What the Roman gladiators really ate
Posted by staff / October 23, 2014
Next time the tough guy at the gym who keeps dropping weights starts bragging on his all-protein, gladiator diet, let him know what the men of Rome really ate before a vicious fight and you may finally get some peace and quiet (though they might be onto something with all the powdered beverages).
Turns out, gladiators ate a diet high in vegetables and consumed a drink made of plant ashes to fortify their diet and promote bone healing.
According to Huffington Post:
The analysis [of bone samples performed by a team headed by Dr. Fabian Kanz of the Medical University of Vienna] indicated that the gladiators and non-gladiators alike mostly ate vegetables and grains. But the gladiators had an unusually high consumption of minerals — presumably from the ash-containing beverage, which is known from previous research.
So go ahead and flex those muscles, vegetarians of the world; you’ve got history and science on your side!
Full story at Huffington Post.
Graphics credit: Canva
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