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Health and wellbeing in the ancient world
Health and wellbeing in the ancient world

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3 Food and drugs

In the previous section, you encountered two foods that could also serve as drugs: citron and breast milk. In this section, you will learn more about the difference between a food and a drug, and explore how knowledge of drugs was recorded and transmitted. In keeping healthy, wine played an important role, as did antidotes to poison.

Bowl of chicken soup with a spoon resting against the side of the bowl.
Figure 10 Chicken soup