Pythagoras's aversion to beans, though, always got a lot of attention, even from ancient writers. According to Pliny, Pythagoreans believed that fava beans could contain the souls of the dead, since they were flesh-like.
One of Pythagoras' strangest obsessions with food was his relationship to the fava bean. He believed you should never eat fava beans because they give you gas and expelling gas took away the “breath of life.”3 At the same time, he claimed fava beans contained the souls of the dead.
The Ancient Greeks grew olives, grapes, figs and wheat and kept goats, for milk and cheese. They ate lots of bread, beans and olives. Legumes such as beans, lentils, chickpeas (peeled), peas and pureed beans also featured a lot on the ancient Greeks' daily menu.
Beans in Greek Cooking
The most ancient legumes are the lentil, chick pea, fava bean, and vetch, or split pea. All of which are still widely consumed in soups, stews and baked casseroles all over Greece. Greeks traditionally eat beans at least once a week.
Interesting Facts About Food and Cooking in Ancient Greece
The Greeks didn't drink milk and considered it barbaric. They used milk to make cheese. Athletes often ate a special diet that consisted mostly of meat.
The various rules of the Greek Orthodox Church have shaped people's eating habits. Even non-religious Greeks abstain from foods deriving from animals –meat, dairy products and eggs— during the numerous Lenten days that precede Easter, Christmas and other religious occasions.
The main foods the Ancient Greeks ate were bread, made from wheat, and porridge, made from barley. They used lots of olive oil to cook and add flavor to dishes. They also ate a range of vegetables, including chickpeas, olives, onions, garlic, and cabbage.
Diogenes Laertius, the Roman biographer of the Greek philosophers, wrote that beans were made of soul-stuff, much of which was present in humans. As it happens, the Greek word anemos means both “wind” and “soul.” Famously, beans are the magical fruit.
Based on a comparison of 138 countries in 2020, India ranked the highest in bean consumption with 5,171 kt followed by Brazil and USA. On the other end of the scale was Kuwait with 1.00 kt, Denmark with 1.00 kt and Mauritius with 1.00 kt.
In Greek cuisine there are numerous recipes with legumes, including our national dish the delicious “fasolada” (bean soup). Dishes with beans are very popular during the fasting period “the Lent”. It's a must for a Greek housewife to prepare a dish with beans at least once a week, if not twice.
For thousands of years, beans have been a staple food which was first domesticated more than 7,000 years ago in southern Mexico and Peru. In Mexico, the Indians developed black beans, white beans, and other color patterns and colors.
Legumes were limited to dried peas, fava beans (broad beans), chickpeas, lentils, and lupins. The Romans knew several varieties of chickpea, such as venus, ram, and punic. They were either cooked down into a broth or roasted as a snack. The Roman cookbook Apicius gives several recipes for chickpeas.
Pythagoras the vegetarian did not only abstain from meat, he didn't eat beans either. This was because he believed that humans and beans were spawned from the same source, and he conducted a scientific experiment to prove it.
Why Are Beans Controversial? Vegans and vegetarians often rely on black beans, lentils, and other bean varieties as their main source of protein. However, diets like Paleo and keto avoid beans entirely because they contain controversial compounds called lectins. There are also different grades of beans.
One explanation dates back to ancient Greece when people would use beans to vote anonymously. White beans were used for positive votes, and for negative votes, black beans or other dark-colored beans were used.
The mung is the most-consumed bean in the world. Taste A discreet taste reminding of the pea, will become bitter when the first leaves appear. Appearance Big, round and shiny green seed.
Blacks had the highest annual total meat consumption (64.2 kg), followed by East Asians (53.6 kg), Whites (46.9 kg), and Hispanics (35.8 kg). Blacks ate significantly more chicken than the other ethnic groups (P < 0.001), and East Asians ate significantly more pork and processed meat (P < 0.001).
Despite their American origin, baked beans are not as popular there. In fact, nowhere likes them as much as the UK – British people eat more baked beans than the rest of the world put together.
In the Past: The origins of the wild cucumber can be traced back to India, and was spread widely through ancient Greece, Rome, Europe, the Americas, and China. Today, cucumbers still stand as one of the most widely cultivated vegetables across the world.
Wheat and barley were the most commonly grown crops for making porridge and bread. Olive trees were grown and pressed for olive oil. In addition, grape vines were farmed to make wine. Wheat, barley, olives, and grapes were four of the top crops of ancient Greece.
Older Greek cooks still make a fuss when making rice pilafs for a traditional Sunday family meal, pressing it into molds and presenting it with fanfare. It wasn't until after the 1950s that rice would become an every day food, as basic as wheat, in the Greek kitchen.
Trahana is one of the oldest foods in the Eastern Mediterranean, a tiny, pebble-shaped grain product that varies widely all over Greece.
It is quite common for Greeks to eat seasonally. A Greek salad is primarily a summer dish, and since lettuce only grows in Greece during the winter months a traditional 'Horiatiki' salad does not include lettuce.
The Ancient Greeks grew olives, grapes, figs and wheat and kept goats, for milk and cheese. They ate lots of bread, beans and olives. In the Summer months there were plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables to eat and in the winter they ate dried fruit and food they had stored like apples and lentils.