research documents that Roman gladiators were overweight vegetarians

[Guest guest]

Red Flags Weekly http://www.redflagsweekly.com/diet_wars.php had a pointer

to this interesting piece in the Telegraph about Roman gladiators and their

vegetarian diets:

<http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/03/02/wglad02.xml

>

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/03/02/wglad02.xml &

Here are few snips from the story:

" Roman gladiators were overweight vegetarians who lived on barley and beans,

according to a scientific study of the largest gladiator graveyard

discovered.

" They got enough of this food every day to make them very fat and strong, "

he said. He concluded that they devised the diet primarily to protect

themselves from slashing wounds and damage to nerves and blood vessels, with

the layer of fat supplementing their scant armour.

" The dietary findings of the scientists from the University of Vienna are

detailed in a forthcoming documentary on Channel Five. ... The True

Gladiators: Revealed can be seen on Five on March 10. "

if any of you who receive Channel Five (in the UK) happen to tune in to this

show, will you please post about anything of interest you learn? Thanks!

[Guest guest]

> " They got enough of this food every day to make them very fat and strong, "

>he said. He concluded that they devised the diet primarily to protect

>themselves from slashing wounds and damage to nerves and blood vessels, with

>the layer of fat supplementing their scant armour.

Boy, this sure sounds like " Pro Wrestlers " ! Now those guys are obviously

muscular, but FAT -- why? Maybe for the same reason ... padding. And mass ...

to throw the other guy around (Same logic for Sumo wrestlers?). The Sumo

guys get a lot of noodles ... they aren't vegetarian though.

This is interesting in light of the Warrior Diet. Ori says the Roman nobility

ate only in the evening, but the slaves got several meals of barley per

day, to keep them content and happy. Maybe the gladiators were considered

more " slaves " ? Or maybe if you only eat barley, you need to eat more often

because of blood sugar fluctuations.

-- Heidi Jean

[Guest guest]

" Roman gladiators were overweight vegetarians who lived on barley and beans,

according to a scientific study of the largest gladiator graveyard

discovered. "

I bet they were stinky gladiators too, lol. - Deanna