What Israelites Ate Before and During The Exodus Compared to Mind Diet

 Nadene Goldfoot                                              

Fava beans, also commonly called broad beans (the word fava actually means broad in Italian), were cultivated in the Middle East for 8,000 years before they spread to Europe. So this was most likely the main ingredient of our Israelite's diet while in Egypt for 400 years.   Like many beans and legumes, fava beans are an excellent source of fiber and provide protein and iron. 

Hunting game birds and plowing a field. Depiction on a burial chamber from c. 2700 BC. Tomb of Nefermaat and his wife Itet.          

Dietary staples among the Israelites were bread, wine, and olive oil; also included were legumes, fruits and vegetables, dairy products, fish, and meat.                                              

What kinds of foods did ancient Egyptians eat? Are there 

any surviving recipes from this time?

“Are there any surviving recipes from this time?” … There are, actually. Well not something like “olive bread in a Cuisinart bread machine”, but the amount & types of grain, fowl, and domesticated animals used as food are meticulously documented on the many temples & etc. in the form of taxes paid to the authorities.

Major food items included:

• Cereals
• Goats, Sheep, & Cattle
• Fish (mostly fresh water fish)
• Fowl (ducks & duck hunting are represented extensively in hieroglyphs)        

Legumes

• 1. Lentils.Lentil was traditionally grown in the basin lands in south Egypt on the soil moisture residue after Nile flood water receded in autumn every year.
• 2. Broad beans.Cultivated on the banks of the Nile for millennia, Faba beans (also known as fava, fūl and broad beans, and Vicia Faba) have been a mainstay of the Egyptian diet since the time of the pharaohs.
• 3. Chickpeas/Garbanzo :  There is strong evidence that chickpeas were first cultivated in the Middle East a staggering 7500 years BCE. The popularity of the chickpea quickly spread all over the world, and they were soon grown and consumed in many ancient civilisations such as Egypt, Greece and Rome.  This is what is used in a falafel.  
• Soybeans. No evidence of growth then, but planted today
• Beans (lima, common) Fava
  
• Cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions, garlic were favorite foods missed while on the 40 year Exodus.  Israelites ate them in Egypt.                                          
  
  Wild edible vegetables found in Israel  and Judea and Samaria may have also grown in Egypt.  
  
  
  
• Ancient Egyptians had great appreciation for fruits; such as sycamore, watermelon, cantaloupe, pomegranate, tubers, berries, cyperus, and doum, all of which were eaten fresh or used for sweetening.             
  
       The sacred bee:  It cannot be disputed that the Ancient Egyptians attached great religious and spiritual significance to the honey bee. Bees were associated with royalty in Egypt; indeed, as early as 3500 BC, the bee was the symbol of the King of Lower Egypt! (The symbol of the King of Upper Egypt was a reed). There are many examples of bee hieroglyphs to be found in the records, as well as hieroglyphs for honey and beekeeper.      
• Humans have harvested honey for at least 8,000 years, robbing combs from wild colonies, but the Egyptian civilization was the first to practice large-scale, organized beekeeping.

The freed slaves were complaining about their situation;  If only we had died by the hand of Hashem (G-d) in the land of Egypt, as we sat by the pot of meat, when we ate bread to saiety,  for you have taken us out to this Wilderness to kill this entire congregation by famine. They hadn't started out as happy campers ! or was that the voice of native Egyptian slaves who had joined the group?  

The Manna tested the character of the Israelites.  “God said to Moses: ‘See here, I will rain down for them food from heaven, and the people will go out and collect a daily portion every day. Thus I will test them, whether they will follow My  or not'” (Exodus 16:5).

                                  Is this manna, below?  

It was 1968, just a few months after the end of the Six-Day War, when Avinoam Danin, the late professor of botany, embarked on an expedition to the Sinai Desert, the historic land recently taken by Israel from Egypt. Danin and his colleagues at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem noticed white drops on the green stem of a desert shrub. The plant, Haloxylon salicornicum, is found all over the Middle East. “We asked a passing Bedouin: ‘What is this?’” Danin wrote many years later in an article published on the website Flora of Israel Online. The Bedouin responded: “This is mann-Rimth that you ate when you left Egypt.” The Rimth shrub is the Bedouin name for the Haloxylon salicornicum. Was this the answer, Danin wondered, to a thousands-years-old mystery about the miraculous food from heaven that sustained the people of Israel on their way to the promised land? 

