I totally vote for both jumping in AND going back and catching up on Jane the Virgin. It's awesome.

And I too have wondered about fetal alcohol syndrome in places where everybody drank wine or cider or beer all the time. Except the studies I've seen say that even women who admitted drinking like, five drinks a day still only had a fairly small change of getting FAS (I mean, iirc it was double digit but much less than 50?)

I wasn't aware of the strong religious overtones in veganism. Definite strains of heresy and apostasy wandering around.

It's gotten a lot worse in the past few years. There have been a whole bunch of books and websites and stuff about how veganism will cure all sorts of diseases, and will make you totally healthy, and they tend to equate veganism with no processed food, no sugar, etc. I'm in a facebook group called What Fat Vegans Eat, and that name was chosen specifically to ward off people like that, and still, any time someone posts something about vegan junk food, there will be a bunch of "Veganism is about being healthy, so that cupcake isn't REALLY vegan" replies.

I suspect, based on very little knowledge, that women got fewer UTIs and vaginal infections in the before times because they didn't wear pants or underwear. No cloth right against the warm moist bits means less opportunity for bacteria/fungi to grow.

I predict that jumping directly into Jane the Virgin woul (a) be fine [eta: the Narrator will say "there, now you're all caught up" so you'll know you have what you need] and (b) make you want to start at the beginning and see it all.

I have thoughts about medieval incidence of fetal alcohol syndrome but I can't get them into communicable form.

Even with the possibility of FAS, it was almost certainly healthier to drink mildly alcoholic beverages in the Olden Tymes because even a small amount of alcohol helps kill bad germs. Juices don't keep, so you brewed hard cider, tossing in the wormy apples because alcohol.

I expect that most of the beer etc was in the low-proof area. It wasn't until the innovation of distilling, which for instance brought The Sorrows of Gin, that you had really obvious alcoholics in the public eye/mind.

"Small beer" is the historical term - as low as 1% alcohol.

Classic FAS is associated with 4 drinks (modern definition - 1 beer, 1 glass of wine, etc.) per day.

Also, a lot of babies died in the Middle Ages, so there's a solid chance that an infant with FAS wouldn't survive--not necessarily due to FAS, but also due to plague, famine, war, untreated upper respiratory infections, etc. Royalty lost numerous kids. Some decades peasants were lucky to keep the population levels steady.

OK, so I'll watch whatever Jane the Virgin is On Demand, because I am too lazy to do anything else!

I watched Jane the Virgin last night out of the blue, and I love it. I'm going back to watch the first season as soon as I can. The actress who plays Jane is fantastic.

I have no thoughts about medieval-era FAS, though.

Buffistas, meet our new Prime Minister: [link]

Sadly, my amazing (and Buffy loving) MP got swept out in the Red Tide.