Persians lived without corn, which is a New World food, as are beans and potatoes and avocados and peanuts and blueberries. The list goes on and on. And these New World crops led to probably the greatest population increase in history. To quote Crosby, It is crudely true that if man's caloric intake is sufficient, he will somehow stagger to maturity, and he will reproduce. And New World food was far more caloric than Old World food, which is the central reason that the world population doubled between 1650 and 1850. Plants like corn and potatoes could grow in soils that were useless for Old World crops. Potatoes were actually introduced to Europe as an aphrodisiac, but it turns out that you have to distill those potatoes into vodka before they have the desired effect.