Published 17 December 2008, doi:10.1136/bmj.a2722
Cite this as: BMJ 2008;337:a2722

Feature

Christmas 2008: Food and Drink

Please, sir, I want some more

L Smith, dietetic assistant , S J Thornton, senior paediatric dietician, J Reinarz, director, A N Williams, consultant community paediatrician

1 Department of Dietetics, Northampton General Hospital, Northampton. NN1 5BD, 2 Centre for the History of Medicine, Medical School Birmingham, Birmingham B15 2TT, 3 Virtual Academic Unit, CDC, Northampton General Hospital, Northampton NN1 5BD

Correspondence to: A N Williams anw@doctors.org.uk

Fictional "truth" doesn’t always coincide with fact, find L Smith and colleagues

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

The plaintive words of the unfortunate boy chosen to plead for his fellow inmates still resonate. They speak of chronic want, injustice, and neglect. But how true are the sentiments underpinning this powerful popular work? A dietetic analysis of Oliver Twist’s workhouse diet, as well as contemporaneous workhouse menus, allows us to answer the question—did Oliver really need more?


Click on image to view video

Today's children try out the Oliver Twist diet in a 10 minute video, which also includes interviews with this paper's authors.

 
In the past few decades, historians have described workhouses as "pauper palaces."[1] Yet others have highlighted the barbarous injustices perpetrated on inmates, most notably at Andover workhouse, where paupers were reduced to gnawing rotten bones. Terrifying rumours of floggings, starvation, and the separation of families circulated in contemporary society. Dickens was mainly responsible for the dim view of the Victorian workhouse—the Andover guardians were condemned by a select committee nine . . . [Full text of this article]


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