Nutrition in the Spanish Golden Century revealed through passages of Don Quixote de La Mancha
Section: TEACHING TO LEARN
Authors
1María José Cao Torija, 2María José Castro Alija, 3Inés María Sanz Cao
Position
1Enfermera. Máster en Nutrición y Dietética Clínica. Profesora titular de Nutrición. Escuela de Enfermería, Universidad de Valladolid.2Médica. Máster en Nutrición y Dietética Clínica. Profesora de Dietética. Diplomatura en Nutrición. Facultad de Medicina, Universidad de Valladolid.3Diplomada en Trabajo Social.
Contact address
Departamento de Enfermería. Ciencias de la Salud. C/ Ramón y Cajal, 7. 47005 Valladolid.
Contact email: mjcao@enf.uva.es
Abstract
An attempt was made to ascertain what the nutrition of Spaniards of the XVII century was like by placing the immortal literary piece of art of Cervantes, “The ingenious Hidalgo Don Quixote de la Mancha”, through passages of the piece that take us back from real situations of deep poverty and lack of food to endless sumptuous banquets.
The nutrition of that era was influenced by the Arabs, the own culture of the area of La Mancha, and the foods that were arriving from the new world. Don Quixote, in many of his sentences, is right in terms of what types of foods were appropriate and healthy.
Finally, and in order to complete the scenario, a small analysis of the nutritional value of some of the dishes described in the work, attempting to classify food as an environmental factor rather than with the health of the people of that time.
Keywords:
nutrition; Cervantes; golden century; nutritional valuehealth
Versión en Español
Título:
La alimentación en el siglo de oro español a través del reflejo en Don Quijote de La Mancha