                                             Coriander seeds
During the Exodus, the Israelites dined on Manna that was something like coriander seed, the color of the bedolach. Was that this?  (Bdellium is a semi-transparent oleo-gum resin extracted from Commiphora wightii plants of India, and from Commiphora africana trees growing in sub-saharan Africa. According to Pliny the best quality came from Bactria. Other named sources for the resin are India, Arabia, Media, and Babylon.) Bedolah was Home to 220 religious Jews, its inhabitants were evicted, its houses demolished, and its land surrendered to the Palestinian National Authority as part of Israel's disengagement of 2005.   

             Collecting manna that fell to the ground

Manna was a seed gathered and ground up, pounded in a mortar, cooked in a pot or made into cakes.  It tasted like dough kneaded with oil.  Manna would reach their camp with the dew that came at night.  It sounds like corn off its cob that can be ground and turned into cakes.  Since its source came from G-d, it's like astronaut food, chock full of vitamins for the long journey and indeed, they were healthy fighting men and women when they arrived in Canaan  after 40 years of walking.  They had to survive on manna, which became very boring.  

The river Nile was central to the development of Egyptian civilization

Egypt's dominance of the ancient world was a result of more than just determination and brute force. Ancient Egypt was blessed with an abundance of natural resources - not least the river Nile.

The Nile provided vast amounts of fertile land and was a major route for communications and travel - it was the freeway of ancient Egypt. Boats moved cattle, grain and soldiers across the Kingdom and the Nile linked Egypt's provincial centers to its capital, Thebes. This enabled Egypt to function as an integrated kingdom, rather than a collection of independent provinces.

The desert regions also gave Egypt a rich supply of salts, particularly natron, brine and soda. These were used in medicine, to preserve and flavor food and to tan animal hide. Natron was used to make ceramics and glass, and to solder precious metals together: it was even used as a mouthwash.  Recipes with onions and garlic would be terrible without a certain amount of salt.  

The Mind diet calls for eating whole grains 3 times a day Egyptians ate whole wheat.  Beans should be eaten during  4 meals a week should include beans such as beans and lentils.  Egyptians did this. 

              Tilapia:  A study of wild and farmed fish made headlines when it reported that tilapia doesn't have as many heart-healthy omega-3 fatty acids as other fish, like salmon. While that's true, tilapia still packs more omega-3 fats than beef, pork, chicken, or turkey.  Moses teaches what fish and meat must have in order to be eaten when on the Exodus. 

  As for fish, Moses says it must have scales and fins. The Torah requires that Kosher fish must have both scales and fins. The fact of the matter is (as the Talmud says - Chulin 66b) that all fish with scales also have fins, so in practice Kosher fish are identified by their scales.  Scales are the ticket for checking a fish.   Fish is served once a week.  

The Mind Diet wants a fatty fish (salmon, tuna, sardines, trout, mackerel for omega-3 fatty acids.  Many varieties of fish are found in the Nile system. Notable among those found in the lower Nile system are the Nile perch (which may attain a weight of more than 175 pounds), the bolti (a species of Tilapia), the barbel, several species of catfish, the elephant-snout fish, and the tigerfish, or water leopard.  

    Loathed by farmers, loved by ancient Egyptians, Tiger nuts. 

The Mind Diet calls for eating 5 or more servings of nuts each week. The earliest records of tiger nuts date back to ancient Egypt, where they were valuable and loved enough to be entombed and discovered with buried Egyptians as far back as the 4th millennium B.C.E. Now, tiger nuts are making a comeback in the health food aisle.

The plant is called yellow nutsedge or Cyperus esculentus, and it's one of the absolute worst weeds in the world. It wreaks havoc on gardens and crops and causes millions of dollars of agricultural damage every year. But it's also been cultivated for millennia, and yellow nutsedge as a crop, medicinal plant and weed has a very long, strange history with humans.

Today, tiger nuts have been getting a fair amount of attention in health food aisles. The tubers are becoming popular among paleo dieters and lauded as a "superfood." An organic foods press representative named Ludovica Vigliardi Paravia emailed me to say, "what's nuts is that TigerNuts are finally making a comeback, emerging as the #1 HEALTHY REAL HUMAN FOOD! [sic]"

In kashrut (kosher) law,  only certain animals such as sheep, goats and cattle are to be eaten, and no blood allowed. No Pork (pig) or camels are to be eaten or any shell fish.  Adjustments had to be made in their diet.  The Mind Diet does not include beef or any meat, but does say that if you do eat a red meat, limit it to 3 times a week only.   They are not aware of the kosher law about meat, either.  There have been several rabbis known to be vegetarians, though.  I suppose beans are taking the place at mealtime of beef.  

