Could a Mid-19th Century Lifestyle Be Good For Us?

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Nov 26, 2016
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central NC
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Our Victorian friends were surprisingly healthy even though they didn’t have access to antibiotics and modern healthcare. Since mid-19th​ century life is well-documented, what lifestyle choices allowed them to be so much healthier than many people are today? Here are the top six strategies for achieving better health based on the lifestyle of the mid-Victorian period as reported in Health and Wellness by Chris Kresser.

1. Move around as much as possible. People during this time period expended huge amounts of energy living their daily lives. This was not viewed as exercise. It was simply movement.

2. Eating foods high in nutrients is extremely important. During the mid-Victorian period, people ate lots of fresh fruits and vegetables, pasture-raised meats and dairy, fish, nuts, seeds, and legumes. They also routinely ate organ meats, including sweetbreads and liver.

3. Eat seasonally and locally. Much of the food our Victorian friends ate they grew themselves. They also ate food in season because it was cheaper. For example, they would eat apples regularly from August through May, but once that season ended they would eat cherries or gooseberries instead. They imported very few foods.

4. Nurture Your Gut Bacteria. One of the best things you can do to maintain digestive health is to eat plenty of prebiotic foods. These foods were some of the most often consumed vegetables during the mid-Victorian period. This was likely a big factor in protecting the mid-Victorians from chronic disease.

5. Eat fatty fish. Fatty fish was inexpensive and available to the mid-Victorians and was reportedly widely consumed. Cold-water fatty fish remains one of the best sources of omega-3 fatty acid.

6. Moderate your alcohol consumption. During the mid-Victorian period, beer was popular and widely consumed, but it was significantly weaker than it is today. While alcohol in moderation can be beneficial to our health, the levels that many people consume today are not. The mid-Victorian tradition of watering down beer may have helped mitigate the effects of the higher volume they drank.
 
I don’t think it would work with the life styles people lead today.. quick foods etc are more convenient around busy lives, although now with all these different diet styles such as vegan etc I think we have turned more to choices of more home grown foods etc. Also houses aren’t built with adequate gardens and land to grow your own stuff, house sizes are more compact and more closer together. There is less farms and cheaper to mass produce stuff in factories.

There is also the case that the skills for preparing your own food and meat just aren’t taught anymore.. I bet less and less people know how to or want to kill and prepare animals for eating. Plus easier to go and just buy a chicken etc in their store where you can just simple put it in the oven to cook! Saying that though I currently have 2 pheasants hanging in the shed to be chopped up and sorted for a lovely pheasant casserole which I will do tomorrow (yes I will be preparing the them from scratch myself!) my kids have also watched me do it before and have the understanding that this is where their foods come from, but I did watch a programme once where kids were questioned on where their food came from and were horrified that it is from the animals we see in the farms, these were kids from cities though that have probably never seen a real cow!

Plus I think people have become too soft to get dirty and work the farm life etc now! I would place a bet that pretty much most people wouldn’t even know how or want to gut a fish let alone chop the head off a pheasant!
 
Plus I think people have become too soft to get dirty and work the farm life etc now! I would place a bet that pretty much most people wouldn’t even know how or want to gut a fish let alone chop the head off a pheasant!
My grandpa fishes as a hobby and I once watched him kill a trout, then gut it out, etc. I was okay with that, even asked him questions about what was what of the intestines. (And helped keep away grandma's nosy cat that wanted a bite out of the fish.) But I know I'd never be able to stay and watch a chicken or cow being killed and gutted out. :cold: I'm fine with my meat being readily sold for consumption; no need to see the process how it got into that state.
 
My grandpa fishes as a hobby and I once watched him kill a trout, then gut it out, etc. I was okay with that, even asked him questions about what was what of the intestines. (And helped keep away grandma's nosy cat that wanted a bite out of the fish.) But I know I'd never be able to stay and watch a chicken or cow being killed and gutted out. :cold: I'm fine with my meat being readily sold for consumption; no need to see the process how it got into that state.

