This project was both interesting and eye-opening for me. I chose to do my project over the history of food and nutrition because my major is nutrition, and I thought it would be great to learn more about the history of my field. When I started my research, I did not know what I was going to find. My greatest fear was that I would only be able to find descriptions of food and how your body uses nutrients from things you eat. Even though I would have found these things interesting, I did not think that others in the class would feel the same way. I was hoping to find resources that would allow me to put facts into my episodes that would interest, or even surprise people. I feel that I was able to achieve this because of the great books I found pertaining to each subject. For the episode on ancient science, I chose to focus on the herbal medicine of the Egyptians. Since the topic of herbal medicine would be much too broad to fit into one episode, I picked one food to focus on; dates. I was worried that I would not have enough information to fill an entire episode, but I was pleasantly surprised. The source that helped me the most for this episode was Ebers medical papyrus. It had a list of diseases that could affect almost any part of your body, and what could cure the diseases. I was able to find numerous remedies that included dates. I thought it was very interesting that a fruit we eat today (even though it really is not very popular) was once used to cure diseases. For the episode on science in the Middle Ages, I chose to focus on wheat. When I started writing this episode, I was going to focus on the foods that were made with wheat. However, as I did research I found that wheat was also used for medicinal purposes. As with the episode on dates, I found this interesting because people today would never guess that wheat was once used as an herbal remedy. I think many people will enjoy this episode because wheat is a staple in our diet, as it was in the Middle Ages, yet it is not common knowledge where it came from or what it was once used for. For the episode on science in the early modern time period, I focused on corn from the New World. This was the first food I researched that did not have medicinal purposes. Even though it was not used for as many things as the other two foods, I was still able to find plenty of information about the vegetable. Instead of focusing of what corn is used for, I tried to pay more attention to where it came from. I included a great story from a Native American tribe about why corn grows (or does not grow) every year. I tried to pick three foods that everyone was familiar with. I enjoyed researching and writing all three episodes because I love learning the history of things I use, or consume everyday. I know that not everyone shares my love of food and nutrition, so I wrote the episodes in an engaging way so that everyone would be interested. I really hope that everyone learned as much from my project as I have. |