Olive Oil (and should include olives, if you think about it,) is part of The Mind Diet;   you cook with it, use it on salads as dressing.  The Egyptians used olive oil extensively including it in their diet, lighting, medicine and for rituals. The Cretans produced olive oil in the 3rd millennium BC and was a source of great wealth coming from trade. Vast underground storerooms have been excavated and jars and vessels for olive oil have been discovered.

Common lettuce, Lactuca sativa, has its origins in the Middle East. Egyptian wall murals of Min, the god of fertility, depict lettuce in cultivation in about 2700 B.C.E. The erect plant — similar to modern romaine, with a thick stem and milky sap — had sexual connotations. Min consumed lettuce as a sacred food for sexual stamina, and ordinary Egyptians used the oil of the wild seeds for medicine, cooking, and mummification. Over time, the Egyptians bred their wild-type lettuce to have leaves that were less bitter and more palatable. The cultivated plants were still tall and upright, with separate leaves rather than heads.

Green leafy vegetables are called for in The Mind Diet with 6 or more servings per week like kale, spinach, cooked greens and salads.  Vegetables. The ancient Egyptians loved garlic which – along with green scallions – were the most common vegetables and also had medicinal purposes. Wild vegetables were aplenty, from onions, leeks, lettuces, celery (eaten raw or to flavour stews), cucumbers, radishes and turnips to gourds, melons and papyrus stalks.  The Mind Diet also advocates eating another type of vegetable in addition to the green leafy ones once per day like a non starchy veggie as it comes with more nutrients with less calories. That eliminates potatoes and such.   

        Ancient Egypt did not have berries that we have.  The closest was either of two thorny shrublike trees, of the genus Ziziphus, from North Africa and the Middle East; Ziziphus spina-christi is supposed to be the plant from which Christ's crown of thorns was made.   The edible berry was  of Ziziphus lotus as seen above.    Pomegranates and grapes would be brought into tombs of the deceased.  They probably eaten as we eat berries. Dates were popular and easy to find. 

Berries are allowed twice per week on The Mind Diet such as strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, blackberries because of antioxidant benefits .  The most common fruit in ancient Egypt were dates and there were also figs, grapes (and raisins), dom palm nuts (eaten raw or steeped to make juice), certain species of Mimusops, and nabk berries (jujube or other members of the genus Ziziphus). 

On The Mind Diet, we can eat chicken or turkey at least twice a week, but no fried chicken.  That means no Kentucky fried.  Ancient Egyptians hunted fowl.  The ancient chicken was introduced in Egypt around 1750 B.C.E. but it wasn't until 1,000 years later that the Egyptians began to use them for more than entertainment and tomb decorations.  Poultry. There were no chickens or turkeys in Ancient Egypt, but the Egyptians kept geese and ducks and these were eaten by both rich and poor. They also hunted and ate wild ducks and geese and many other birds such as quails and cranes.                                      

 Wine played an important role in ancient Egyptian ceremonial life. A thriving royal winemaking industry was established in the Nile Delta following the introduction of grape cultivation from the Levant to Egypt c. 3000 BCE..  The Mind Diet allows one glass daily.  Jews have a glass of red grape  kosher wine  every Friday night if they are observing Shabbat.  My cupboard has 2 different sizes of wine glasses, Hmmm.  

 Moses never knew about the compound, resveratrol found in red wine.  Recent research is questioning if red wine has clear benefits or not.  That's not why Jews drink it.  We drink it to make kiddish.  Kiddush (/ˈkɪdɪʃ/; Hebrew: קידוש [ki'duʃ, qid'duːʃ]), literally, "sanctification", is a blessing recited over wine or grape juice to sanctify the Shabbat and Jewish holidays. Additionally, the word refers to a small repast held on Shabbat or festival mornings after the prayer services and before the meal.

If we follow some of the servings moderately, it reduces our risk of Alzheimer's disease and cognitive impairment.  We have 10 foods to eat.  Over time, our brain should function better.  I don't have much time left !  Get with it, young people.  Now that we have sprung ahead and Spring is around the corner, we can eat salads.  

Resource:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Israelite_cuisine#:~:text=Dietary%20staples%20among%20the%20Israelites,products%2C%20fish%2C%20and%20meat.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egyptian_wine#:~:text=Wine%20played%20an%20important%20role,3000%20BC.