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Ancient Rome Not Good For Your Diet ...?
#1
Interesting article from the Guardian about Cows, Milk, height, and the need to feed the Roman Army.

The article only touches on the topic, no doubt the actual study has more details.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2010/ ... al-history

[size=150:34r089zp]Cows are key to 2,500 years of human progress[/size]
Dairy farming is key factor in history of European nutrition, study argues, with Roman empire a net loss
Jamie Doward
The Observer, Sunday 4 April 2010

The Romans, as Monty Python famously acknowledged, have done many things for us. Contrary to popular wisdom, however, improving our diet was not one of them.

A study of the remains of almost 20,000 people dating from the 8th century BC to the 18th century AD has found that the Roman empire reduced our level of nutrition, which increased again in the "dark ages".

That is because the key factor in determining average height over the centuries – an indicator of nutritional status and wellbeing – has been an increase in milk consumption due to improved farming. Higher population densities and the need to feed the army during Roman times may have worked against this.

The "anthropometric" approach pursued by Nikola Koepke of Oxford University, which combines biology and archaeology, suggests longer bone length is indicative of improved diet. Koepke's study, presented at the Economic History Society's 2010 annual conference, also challenges assumptions about the effect of the industrial revolution. Urbanisation did not improve wellbeing, she argues, at least as measured by height.

Rather, Koepke says, the key factor in determining average height growth over the past 2,500 years has been the increased consumption of milk as a result of the spread of, and improvements in, farming. She found that overall European living conditions improved slightly in the past 2,500 years even in the centuries prior to the industrial revolution.

Her study is based on data compiled from analysing the skeletal remains of more than 18,500 individuals of both genders from all social classes, from 484 European archaeological dig sites. "Higher milk consumption as indicated by cattle share had a positive impact on mean height," Koepke writes. "Correspondingly, this determinant is the key factor in causing significant European regional differences in mean height."


:wink:

Narukami
David Reinke
Burbank CA
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#2
Interesting stuff, Narukami -- yes indeed ....
....and even more so if one followed that thread here:
link from old RAT
So , did the Roman Empire "go under" because they had too much "vinum et garum" instead of "met and milk" Confusedhock:
How would "DrinkaPintaMilkaDay" have translated into Latin, then ? :wink:
But seriously I think doubts should be allowed concerning the relational context between the "dairy biz" and the "lenght of chassis".
(In which direction is this relation actually proven, I'm meaning to say.)
It also seems to be common opinion that the germanic tribes suffered malnutriton on a greater scale than did the roman citizens,
if I got right (e.g.) the contents of the thread mentioned above. (I still keep searching my archive for that paper/review about the Stettfeld [roman] graveyard, that I mentioned there. :? )
Well, however, I'd really like to read more of Nikola Koepke's paper.

Greez

Simplex
Siggi K.
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#3
Interesting point indeed, Narukami, thank you. A tie-in point of interest which would agree with this theory is the fact that the Irish peasants of the early 19th Century, who suffered so abysmally during the multiple famines (there wasn't just one in 1847, as many think - that was just the worst one. IIRC, there were about 20 in the years 1820-1850). Skeletons from this time which have been subjected to analysis show that the Irish peasant was one of the tallest and most strong boned in Europe - at 5' 10" (1.77m) far larger than the typical Englishman, for example. The reason for this is the peasants' extremely simple, but highly nutritious diet of potatoes (or not, as the case may be Cry ), butter, and buttermilk (soured milk). The latter two came from the cow which most families owned. They also owned a pig, but that was not for them to eat - it was fattened up to kill; the money it made usually paid their rent to the landlord.
(all above information from the Irish Famine Museum, Strokestown, Co. Roscommon, Ireland - a must if one has an interest in such things)
Ben Kane, bestselling author of the Eagles of Rome, Spartacus and Hannibal novels.

Eagles in the Storm released in UK on March 23, 2017.
Aguilas en la tormenta saldra en 2017.


www.benkane.net
Twitter: @benkaneauthor
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#4
Let's be careful. Roman skeletal remains are pretty rare: people were usually burned back then.
Jona Lendering
Relevance is the enemy of history
My website
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