5. Did People in the Middle Ages Really Drink Booze Instead of Water?
A common trope accepted by many as fact has it that people in the Middle Ages only drank beer and wine instead of water, because water was too contaminated with deadly pathogens. That is not true. Just like it has been throughout all of humanity’s existence, water was the most popular drink during the Middle Ages – for the simple reason that it was free.
It is true that people in the Middle Ages did not have the kinds of water purification treatments that the water coming out of our faucets nowadays usually goes through. While contamination was a problem, medieval people – like all humans since our species first walked upright – knew enough to spot and avoid obviously contaminated water. For example, people had enough common sense and common knowledge to know that swampy, muddy, and cloudy water was not good for drinking.