Galen

Galen, born shortly after the death of Plutarchus, was the most influential Greek
physician of the Common Era. He traveled extensively, visited Greece and Egypt,
practiced medicine at Pergamum, and retired at Rome. His medical texts provided
a rich exposition of Greek and Roman medicine and documented the importance of
food and nutrition in the Greco-Roman healing arts.140
Galen described the "social disgrace" of contracting gout, kidney stones, or
ulcerated bladders. His strongest words, however, were directed toward patients who
suffered from arthritis, a disease he believed to be caused by improper diet:
Is it not disgraceful that a person [with arthritis] be unable to use his own hands, and
should need somebody else to bring food to his mouth, and to perform his toilet
necessities for him? Unless one were an absolute weakling, one would prefer to die a
thousand deaths rather than endure such a life.