snarky remarks about eating habits Re: [Sca-cooks] Sweet potatoes

[Avraham haRofeh of Sudentur]

> Hm... anyone know what they diagnosed diabetes as in the 17th and
> 18th
> centuries? If an increase in sugar intake WERE the controlling
> factor in
> diabetes, one would expect an upsurge in diabetes deaths with the
> massively increased use of sugar in that time period.

Diabetes mellitus has been known since the Middle Ages, when it was 
diagnosed by the sweetness of the urine (hence "mellitus" - from "mella" 
honey), and as opposed to diabetes insipidus, where the urine is not sweet. 
Diabetes itself comes from a Greek word "diabainein" meaning "to straddle", 
and eventually coming to mean "a siphon or drain". The connection, of 
course, is that both DM and DI lead to production of profuse amounts of 
urine. Diabetes first appears in an English medical textbook, as "diabete" 
in 1425.

Avraham