How Lemonade Helped Paris Fend Off Plague And Other Surprising ‘Food Fights’

Did a thirst for lemonade, the beverage that launched a thousand childhood businesses, keep Paris safe from the bubonic plague? Did ergot poisoning lead to the Crusades? According to a new book by Tom Nealon, food writer and antiquarian bookseller, it’s a distinct possibility. Nealon’s book, Food Fights and Culture Wars, searches through patchy historical records to trace subjects like how chocolate led to war. In a chapter on “cacao and conflict,” Nealon traces some of the violent history spawned by a love of chocolate.

Key Takeaways:

• Did a thirst for lemonade, the beverage that launched a thousand childhood businesses, keep Paris safe from the bubonic plague?
• While other major French cities were stricken with another round of the plague in the late 1600s that killed hundreds of thousands, this major metropolis was spared.
• Not only was lemonade a favorite thirst-quencher, it may also have been an accidental pest-repellent, too.

“Not only was lemonade a favorite thirst-quencher, it may also have been an accidental pest-repellent, too.”

http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2017/03/12/519460915/how-lemonade-helped-paris-fend-off-plague-and-other-surprising-food-fights?utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=books