Lecture 27: Romantics, Vegetarians, Utopians

Romantics, Vegetarians, Utopians .................................................

Lecture 27

N

ot everyone was happy with the new situation of industrialized

food production, and in this lecture, you will learn about the fi rst

counterculture food movements and the reaction that some people—

including Romantics, vegetarians, health gurus, and utopians—had against

progress. These people are vaguely recognized as the ancestors of the modern

health-food movement. They represent a real 19th-century counterculture

food movement, and like the modern movement, they are also subsumed by

the food industry. In other words, they sell out and go mainstream.

Counterculture Food Movements

 There are a number of preconditions to the fi rst counterculture

food movements. One important factor is the almost complete

breakdown of the basic humoral principles of nutrition in the 18th

century. It began to be replaced or amended during the scientifi c

revolution, when new chemical ways of thinking about digestion

and new mechanical investigations in physiology made the whole

Galenic system obsolete.

 Without a uniform dietary theory that all physicians subscribe to,

there were dozens of different competing theories fl oating around

in the 18th century, each with their own bizarre conceptions of what

people need to eat to stay healthy. Some said eat meat and drink

wine; others said eat vegetables and avoid wine.

 In the midst of this wild speculation, there appear the fi rst

scientifi cally defended vegetarian diets. With this wild speculation

in dietetics, and without any one solid set of empirical facts that

everyone could agree on, there was rampant quackery. Almost

anything that sounded remotely scientifi c could pass. Directly

connected to this are diets that were both scientifi c and religious.