CONCEPTS OF DIET AND NUTRITION
rather stop eating when one still has a desire to eat. Overeating should
be rectified with fasting, becoming hungry again, sleep, exercise, a lit-
tle clear wine, and reducing the intake of food. More immediate reme-
dies for overeating are vomiting, bloodletting, and drinking warm
water. Ideally one should eat one meal a day, or two at the most. Kon-
rad then gives diet recommendations for the four temperaments or
complexions, in the order melancholic, choleric, sanguine, and phleg-
matic. Given their dominant humors, melancholic persons should eat
moist food, choleric ones cold and moist food, sanguine ones delicate
(dry) food, and phlegmatic ones delicate and warm food.
The type of food should also change with the season. In winter the
recommended food should be warm and fortifying, such as beef, mut-
ton, pork, venison and game; in summer it should be light and cool,
such as lettuce, and other potherbs, lamb and goat meat, and young
chickens. In the spring dry food in moderate quantities is best, and in
the fall warm food eaten in moderation. A discussion of the quantity
of food to be eaten during a meal is followed by guidelines for the
quality of food. Categories listed are, for instance, hot, cold, watery,
acerbic, venomous, humid, dry, unctuous, fat, sweet, bitter, salty, con-
stipating, and acidic foods. Good food includes lamb and kid, veal,
hens, capons, partridges, fish with scales, soft-boiled eggs, little birds
and birds in general, leavened wheat bread, old wine, and fresh water.
Drink in winter should be warm, and pears and cheese should con-
clude a meal. Food that is too salty and bitter should be counteracted
with sweet apples. How to properly start the day, from getting up
until the first meal, is discussed, and so is the order of dishes. It is
stated that subtle or light food should be eaten first, and strong,
hearty food afterward; in other words, courses of chicken and other
fowl should be followed by beef, pork, salt meat, and roasts. When it
comes to digestion, Konrad warns of eating fish after exercise, of
dishes served in the wrong order, or too many dishes eaten at the same
time, and explains how the process of initial digestion works. In par-
ticular he discusses the digestion of fish combined with raw milk, milk
with wine, fruit, salty, and delicate foods.
Konrad’s regimen continues with a detailed chapter on the con-
sumption of wine, the most popular drink among the upper and mid-
dle classes of late medieval Germany and the rest of Europe. He
explains that wine should be drunk after a meal, mixed with water; he
warns against drinking wine on an empty stomach; after exercise,
bathing, or sex; after hot and sharp food; or at night, and criticizes
drunkenness and inebriation. Wine, with its hot quality, should be
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