If they managed to survive plague and pestilence, medieval humans may have enjoyed healthier lifestyles than their descendants today. Their low-fat, vegetable-rich diet - washed down by weak ale - was far better for the heart than today's starchy, processed foods.

It sounds like a grotesque form of medieval torture: a punishing, detox program which means no food must pass your lips for nearly three weeks. Just about all you are allowed to do is drink a mixture containing husks and clay - and that's not to mention the DIY colonic irrigation.

I can still remember the first day I became hooked on the Food Network. It was about 3 years ago at University in London, Ontario, when I was sitting on my couch (most likely a tad hung-over) watching TV and debating whether or not to go to class.Just as I was motivating myself to get up, I came across Rob Rainford smoking some medieval looking

According to the Tax Foundation, taxes now consume more than 38% of the average family's budget. That is more than is spent on food, clothing, housing, and transportation combined. Compare this to the plight of medieval serfs. They only had to give the lord of the manor one-third of their output -- and they were considered slaves.

Forget beer: mead, that ancient alcoholic beverage made from honey, is making a comeback.

A faggot is a kind of meatball, a traditional dish in the UK, especially the southwest of England, Wales, and the Black Country. It is made from meat off-cuts and offal, especially pork. A faggot is traditionally made from pig heart, liver and fatty belly meat or bacon minced together, with herbs added for flavouring and sometimes breadcrumbs. The mixture is shaped in the hand into balls, wrapped round with caul (a membrane from the pig's abdomen), and baked. A similar dish, almôndega, is traditional in Portugal.The first use in print cited in the OED is in 1851, from Thomas Mayhew, although this appears to be a calzone- or pasty-like dish, with an outer wrapper of caul, covering a filling of mixed pork offal. This was in London.The dish saw its greatest popularity with the rationing during World War II but has become less popular in recent years. Faggots are usually homemade and are to be found in traditional butchers' shops and market stalls.A popular dish is "faggots and peas," which is often served with gravy. The faggot and pea batch is a common post-pub snack in the West Midlands. Faggots are also known as "ducks" in Yorkshire and Lancashire, often as "savoury ducks". "In Leigh market in 1905 you could buy a savoury duck rolled up in an oatmeal cake."The best-known commercial brand is Mr Brain's Faggots, a frozen food product available in Britain and Ireland, which is made of liver and onions rolled into meatballs and served in a sauce. These faggots differ significantly from the traditional recipe.Pictures of the product are a popular joke in some Western countries due to additional meanings of the name. Faggots were used as the subject of an infamous 2004 radio advert by the UK supermarket chain Somerfield. The commercial featured a husband challenging his wife's repetitive routine of a set meal for each day of the week. While he wanted lasagne, he was told that, as it was Friday, he was to have faggots. He responded: "I've nothing against faggots, I just don't fancy them." This advert was subsequently deemed to have breached the rules on Good Taste, Decency and Offence to Public Feeling of the Advertising and Sponsorship Code, and was banned from future re-broadcast by the industry regulator, Ofcom.