Eat, drink... and then lose weight

Richard Collins finds out that humans aren’t the only animals to ‘pig out’.

CHRISTMAS is coming and the goose is getting fat. She’ll be in good company. Most of us will put on a kilogramme or two during the festival of gluttony. Feasts were important for survival long ago; as in Pharaoh’s dream, periods of plenty were followed by famines. Things were fairly Spartan even in Ireland. The national diet was simple and bland, subsistence fare.

Most food was produced locally; little was imported. Agriculture was at the mercy of wind and weather. Grain could be stored if rats and mice were kept at bay. Meat and fish might be salted, but, in a world without refrigeration, food had to be eaten before it deteriorated. The best way to conserve its energy and nutrients was to convert it into body fat.