HistoryExtra podcast How to stay healthy in the Middle Ages
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Apr 2, 2026 Catherine Harvey, historian and author of The Medieval Guide to Healthy Living, explores how people in the Middle Ages cared for body and mind. She explains humoral theory, hygiene practices, toilets and street-cleaning rules. She covers food classified by hot/cold qualities, peasant diets, purging and bloodletting, sex and moderation, mental health, and medical exchanges with Jewish and Muslim traditions.
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Health Advice Varied By Complexion And Class
- What counted as healthy depended on individual complexion and social class; the wealthy ate 'delicate' foods while peasants ate coarse, caloric fare.
- Wealthy diets featured chicken and wine for delicate digestions; peasants relied on bread, pottage, brassicas and ale.
Bleeding And Purging Were Routine Preventatives
- Preventative purging and regular bloodletting (phlebotomy) were common to keep humours balanced despite seeming dangerous to us.
- Barbers performed bloodletting; monks were bled quarterly because monastic life was thought to encourage humour buildup.
Sex Was A Medical Matter In Moderation
- Sex was considered a form of bodily excretion and healthy in moderation; both abstinence and excessive sex were thought harmful.
- Clerics were warned celibacy could kill them; couples were told moderation to avoid illness as in the nobleman who died after overexertion.
