[Sca-cooks] Re: Rhachitis

[Mark S. Harris]

'Lainie commented:
> It also (OFC) would seem to indicate some
> problems with basic nutritive value in the diets of the Europeans who went
> to Greenland and/or an exaggerated level of genetically related health
> problems.

I guess both are possible. The genetic pool on Iceland is not large
and I'm not sure how much intermixing there was with other groups
once Iceland was settled. I imagine any geneticists here can give
you some numbers if the minimum size needed to avoid problems.


However, I suspect the diet would have a greater effect. Iceland has

a very short growing season and many cereal crops just don't grow
well there, not to mention many vegetables or fruits. I think Nanna
has touched on this previously. Even today, the Scottish government
is trying, with not much real success, to get the Scottish populace
to eat more fruits and vegetables. The Scots have one of the lowest
per-capita amounts of fruits and vegetables. I suspect that Iceland
is much the same for similar reasons.

In addition, as Nanna has highlighted, salt is scarce in Iceland
and the common salting of food in medieval Europe wasn't done much.
They relied more on preserving foods in whey.
Which diet problems would result in the skeletal effects seen in
those archeological diggings I have no idea.

Also, as the forests of Iceland disappeared the diet became even more
restrictive as certain animals such as the imported pig or any native
animals became less common. Then there is also the changing climate
which further affected what could be grown as time went on.
--
THLord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
    Mark S. Harris            Austin, Texas          stefan at texas.net
**** See Stefan's Florilegium files at:  http://www.florilegium.org ****