According to the understanding of Hippocrates, an ancient Greek physician, and Galen, an ancient Roman physician, everyone's body has a unique composition of body fluids. Therefore, medicine and treatment are also individualized and vary from person to person. The first step of "body fluid theory" in treating diseases is not drug treatment, nor surgery or cauterization, but "diet therapy". Every food has its own properties, whether it is hot or frozen, wet or dry. All the properties are compared with the four kinds of body fluids. Through dietotherapy, body fluids can restore "balance" and regain health.
In his medical book The Power of Food, Galen not only classified foods according to the attributes of body fluids, but also left many recipes. So in ancient Europe, "a good doctor should also be a good cook". Therefore, doctors who believe in "body fluid theory" will observe the physical condition of patients when they are sick. For example, when the patient's body is overheated, which is what we call "fever", the doctor will instruct the patient to eat cold vegetable salad; For another example, when patients have gastrointestinal discomfort and indigestion, doctors will advise patients to eat more hot and dry foods, such as peppers. "Body fluid theory" and Galen's dietotherapy are also widely used.
However, world trade has already started! When all kinds of new ingredients began to be introduced into Europe, doctors fell into the problem of "how to classify these new foods according to the theory of body fluid". If it is similar to the original food in Europe, it can be barely classified. However, the historian Ken Albala recorded in the book How to Eat in the Renaissance that coffee, tea and chocolate were introduced to Europe from North Africa, China and South America in the middle of the16th century, and Europe had no reference at all. When facing them, I was completely at a loss.
Coffee, tea and chocolate are all "chameleons" in the food industry, and they will change their shapes because of cooking methods, so it is difficult to classify them. There are endless disputes about the attributes of chocolate. Some people think that chocolate should be "damp and hot", while others say that chocolate without sugar is bitter, so it should be classified as "dry" and effective for mucus disorders. Force two companies!
A similar controversy also lies in coffee. Some people point out that drinking coffee has a heating effect, while others argue that coffee makes the body lose heat. Why can the same food be used both wet and dry? In what form do they have medicinal value? Force three companies!
1687, Nicolas de Blegny, the court physician of King Louis XIV of France, wrote a book, trying to set a "correct answer" for the medical value of coffee, tea and chocolate-however, at this time, the "body fluid theory" began to collapse.
During the Enlightenment, many new medical theories appeared. From the17th century, doctors began to change their views on the human body, or regarded the body as a series of mechanical tissues, or understood the composition of the body from a chemical point of view, and the status of "body fluid theory" and Galen's classical medicine gradually wavered. 17th century to19th century, the classical medical school tried to turn the tide, but it was still shot on the beach. When the medical knowledge of physiology, anatomy and pharmacology was greatly improved, the theory of body fluid was finally defeated.
Even though the "body fluid theory" is dead, science is flourishing now, and the debate about the medical value of coffee, tea and chocolate has never stopped. As we have said, there are many advantages and disadvantages of coffee, but what is more important is that we can eat well and drink well in just a few decades!