Health Beliefs of Different Countries

December 28, 2007 9:11 AM

The Russians have a saying that goes "the onion treats seven ailments", meaning, if person eats an onion every day,he will remain healthy and not need a doctor. What other health-related beliefs, that are indigenous and unique to a particular country, can metafites think of?
posted by PoopyDoop to society & culture (27 comments total)

Well, the obvious apple a day. From the nets:

An apple a day keeps the doctor away
Apple in the morning - Doctor's warning
Roast apple at night - starves the doctor outright
Eat an apple going to bed - knock the doctor on the head
Three each day, seven days a week - ruddy apple, ruddy cheek
posted by ClaudiaCenter at 9:17 AM on December 28, 2007

From a blog called lunch meat:

The most often quoted medical proverb is without question "An apple a day keeps the doctor away." Of course, its history and exact origin are uncertain, but it probably became prominent towards the end of the 19th century.

A likely precursor is the English saying, "Eat an apple on going to bed, and you'll keep the doctor from earning his bread" (recorded in 1866). But, oddly enough, the simple rhyming dietary advice we all know and love wasn't recorded in writing until about 1913.

It caught on quickly and, by the 1930s, was being parodied, as in "An onion a day keeps the world away."
posted by ClaudiaCenter at 9:22 AM on December 28, 2007

My Italian in-laws eat chopped up Garlic like a vitamin/pill almost daily and suck on raw cloves when they have a sore throat. I have since adopted the raw clove when I am sick and it works magically.
posted by birdlips at 9:23 AM on December 28, 2007

I probably didn't ask the question clearly Claudia. I need the country origin for those health-related truisms.

For example, what kind of health-related saying does the Swedes have (and that is unique to that country), or the French, or the British (you get the idea).
posted by PoopyDoop at 9:25 AM on December 28, 2007

I think the apple one is England (then US).
posted by ClaudiaCenter at 9:28 AM on December 28, 2007

So I recently learned about Greek mountain tea as a cure-all thanks to the magic of the internet. But to be honest, I never heard about it from my family; my yiayia's always been a much stronger proponent of the healing power of Ouzo.
posted by Greg Nog at 9:46 AM on December 28, 2007 [1 favorite has favorites]

I thought that "An apple a day keeps the doctor away" was from Poor Richard's Almanac i.e. Ben Franklin.
posted by Steven C. Den Beste at 9:50 AM on December 28, 2007

My Ukrainian grandmother would tell us to eat apples, "they grow here, so they must be good for you." Of course, to complicate matters, she lives in Alberta and told us this while we were living in Quebec.
posted by furtive at 9:56 AM on December 28, 2007 [1 favorite has favorites]

You may find a lot of this sort of lore in books such as American Household Botany. It was from this book I learned that stuffings (for turkeys and chickens and the like) are flavored with sage not just because it tastes good, but because sage has antibiotic properties which retard the growth of harmful bacteria in the bird's cavity.

Try searching around with terms like "herbalism," "folklore + food" and "traditional beliefs" +food" and "traditional medicine" +food." Foodlore is a form of folklore and is studied in many fields; it's also found in botany.
posted by Miko at 9:59 AM on December 28, 2007

Tom yam soup in Thailand, although I don't know of any nice aphorisms.
posted by goo at 9:59 AM on December 28, 2007

Oh, and I would add that the "Irish cure for the cold" may not, in fact, cure colds, but certainly makes them more tolerable. The hot toddy - a shot of whiskey, two shots of hot water, a slice of lemon, and a few cloves - is a time-honored offering to the sufferer.
posted by Miko at 10:02 AM on December 28, 2007

The Chinese have a billion and a half of these, mostly conflicting and contradictory, but there is a general thread among them all: Yin energy and Yang energy. If you have certain ailments it may be that your male energy (Yin) is waning, therefore you need to eat up on some Yin-full foods. Likewise with Yang energy. What disorders constitute deficiencies of what energy is what is argued as well as what food contain which energy (see how there can be so many variations).

Here's an example: some Beijingers believe that dog meat contains a lot of manly Yin energy and that men should consume it to become verile and vigourous. Contrary to that, a man should never consume a cat as cats are full of girly, femenizing Yang powers, yuck!

Down south in Nanning cat is on the menu for all sorts of issues, even male enhancement and ED, why? Simple, the Yang engergy triggers your body to seek balance by enhancing its own Yin.

In addition to and akin to these beliefs is the belief that eating certain parts of an animal that demonstrated great prowess in a certain aspect will increase that aspect in you as well. For example, someone suffereing from arthritis and joint pain should eat the chewy cartilage parts of the limber chicken. Got trouble with your gall bladder, solve that with a dose of good old fashioned snake gall.

True to form while traveling in the mountains of Southern Tibet/Northern Yunnan I drank an elixer containing the manly parts of a buck deer. Upon returning home to Beijing I impregnated my wife the very next time we "had relations." I don't know if that counts as keeping the doctor away, but I'm just sayin'...
posted by Pollomacho at 10:04 AM on December 28, 2007

First Nations cure for scurvy in Quebec, circa 1536 :

Herbal cures for scurvy have been known in many native cultures since prehistory. For example, in 1536, the French explorer Jacques Cartier, exploring the St. Lawrence River, used the local natives' knowledge to save his men who were dying of scurvy. He boiled the needles of the arbor vitae tree (Eastern White Cedar) to make a tea that was later shown to contain 50 mg of vitamin C per 100 grams.

posted by furtive at 10:04 AM on December 28, 2007

There's been a recent news wave about the seven myths even some western doctors believe.
posted by zadcat at 10:24 AM on December 28, 2007

Is the idea of chicken soup being "Jewish Penicillin" particular to Ashkenazim? Is it particular to American Ashkenazim? I honestly don't know, but if so on either count, that could qualify.
posted by Sticherbeast at 10:32 AM on December 28, 2007

In England, the cure for everything is "a nice cup of tea". This would be hot tea with milk and sugar.
posted by happyturtle at 10:42 AM on December 28, 2007

"An apple a day keeps the doctor away" originally was not a proverb (although it is one now).

