Diet, Medicine and Society". He wrote: "Foods like cheese and wine may be transformed into nutritious foods in some people, but they may be toxic in others."

According to Galen, the first way for doctors to treat diseases is to use food; Surgery and cauterization are the last choice. Each food has its own body fluid connection, which changes slightly on the basis of cooking (if cooked or spiced). Food can be hot, cold, dry or wet, and every feature is mapped into body fluids. Galen's famous article The Power of Food classifies foods according to their humorous power, leaving a road map for future doctors. This book includes recipes, "because Galen believes that a good doctor should also be a good cook," wrote translator and historian Mark Grant.

In practice, the way of working is that doctors will prescribe specific foods to adjust the patient's body fluid balance. Therefore, if someone shows excessive fever and fever, they may receive bloodletting treatment and be instructed to eat cold food, such as salad or vegetables. If a person has indigestion because he eats too much, he can take hot and dry prescriptions such as pepper and wine.

Four characteristics of humor personification. The works of Greek philosopher and doctor Galen had a great influence on medical practice in the centuries after his death. (Wikimedia Commons) These four body fluids combine different characteristics and foods. Clockwise from the top left in the figure are phlegm (cold and dampness), blood (mild and damp), gallbladder (mild and dry) and depression (cold and dry). However, with the expansion of international trade in Europe's food pantries and tastes, doctors clashed over how to classify ingredients that were not described in Galen's research. Mary Lin Deman, a professor of history at the University of Miami and the author of "Early Medicine and Society in Modern Europe", said: "As these new things increase, trying to integrate them will blow up the old system from the inside." World food is very similar to existing food in Europe. Europeans found that the beans in the New World were very close to those in Europe, and turkeys were not far from the familiar peacocks, so they were endowed with the same humorous qualities as the beans in the Old World. But coffee, tea and especially chocolate are more troublesome. These three are edible chameleons, and their shapes and qualities seem to be changing at will. "Some people say that (chocolate) is rich in fat, so it is hot and humid," said Kennabala, a professor of history at Pacific University and the author of Proper Diet in the Renaissance. . "But other doctors said that if you don't add sugar, it is bitter and astringent, so it is good for phlegm disease. How can things be dry, wet, hot and cold?

Albala said that the same argument happened on coffee. Some doctors think this drink has a heating effect. Others claim that coffee cools the body by drying some liquids (coffee is a diuretic). These three kinds of drinks, chocolate, are usually drunk as drinks, but if they are mixed with sugar, they taste richer and more pleasant. Is it all kinds of drugs, or just some? The answer depends largely on the doctor.

With the rise of cafes in Europe and the increasing popularity of chocolate as a drink, this debate continues. 1687, Nicolas de Blegny, a doctor and pharmacist of Louis XIV of France, wrote a book about the "correct" use of coffee, tea and chocolate to treat diseases. In the report, he expressed his dissatisfaction with doctors, who classified the quality of drinks according to the diseases they wanted to treat.

If one substance can cure all diseases, what about other body fluid theories? As a new medical paradigm began to enter doctors' diagnostic vocabulary in the17th century, humor theory began to collapse. Some doctors now see the body as a series of mechanical parts assembled together, just like a well-lubricated machine. Others from a chemical point of view.

But tradition is a stubborn thing. For decades, many doctors have been using body fluids in medical practice. Lin Deman said: "Doctors insist on preserving Galen's humoral system and * * people who oppose it." . "From the mercenary's point of view, this is a question of maintaining a medical monopoly. This may also be a matter of faith.

/kloc-in the 0/9th century, numerous discoveries brought the final blow to the humor system. Advanced in physiology and anatomy. Pharmacology and other disciplines began to study how drugs affect the body, and the discovery of microorganisms completely changed the way doctors look at diseases. With the invention of more powerful microscopes, they can assume how bacteria destroy healthy bodies and destroy the view that imbalance of body fluids is the root cause of diseases.

Body fluids may die out with modern medicine, but their legacy will not. Even today, they can be found in proverbs such as "Hungry has a fever and caught a cold" and some herbs. As for the medicinal value of chocolate, coffee and tea, we are still debating whether chocolate can help us lose weight, whether tea can be taboo, and whether coffee is healthy or harmful.