Strong, muscular, athletic. It is hard not to imagine them biting into a leg of pork. Instead, it seems that gladiators were fond of vegetables, grains, pulse, foods that provided vegetable proteins perfect for concentrating energy.
Gladiators were not carnivores
We wonder if Crepet, Italian psychologist pilloried in the media for his statements on vegan women and sex, knows that these virile men of Ancient Rome actually fed on vegetables. Evidence of this is provided by the Medical University of Vienna, which, in collaboration with the anthropology department of the Institute of Forensic Medicine of the University of Bern, has analysed some gladiator remains.
In the bones of fighters who lived between the 2nd and 3rd century A.D. found in Ephesus, in present-day Turkey, there are high levels of strontium, an element present in large quantities in vegetables. And also a good percentage of calcium.
Gladiators were barley eaters
Further confirmation of their eating habits is the Latin nickname hordearii , “barley eaters”, by which they were called. In addition a very low nitrogen value, usually associated with the consumption of animal protein, was detected. Wheat, farro, legumes, turnips, barley and even a lot of millet, the ingredient that the proponent of “popsophia” Crepet labeled as sad and anti-sex.
And it seems that, for an extra sprint, they used to drink a kind of magnesium-rich energy drink, once again herbal, in this case made of medicinal herb ashes. An ante litteram protein drink, to be had before a fight to boost performance.
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