Horrell, Sara 
ORCID: 0009-0002-6865-4142 and Oxley, Deborah
(2012)
Hasty pudding versus tasty bread: regional variations in diet and nutrition during the Industrial Revolution.
Local Population Studies, 89 (1).
9 - 30.
ISSN 0143-2974
Abstract
Using parish-level information from Sir EM. Eden's The state of the poor (1797) we can identify typical diets for the counties of England. These diets varied considerably and afforded very different standards of nutrition. We compute a nutritional score for this diet, paying attention to the presence of vitamins, minerals and micronutrients shown to be essential for health and growth in constructing this measure. Other information in the reports allows us to relate county-level nutrition to factors in the local economy. In particular we find nutrition was positively related to the availability of common land in the area and to women's remunerated work if conducted from home. Lack of common land and little local supply of dairy products also pushed households into buying white wheaten bread rather than baking their own wholemeal loaf. Replicating some of this analysis with household-level data confirms these results. Diet also maps onto stature: male convicts to Australia were significantly taller if they originated in a county with a more nutritious diet. This verifies the important impact of nutrition on stature and demonstrates the sensitivity of height as a measure of key aspects of welfare.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Official URL: | https://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/lpss/lps;js... |
| Additional Information: | © 2012 The Authors |
| Divisions: | Economic History |
| Subjects: | R Medicine > RA Public aspects of medicine > RA0421 Public health. Hygiene. Preventive Medicine H Social Sciences > HC Economic History and Conditions H Social Sciences > HN Social history and conditions. Social problems. Social reform |
| JEL classification: | N - Economic History > N3 - Labor and Consumers, Demography, Education, Health, Income, and Wealth > N33 - Economic History: Labor and Consumers, Demography, Education, Health, Income and Wealth: Europe: Pre-1913 |
| Date Deposited: | 22 Nov 2019 13:51 |
| Last Modified: | 01 Nov 2024 05:33 |
| URI: | http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/102601 |
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