The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #98127 Message #1939914
Posted By: Liz the Squeak
17-Jan-07 - 06:13 PM
Thread Name: BS: Putting to rest a 200-year-old mystery.
Subject: RE: BS: Putting to rest a 200-year-old mystery.
"A diet full of salt-preserved foods but sparse in fruits and vegetables--common fare for long military campaigns--"
Napoleon probably ate fairly well on campaign, but his exiles on small, remote islands could only have compounded the gastric trouble.
As the island of St Helena is pretty small, they have a limited supply of fresh fruits and vegetables - no corn farms to speak of and not a great deal of pasture either. Cornflakes are "hard to come by and cost a fortune"... Even now it can take up to 2 weeks to get there from the nearest mainland - it has no airstrip as such. Getting fresh food there 200 years ago couldn't have taken much less.
LTS