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A Brief History of Human Beverage Consumption: Prehistory to the Present

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Book cover Beverage Impacts on Health and Nutrition

Part of the book series: Nutrition and Health ((NH))

Abstract

How did humans learn to drink? Are drinking preferences instinctive? How did humans learn which beverages were safe to drink? Did earliest humans watch and imitate the drinking behavior of animals? How would early humans know whether or not a pond of standing water was suitable to drink? At the dawn of human history, life spans were short, and illness that followed drinking polluted water would be associated with bacteria or toxins. Then, as now, aesthetics and a well-developed sense of smell, taste, color, and appearance determine our beverage selection as well as our place in natural selection. For a review of how color alters taste perception, see the chapter in this book by Spence.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biology, Winona State University, Winona, MN, 54603, USA

    Ted Wilson Ph.D.

  2. Department of Nutrition, University of California-Davis, Davis, CA, 95616-8500, USA

    Louis E. Grivetti Ph.D.

Authors
  1. Ted Wilson Ph.D.
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  2. Louis E. Grivetti Ph.D.
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Correspondence to Ted Wilson Ph.D. .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Winona State University Department of Biology, Winona, Minnesota, USA

    Ted Wilson

  2. Athabasca University Centre for Science, Athabasca, Alberta, Canada

    Norman J. Temple

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Wilson, T., Grivetti, L.E. (2016). A Brief History of Human Beverage Consumption: Prehistory to the Present. In: Wilson, T., Temple, N. (eds) Beverage Impacts on Health and Nutrition. Nutrition and Health. Humana Press, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-23672-8_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-23672-8_2

  • Publisher Name: Humana Press, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-23671-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-23672-8

  • eBook Packages: MedicineMedicine (R0)

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