Yes, I know, you'll have seen it too:
People in medieval times were healthier than modern Britons because
they did not suffer from cholesterol related diseases, it has been
claimed.
It's a remarkable claim, isn't it? We know that people then were shorter than we are, that there were instances of starvation, of nutritionally related diseases like ricketts, pellagra and so on, but because they weren't dying in their 70s of heart attacks they must have been healthier.
While those living in the Roman and Tudor periods faced hazards such as
the "pox and plague", it seems that their daily diet lacked foods which
could lead to heart disease.
Or perhaps it's that because they all died of disease they didn't have time to die of cholesterol?
The research also claimed that daily exercise has decreased by at least
an average of 96 per cent since Roman and medieval times from eight
hours a day to less than 20 minutes due to increasingly sedentary lives.
Or perhaps they were all being worked to death?
Research by Lloyds pharmacy, the chemist chain, found that the daily
diet consumed by Britons in the Roman period of fruit, fish, whole
grains, vegetables and olive oil washed down with red wine amounted to
approximately 120g of fat, 80g of protein and 600g of carbohydrates.
That is indeed a healthy (and often scrumptious) diet but the most important point is this:
Dr Henderson said: "The Roman diet was healthy provided you were wealthy enough to afford..."
Ah, that's the point of the modern world. You don't have to be wealthy to be able to enjoy this diet, it's available to all. That's what is really valuable about this liberal capitalism thing, that it brings what were previously the luxuries of the rich into the reach of everyone. And who could resist an opportunity to post this?
