The Pythagorean Diet: When Eating Was a Philosophical Act

The Pythagorean Diet: When Eating Was a Philosophical Act
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There was a time when choosing what to eat wasnt just a matter of taste, health, or fashion. It was an ethical, spiritual, and philosophical question. That era dates back to ancient Greece, and one of its protagonists is a figure who still evokes fascination and mystery today: Pythagoras . Yes, thats right, the mathematician of triangles and perfect numbers.
But Pythagoras was not just a scientist. He was also a moral reformer, a mystic, a thinker who believed that nutrition could influence the soul . And he was the first, at least in the West, to propose a true diet based on moral and cosmic principles: the Pythagorean diet , considered by many to be the ancestor of modern vegetarianism.
What did the Pythagorean diet include?
The Pythagorean diet was centered on one fundamental principle: not eating meat . Pythagoras and his followers avoided all foods of animal origin, with some exceptions for milk and honey (which today we would therefore call lactovegetarian rather than vegan). The motivations were not medical or environmental, but rather spiritual :
“All living beings are linked by the same cosmic soul” – the Pythagoreans believed – “and killing an animal for food means breaking the harmony of the universe”.
They also avoided legumes (especially broad beans), for complex and mysterious reasons: perhaps for digestion reasons, perhaps because of beliefs related to reincarnation or the seeds similarity to human embryos.
Diet, soul and reincarnation
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To truly understand the Pythagorean diet, one must delve into Pythagorass worldview. His followers believed in metempsychosis , or the transmigration of souls : the idea that, after death, the soul could be reincarnated in other beings, human or animal.
Eating meat, in this vision, could mean nourishing oneself with a kindred spirit , or even an ancestor. Diet thus became a way to purify oneself, to maintain inner and cosmic harmony , to live in harmony with the order of the universe.
A forgotten (and then rediscovered) legacy
For centuries, the Pythagorean diet was a philosophical curiosity, often mocked or misunderstood. But during the Renaissance—when man rediscovered the ancient Greek philosophers— Pythagorean thought returned to circulation , and with it, reflections on nutrition.
Many humanists, including Leonardo da Vinci, drew inspiration from Pythagoras to promote a more ethical and harmonious relationship with nature. In the following centuries, the Pythagorean diet became synonymous with vegetarianism : even in the 19th century, many dictionaries defined vegetarians as followers of the Pythagorean diet.
A lesson for the present
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Today, vegetarianism (and veganism) are on the rise for environmental, health, and ethical reasons. Yet its interesting to remember that as early as 2,500 years ago, some saw food choices as a political, moral, and spiritual gesture. Pythagoras reminds us that what we put on our plates affects not only our bodies, but also our way of being in the world .
His diet wasnt a fad, nor a medical prescription: it was a practice of harmony . A way to seek balance between man, nature, and the universe. In an age like ours, where food is often a spectacle or a commodity, this ancient vision can still speak to us. Gently, but powerfully.
Final curiosity
1. The term vegetarian only appeared in the 19th century. Before that, the term was often used in reference to the Pythagorean diet.
2. The Pythagorean diet has also been interpreted in a proto-vegan way, given the rejection of many foods of animal origin.
3. Some believe that Pythagoras adopted the diet to “make his mind clearer and more predisposed to the contemplation of numbers.”
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