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The vital revolution of the 19th century was not simply a history of medical science. The increased availability of food and the improvement of diet also played a significant role. Well-fed people resist illness better and live longer. The average European diet of 1850 or 1890 was neither as diverse nor as nutritious as the diet most Europeans enjoy today, and it appears dreadful to most modern readers. However, historical perspective again demands that one compare it with the diet of earlier centuries; seen in that context, the nineteenth-century diet represented a significant improvement.

The simplest proof that the European diet improved during the 19th century is that Europeans grew taller. At the beginning of the century, the average soldier--selected for good health and strength--stood between 5'1" and 5'2" tall. Napoleon conquered Europe with warriors of that stature. To be sure, there were variations in height. The aristocracy had a much better diet and already stood closer to 5'6" The average height of west European soldiers did not reach 5'6" until 1900, when some countries produced averages of 5'7". This growth can be explained only by dietary changes. No institution kept similar records of the height of women across the century, but the average height was clearly below 5' in 1800 and across that line by 1900.

Dietary improvements arrived slowly, with significant variations by social class. A study of the Belgian city of Antwerp in 1850 found that the population of eighty-eight thousand people still received two-thirds of its calories from carbohydrates, mostly from bread. Workers and the poor received 75 percent or more of their calories from bread. August Bebel's study of the German diet in the 1880s found a similar situation, although more calories came from potatoes.

The people of Antwerp received 10 percent of their calories from meat and nearly a quarter from animal products in 1850--a big change from 18th century averages. Similar studies of the German diet in the mid-19th century found an average of 1.3 ounces of meat per day, little if compared with today but an amount that would have indicated prosperity in the 18th century. An increased consumption of fruits and vegetables came more slowly; they typically remained expensive, or seasonal, food for most people. The introduction of canned foods for Napoleon's army did not yield widespread improvements until the 1850s and 1860s. It also did not initially offer great availability of canned fruit or vegetables, because demand was highest for canned meats and canning was expensive. . .   

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