Study Why did poor rural people live longest in the past?

Experts studied the diet of people in the Victorian era

Unfortunately, many people do not eat very well today. Researchers have now found out that especially people from poorer rural societies used to eat very well. They had access to quality food from the area and had the healthiest diet and best health in Victorian Britain. The ingested foods were similar to today's so-called Mediterranean diet.

Researchers at the Leicester Cancer Research Center found that in the Victorian era, people living in poor, rural areas had the best health because of their diet. The experts published the results of their recent study in the English-language journal "RSM Open".

In the past, poor people living in rural areas usually lived very long because the quality of the food there was significantly better. (Image: travelbook / fotolia.com)

People in isolated areas were especially healthy

In the Victorian era, life in the regions of Britain was the healthiest and most isolated - measured by mortality rates. In these areas, people consumed locally produced potatoes, whole grains, vegetables, fish and milk. At the same time, there were fewer deaths from pulmonary tuberculosis in these regions, say the physicians. This suggests that people there benefited from the healthier diet.

Mediterranean diet reduces the risk of dying prematurely

The experts found that the most nutritious forms of nutrition were in remote rural areas of England, on the mainland and on the islands of Scotland. The fact that these better-nourished regions in the UK also had lower mortality rates is fully in line with recent studies showing a reduced risk of dying in connection with a so-called Mediterranean diet, study author Dr. Peter Greaves from the Leicester Cancer Research Center.

Quality of food in the countryside was better

The rural diet was often healthier for people in remote areas - because of the quality of cereals, potatoes, meat and milk. Those affected often had small areas to grow vegetables or keep animals. Often, people exchanged food among themselves and paid for services in goods. Unfortunately, these societies disappeared under the pressure of urbanization, commercial agriculture and migration, the authors explain.

Food became less diverse

These changes in Victorian society have resulted in poorer eating habits among poor rural populations, and have resulted in less locally grown food. Greaves. This process has taken place over the years in many areas around the world.

How many people lived in the countryside back then??

In the mid-19th century, less than half of the nearly 19 million people in England and Wales lived in large urban centers. Among the three million inhabitants of Scotland, only one million lived in urban districts and in Ireland less than 30 percent of the 5.5 million inhabitants.

What did poor people eat then??

For many poor people across the UK, white bread made from peeled wheat flour was the main ingredient of the diet. If they could afford to, people supplemented their food with vegetables, fruits and animal foods such as meat, fish, milk, cheese and eggs, which corresponds to a Mediterranean diet, explain the scientists.

Many rural dwellers reached old age

Poor people in more prosperous rural areas, who were usually paid in cash, often had great difficulty getting these foods regularly, but milk and fish were more accessible in remote areas of the UK. A large number of the inhabitants of the countryside reached a ripe old age. For example, in the poor rural areas of Connaught, in the west of Ireland, nearly 20 percent of people reached the age of 65 or even older. Some people even then lived up to the age of 95 or even 100 years, the experts add. (As)