It was an advertising slogan that was created in the early 1900's.

Here's one link that explains it: http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/415427/
posted by ShooBoo at 11:09 AM on December 28, 2007

in america we say "if you're going to a party, always wear a party hat." confused people from other cultures are advised not to wear this hat on their heads.
posted by bruce at 11:14 AM on December 28, 2007

Thanks everybody, for your fantastic suggestions so far.
posted by PoopyDoop at 11:17 AM on December 28, 2007

The French make a concoction called grog at the first sign of a cold or flu: traditionally lemon juice, honey, rum, and hot water. My host family used tea instead of plain water and had me drink this three times a day. Not sure if this treatment shortened the illness any, but it certainly made being sick more fun.

According to this page (in French), other anti-flu home remedies include linden flower infusions, carrot juice, and elderberries. The site also suggests the use of sea water for the disinfection of one's nose (through drops I assume?).

Some other Russian health myths:
1. Soup must be eaten every day to preserve and promote the health of one's stomach.
2. Preventing drafts borders on obsession since they are believed to be the root of dozens of ailments, from colds to back pains.
3. Young women are never supposed to sit on cold surfaces or lift heavy objects--both are believed to harm the ovaries and decrease one's fertility.
4. Popular cold/flu remedies include chamomile vapor inhalations and various compresses on one's back (described in detail at Wikipedia here). It's particularly fun to go in to an American doctor's office with the ghostly purple outlines of the previous evening's fire cupping on one's back--the face expressions are priceless and one of my mother's physicians once gathered his entire staff to come and look.
posted by whimwit at 11:34 AM on December 28, 2007

Some (many? most?) Koreans believe in "fan death". Almost all non-Koreans do NOT believe in fan death. It's certainly very unique, and apparently very wide spread in Korea.
posted by anaelith at 12:34 PM on December 28, 2007

Lu Yu of China famously wrote he would rather "Go three days without food than a day without tea"

Advertising departments of oolong tea companies have been grateful ever since.
posted by munchingzombie at 1:14 PM on December 28, 2007

Well, I've seen a variation of the apple saying on a sign in Mumbai: "A coconut a day keeps the doctor away."

In Portugal:

"An orange in the morning is gold; in the afternoon is silver; in the evening, it kills".

"Vinegar and lemon are half a surgeon."

"Wine and watermelon gives you pneumonia."

(the above rhyme in portuguese)

It's said people use to cure tb by eating raw snails.

Also, it's a popular belief that nursing mothers should eat salted codfish to increase milk production.

To cure a sty, you rub a gold ring on a piece of cloth and then touch the sty with it. Or just repeat several times "Sty pass to that eye" while staring at your enemy.

I don't know how indigenous is the belief that eating too much cheese makes your memory shorter. Or that potatoes make you sleepy.

I know that in Brazil a big one is that you can't eat mango and drink milk or you'll have an indigestion.

In Spain, "Milk with wine is poison".

In Italy, "Eat peas and your heels get harder" and obviously "Bread and tomatoes keep the doctor away."
posted by lucia__is__dada at 3:14 PM on December 28, 2007

In the Yoruba part of Nigeria, they believe that most digestive ills can be cured by a pepper water enema. They also expect you to poop every morning. Otherwise, you guessed it, gourd up your bum.
posted by Foam Pants at 3:52 PM on December 28, 2007

My Greek mother also always rubbed her gold ring on stys (sties?). I had completely forgotten this until I read lucia_is_dada's comment.

When I lived in Austria, everyone I met thought that ice cubes gave you stomach cancer. Hence all the warm coca cola I drank there, I guess.

My Chinese mother in law has numerous mysterious potions that cure everything from stomach cancer (she didn't know about the ice cubes?) to hiccups. She claims that laughing outside in cold weather makes you sick. (Actual quote: "You go ousih go hee hee hee you geh sick!" This has achieved the status of family saying.)
posted by nax at 4:11 PM on December 28, 2007 [1 favorite has favorites]

These are a mix of Bangladeshi and Malaysian lore:

When your ears are freshly pierced, wear gold as it helps the wounds heal faster.
Wrap cloves in cloth and inhale through your nostrils to relieve blocked noses.
If you have a sore throat, wear a sock or scarf around your neck when you sleep (it really works).
Chicken soup cures a lot.
Fish head curry makes you stupid. (this is a Malay superstition that I think is more racist than anything, because it's the non-Malay communities that mainly eat fish heads.)
Chicken feet = good for skin.
Tumeric on your skin = good for skin.
posted by divabat at 5:49 PM on December 28, 2007

netherlands here ... pickled herring is reputed to "keep the doctor away" ... naturally the particular Dutch phrase has a rhyming sound to it.

(also, being an ex-pat here ... pickled herring is a polite way of saying dead herring kept in salt water for anywhere between 1 and 12 months ... and is truly an acquired taste)

J
posted by jannw at 12:41 PM on December 29, 2007