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Originally Posted by jediwill83
I dont agree with the statement that drinking water would kill you dead.People have been digging wells for thousands of years.Yes I know there are diseases that have been spread through tainted water during certain outbreaks.How many of you have older family that had a old well back in the day?Did not even Jesus ask the woman at the well for a drink?It doesn't mention him adding a few shots from a hip flask...and yes the wine was alcoholic back then.Grape juice ferments quickly and has to be treated with pasturization to stop the fermentation process.The man who started Welches Grape juice used the pasturization process to market non alcoholic grape juice in the 1800's . More interesting to note is that before wine increased in popularity mead was more commonly consumed.There are records that show mead being fermented as far back as 5000BC.Mead is created with honey...the yeast consumes the sugar inside the honey and the byproduct from that process is alcohol.Because honey is so sweet a higher alcohol content can be achieved than wine fermentation.We are talking 45% vs around 15%. Mead was also used as a suspension medium for herbs and medication...the sweetness would mask the bitter taste and also act as a preservative.
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Jedi, there are caviats to every point. You are right. not all water would kill you dead. it mattered where you lived. But remember the histories are told of the places where people lived in mass. Cities water was not nearly as clean as country water. and yes, they had both well water and aquaduct water as well. It has been argued that Rome's ability to thrive was in no small part connected to its ability to deliver cleaner water to its people. But that wasnt everywhere and that wasnt all the time.
However, what I have stated here, comes from Pleny the Elder and Pleny the Younger. They wrote during the period about thier own time. So, I am not speculating...
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