The popularity of health books or "dietaries" attested to people's concern bout personal health, as did the sections on home remedies for the sick to be found in many cookbooks. The dietaries were comprised largely of advice on diet as related to health. Every edible thing was analyzed with relation to its effect on health. Those with "melancholicke" nature were advised to eat certain foods and avoid others; those of "cholericke" temperament were warned against foods that might increase their choler. Some foods were dangerous because they caused "bad blood"; still others could fill the body and head with "evil vapours." And some foods could "increase man's seed," a desirable thing, it may have seemed to many, since so many children died young.
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