Oh yes I agree.. I wouldn’t want to have to go through the whole process to get my meat! Supermarket or butchers is absolutely fine by me haha! Which is why I just don’t ever see us being able to go back to living how they used too! Could you imagine meat no longer being able to be bought already prepared and having to go and hunt kill and prepare our own again! Perfectly happy to stay in the 21st century :bounce:
 
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(Public Domain)

Our Victorian friends were surprisingly healthy even though they didn’t have access to antibiotics and modern healthcare. Since mid-19th​ century life is well-documented, what lifestyle choices allowed them to be so much healthier than many people are today? Here are the top six strategies for achieving better health based on the lifestyle of the mid-Victorian period as reported in Health and Wellness by Chris Kresser.

1. Move around as much as possible. People during this time period expended huge amounts of energy living their daily lives. This was not viewed as exercise. It was simply movement.

2. Eating foods high in nutrients is extremely important. During the mid-Victorian period, people ate lots of fresh fruits and vegetables, pasture-raised meats and dairy, fish, nuts, seeds, and legumes. They also routinely ate organ meats, including sweetbreads and liver.

3. Eat seasonally and locally. Much of the food our Victorian friends ate they grew themselves. They also ate food in season because it was cheaper. For example, they would eat apples regularly from August through May, but once that season ended they would eat cherries or gooseberries instead. They imported very few foods.

4. Nurture Your Gut Bacteria. One of the best things you can do to maintain digestive health is to eat plenty of prebiotic foods. These foods were some of the most often consumed vegetables during the mid-Victorian period. This was likely a big factor in protecting the mid-Victorians from chronic disease.

5. Eat fatty fish. Fatty fish was inexpensive and available to the mid-Victorians and was reportedly widely consumed. Cold-water fatty fish remains one of the best sources of omega-3 fatty acid.

6. Moderate your alcohol consumption. During the mid-Victorian period, beer was popular and widely consumed, but it was significantly weaker than it is today. While alcohol in moderation can be beneficial to our health, the levels that many people consume today are not. The mid-Victorian tradition of watering down beer may have helped mitigate the effects of the higher volume they drank.
Great thread. Very informative. Heck, if we just moved more what a difference that would make.
 
Many environmental factors have an effect on our health. First, being kept at the mercy of the elements, they weren't in and out of indoor cold and outdoor heat. Fires did keep them warm, but the social intimacy involved in life then gave them a healthy advantage. Again, they could be taken down quickly by exposure, due to the unexpected dowsing in wet weather. But their constitutions were hardy and earned from early life and work. Also with the medicinal advent of microbiology, due to antibacterial remedies, we have become more prone to disease, mainly due to the continual washing away of our natural defenses and barriers.
Lubliner.
 
My grandpa fishes as a hobby and I once watched him kill a trout, then gut it out, etc. I was okay with that, even asked him questions about what was what of the intestines. (And helped keep away grandma's nosy cat that wanted a bite out of the fish.) But I know I'd never be able to stay and watch a chicken or cow being killed and gutted out. :cold: I'm fine with my meat being readily sold for consumption; no need to see the process how it got into that state.
My daughter was always grossed out but fascinated at the same time when I cleaned fish. The anticipation of analyzing the stomach contents was her favorite.
 
It does work . We practice that at the house and my doctor is amazed every time I go . No cholesterol problems , no sugar problems ect . To quote doc healthy as a horse just eating clean like they did and being active .
 
Many environmental factors have an effect on our health. First, being kept at the mercy of the elements, they weren't in and out of indoor cold and outdoor heat. Fires did keep them warm, but the social intimacy involved in life then gave them a healthy advantage. Again, they could be taken down quickly by exposure, due to the unexpected dowsing in wet weather. But their constitutions were hardy and earned from early life and work. Also with the medicinal advent of microbiology, due to antibacterial remedies, we have become more prone to disease, mainly due to the continual washing away of our natural defenses and barriers.
Lubliner.

Plus our modern tendency to use antibacterial detergents to clean the house. Exposure to domestic "dirt" helps improve the immune system, because it learns how to deal with all kinds of bacteria. Kids who are kept in an ultra-clean, almost antiseptic environment are more prone to allergies than those who eat a scoop of dirt in the sandbox now and then, kiss their cats and dogs heartily and crawl on an unswept floor. Even not quite so clean air makes the body more resistant against allergies of the respiratory system, as was surprisingly discovered in Germany after reunification. Kids from eastern Germany had been exposed to more smoke from burning coal (for heating - as opposed to oil or gas heating in the western part) and they had less asthma and other respiratory diseases than kids from west Germany.

Great thread, @Eleanor Rose
Very worth thinking about!
 
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