Eve's Herbs: A History of Contraception and Abortion in the West
Author: John M Riddl
In Contraception and Abortion from the Ancient World to the Renaissance, John Riddle showed, through extraordinary scholarly sleuthing, that women from ancient Egyptian times to the fifteenth century had relied on an extensive pharmacopoeia of herbal abortifacients and contraceptives to regulate fertility. In Eve's Herbs, Riddle explores a new question: If women once had access to effective means of birth control, why was this knowledge lost to them in modern times?
Beginning with the testimony of a young woman brought before the Inquisition in France in 1320, Riddle asks what women knew about regulating fertility with herbs and shows how the new intellectual, religious, and legal climate of the early modern period tended to cast suspicion on women who employed "secret knowledge" to terminate or prevent pregnancy. Knowledge of the menstrual-regulating qualities of rue, pennyroyal, and other herbs was widespread through succeeding centuries among herbalists, apothecaries, doctors, and laywomen themselves, even as theologians and legal scholars began advancing the idea that the fetus was fully human from the moment of conception.
Drawing on previously unavailable material, Riddle reaches a startling conclusion: while it did not persist in a form that was available to most women, ancient knowledge about herbs was not lost in modern times but survived in coded form. Persecuted as "witchcraft" in centuries past and prosecuted as a crime in our own time, the control of fertility by "Eve's herbs" has been practiced by Western women since ancient times.
Library Journal
Even in ancient times, people limited the size of their families. Since the major responsibilities of pregnancy, birth, and child rearing fell on women, they found methods for controlling fertility and aborting unwanted children, and they have passed down this knowledge as an oral tradition that survives worldwide. Using early manuscripts of medical and botanical texts and the proceedings of court cases, historian Riddle examines the use of plants as contraceptives, offering a fascinating view of the early knowledge of reproduction and attempts to regulate it. As formal medical training evolved and the Roman Catholic Church gained power, these preparations were forbidden, and women offering or using them were tried as witches. The information remained available in disguised form, and, in many parts of the world, Queen Anne's Lace, Pennyroyal, and other botanicals are still used to "regulate menses." More scholarly than Shirley Green's The Curious History of Contraception (LJ 8/72), this work is recommended for academic and large public libraries.Barbara M. Bibel, Oakland P.L., Cal.
Books about: Gestion financière Contemporaine
Dietary Reference Intakes for Energy, Carbohydrate, Fiber, Fat, Fatty Acids, Cholesterol, Protein, and Amino Acids (Macronutrients)
Author: Institute of Medicin
"Responding to the expansion of scientific knowledge about the roles of nutrients in human health, the Institute of Medicine has developed a new approach to establish Recommended Dietary Allowances (RDAs) and other nutrient reference values. The new title for these values, Dietary Reference Intakes (DRIs), is the inclusive name being given to this new approach. These are quantitative estimates of nutrient intakes applicable to healthy individuals in the United States and Canada." This book will be an invaluable reference for dieticians, nutritionists, and other health-related professionals and researchers in government, academia, and industry.
Table of Contents:
| 1 | Introduction to dietary reference intakes | 21 |
| 2 | Methods and approaches used | 38 |
| 3 | Relationship of macronutrients and physical activity to chronic disease | 53 |
| 4 | A model for the development of tolerable upper intake levels | 84 |
| 5 | Energy | 107 |
| 6 | Dietary carbohydrates : sugars and starches | 265 |
| 7 | Dietary, functional, and total fiber | 339 |
| 8 | Dietary fats : total fat and fatty acids | 422 |
| 9 | Cholesterol | 542 |
| 10 | Protein and amino acids | 589 |
| 11 | Macronutrients and healthful diets | 769 |
| 12 | Physical activity | 880 |
| 13 | Applications of dietary reference intakes for macronutrients | 936 |
| 14 | A research agenda | 968 |
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