nourishment in Aztec society

It has long been a popular myth that the Aztec engaged in cannibalism in order to meet their dietary and nutritional needs. The truth is that cannibalism existed only in a very diminutive ritual context. Since animal proteins were scarce and populations exceeded environmental supplies, cannibalism seemed a cheap answer to a nutritionally deficient diet; however, contemporary scholarship reduces this principles of Aztec cannibalism to mere imaginations of savagery and bloodlust.

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In order for a food to be of nutritional value, it must contain all of the 11 significant amino acids. Perhaps by accident, the Aztec created an evolved diet to meet their nutritional needs. Maize, though high in protein, lacks lysine and tryptophan. When Aztec farmers harvested maize, they left it to dry in the fields. To soften the kernels later for grinding, the Aztec soaked the kernels in a water and limestone blend (nixtamal). The alkaline blend freed the tryptophan and added calcium. It also added a determined flavor that became traditional, and without it, tortillas did not taste the way the Aztec imaginable them to. Beans, high in lysine, when eaten with maize soaked in the alkaline solution, made a nutritionally sound meal. These two foods provided the cultural staples of the Aztec diet, without animal proteins. Chilies provided iron, riboflavin, niacin, and vitamin A, and chia (salvia) provided calcium and phosphorous.

nourishment in Aztec society

nourishment in Aztec society

Food establishment in Aztec society

Culinary Sundries

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Aztec commoners did not live by maize and beans alone. Tomatoes, avocadoes, and any varieties of squash presented more choices at a meal. Chili peppers were used to flavor foods and were so vital to the Aztec meal that fasting often meant forsaking chilies alone. Ants, grasshoppers, maguey worms, and jumil bugs, all ready in large quantities, in case,granted protein. Commoners gathered tequitlatl (blue-green spirulina algae) in large fine nets to furnish large harvests of protein. Bernal Díaz del Castillo described the blue-green algae sold as exiguous cakes that tasted like cheese in the markets of Tlatelolco and Tenochtitlan. But these were not the only aquatic goods consumed by the Aztec. Sahagún writes that tadpoles, frogs, and tentnonmichin (thick, large-mouthed fish) were also eaten. Axolotl newts and acocilin (shrimplike crustaceans) offered variety to the diet as well.

Food establishment in Aztec society

Food establishment in Aztec society