The Black Death could have sparked our love of junk food, say experts
THE Black Death could have sparked our love of junk food, experts say.
Rich people who ate higher-calorie grub were more likely to survive the plague which killed 50 million.
As a result, tastes changed and diets more likely to be linked to chronic diseases today developed.
Scientists came to the conclusion by studying microorganisms on teeth taken from 235 people buried across 27 archaeological sites in England and Scotland from about 2,200BC to 1853AD.
They identified 954 microbial species in two communities of bacteria.
The first, dominated by Streptococcus, is common in modern industrialised diets.
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Meanwhile the second, dominated by Methanobrevibacter, is now largely extinct.
The presence of Methanobrevibacter dropped off significantly after the Black Death bubonic plague pandemic, which wiped out 60 per cent of Europe in the 14th century.
US experts found a change in diet to one high in fats, sugar and dairy caused the rise in the Streptococcus bacteria.
Previous research found that changes in the microbiome — the scientific name for the collection of bacteria and microorganisms in human bodies — is linked to obesity, Type 2 diabetes and several types of cancer.
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Professor Laura Weyrich, of Penn State University, US, said: “The pandemic triggered changes in people’s diets that, in turn, influenced the composition of their oral microbiomes.”
Calorie counts on fast food menus reduce how much people eat by around 25 calories, US research at Taco Bell found.