What animals did the Aztecs eat?

What animals did the Aztecs eat?

The Aztec diet was dominated by fruit and vegetables, as domesticated animals were limited to dogs, turkeys (totolin), ducks, and honey bees. Game (especially rabbits, deer and wild pigs), fish, birds, salamanders, algae (used to make cakes), frogs, tadpoles and insects were also a valuable food source.

What animals did the Aztecs not eat?

They also domesticated turkeys, duck and dogs as food and at times ate meat from larger wild animals such as deer, but none of these were a major part of their diet. They ate various mushrooms and fungi, including the parasitic corn smut, which grows on ears of corn.

What vegetables did the Aztecs eat?

Among the most prominent fruits and vegetables were chili peppers, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, onions and avocados. The Aztec people also grew several different types of squash, such as zucchini and pumpkins. The people ate the squash seeds as well, Smith notes.

What protein did Aztecs eat?

1 Nutrition for Typical Aztecs The majority of Aztecs consumed beans and corn on a daily basis. They gained protein through eating insects, including ants and grasshoppers, and occasionally worms. An average Aztec meal consisted of between two and three tortillas, along with a side of beans.

Did the Aztecs eat meat?

Meat was eaten sparsely; the Aztec diet was primarily vegetarian with the exception of grasshoppers, maguey worms, ants and other larvae. Even now, some of these insects are considered delicacies in parts of Mexico.

Were there cannibals in the Americas?

Cannibalism was practiced in some contemporary Native American societies, particularly among tribes of the north and the west. Jesuits living with the Iroquois recorded it, like torture, among the victors over those defeated in battle, and there is evidence that these customs endured into the eighteenth century.

Why did the Aztecs have a vegetarian diet?

The Aztecs were traditionally a vegetarian peoples because their diet depended heavily on agricultural produce. This is why the Aztecs specialised in many innovations in agriculture, such as the floating gardens of Tenochtitlan.

What kind of culture did the Aztecs live in?

The Aztecs ( / ˈæztɛks /) were a Mesoamerican culture that flourished in central Mexico in the post-classic period from 1300 to 1521. The Aztec peoples included different ethnic groups of central Mexico, particularly those groups who spoke the Nahuatl language and who dominated large parts of Mesoamerica from the 14th to the 16th centuries.

What kind of meat did the Aztecs eat?

Usually, the meat of both kinds of animals was reserved for feasts and major occasions. Turkeys were also used as a source for eggs. Apart from domesticated sources of meat, Aztecs also hunted and fished. Hunting brought meat from animals such as rabbits, possums, armadillos, deer, hares and wild boars among others.

Why did the Aztecs eat so much corn?

The Aztecs relied so heavily on corn because it supplied a good amount of calories to sustain life, and was also a source of protein, which the people needed to support their physically active lives. That’s also important because animal sources of protein were in short supply, according to Michael E. Smith, author of “The Aztecs.”