Hello, everyone! ❤
I am starting this week with another episode of the Romanian Culture series. In this episode I am going to talk about the ultra vegan diet of the Romanian villagers from the the 19th century. I have been meaning to write about this subject ever since I found this article on the internet. But since I had a lot of work to do on my Master Thesis, I have postponed this episode. 🙂 The article talks about a Romanian historian from Cluj-Napoca named Constantin Barbulescu who wrote a book about the health situation in Romania, in the 19th century. The book is called “Romania according to doctors” (translated from Romanian “Romania medicilor”) and gathers confessions of doctors who worked in the rural area. The confessions are about the personal hygene, diet, family life of the Romanian villagers from the 19th century.
According to the article, the Romanian villagers from the 19th century were in Lent period for more than 6 months per year. Their regular meal consisted in polenta (boiled corn flower) combined in every possible way: with onions, with garlic, with leek, with pickles or with prunes. The doctors at that time stated that the Romanians’ diet was dull, irregular and poor, because most of the times they were eating that polenta. Sometimes the Romanians were eating soups made of different herbs with a little wheat flower or with dried mushrooms and wild fruits.
The doctors stated that the diet restrictions from the Lent period had devastating effects on the villagers’ health. There are too many Lent periods in the Orthodox calendar: the Christmas Lent, the Easter Lent, the Saint Peter’s Lent and the Virgin Mary’s Lent. Along with the Lent periods before major holidays, are also the Wednesdays and Fridays over the year, and sometimes Mondays. Also the Lent periods were not corelated to the agricultural works. This means that in spring, when agricultural works start, the Romanian villagers went on an ultra vegan diet weak in important nutrients instead of having a diet rich in proteins as recommended in case of large physical effort. On the other hand, during winter time, around Christmas, when there was less physical effort, the Romanian villagers had meals rich in proteins.
It seems that Romanian villagers respected strictly the Lent periods and they were also imposing this lifestyle to their children. A doctor stated that some villagers told him that they’d rather have their children die from malnutrition than give them eggs, dairy and meat during Lent. 
The three main reasons why Romanian villagers from the 19th century had an ultra vegan diet, according to the article and to Constantin Barbulescu, are:
1. Poverty. Most of the Romanian villagers from that time were living under the limit of poverty, so it was very hard for them to purchase meat, dairy products or eggs.
2. Ignorance. Even though some Romanian villagers managed to escape the poverty limit and could afford to purchase food based on animal proteins, they didn’t improve their diets.
3. Religious dogma. The strict Orthodox dogma regarding Lent periods made all the Romanian villagers have an ultra vegan diet for more than 6 months per year.
Nowdays, the nutritionists won’t recommend to anyone this kind of diet since it leads to lots of metabolic diseases. Also, there are still Romanians who respect the Lent periods, but usually they are from the rural areas and are older people. And the meals during Lent are richer in proteins than back in the 19th century since they include soy or beans. Also they are richer in carbs because they include more potatoes, wheat bread and rice. Of course, some of the confessions made by the doctors from the 19th century, mentioned in the book by Constantin Barbulescu, were sometimes exagerated because they used to consider the villagers as “savages”, while they were a part of the elite.
This is all about the Romanian villager’s ultra vegan diet. 🙂 If you want to read the previous episodes from this series, check the following page:
Thank you for reading and see you soon! 😉
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