Why Age?

Anti-Ageing Secrets of the Mediterranean

““With the ancient is wisdom; and in the length of days understanding”
Job 12;12

What Did the Pyramid-Builders Eat?

Monument-builders, empire-makers, and hard-working farmers: the energetic members of ancient Mediterranean civilizations were relentless in their achievements and their legacy is a diet we can harness today to slow the ageing process.

Historians, engineers and scientists argue passionately about how Egypt’s pyramids were built. These architectural marvels were built with copper tools, machinery unknown and a workforce of many thousands. What we do know today is that this workforce was not in slavery. The building of the pyramids was one of the city-dwelling world’s most enduring experiments in social engineering. It was a project of immense, energetic scale harnessing meticulous organization of building materials, work teams and food supplies.

Egyptian Graffiti

Graffiti left on the blocks of most pyramids proclaim the pride work teams took in their performance. Painted in red on the inner face of blocks, the messages: “The working gang Cheops-excites-love” and “The-white-crown-of-Khnumkhufu-is-powerful” indicate workers with a certain amount of autonomy, satisfaction in their work and not a mob of starving, cowed slaves flinching under the whips of cruel overseers. Ostraca, or pottery fragments, are plentiful in digs around the pyramids and provide a snapshot of workers’ daily lives. These message slips of the ancient world show workers requested leave to bury an aunt or tend a sick donkey at home, applied for promotion and requested tools.

The ostraca also list what these tireless workers ate, and show their wrath when food supplies were not supplied on request. Animal bones found on site indicate meat was part of their diet but it was grain and vegetables that largely fuelled the construction of the world’s most amazing buildings. When leeks, radishes and garlic did not accompany the wheat these workers consumed as ta, or flat bread, these feisty gangs went on strike!

Baked Flamingos and Sows’ Udders

Across the Mediterranean on the Italian peninsular, a group of Neolithic mud and stick huts formed the embryo around which the most powerful and energetic of the ancient world’s civilizations was to grow. The culture that would unite the then known world under one language, law and currency for hundreds of years grew from peasant farmers raised on simple produce.

Of course, later jaded aristocratic palates craved baked flamingos out of which flew live thrushes when carved, stuffed sows’ udders and similar indulgences, but it is no coincidence that several of Rome’s founding families were named after the everyday foods that powered Rome’s rise. The Fabius clan honour the faba bean, the Lentullus clan the lentil, and noted politician Cicero’s name derives from ceci, or chickpea.

Here Come the Barley Men

In the arena, the bull-necked sporting superstars of their day - the gladiators - grew strong on a simple diet of barley, beans and fennel. They were known as hordiarii, or “barley men” because they ate so much of this low-status food intended for lower ranks and livestock. Interestingly, their diet is actually quite nutritious and balanced though never likely to garner chef’s hats. The protein yield is boosted by the combination of grain and legume, and the fennel provides a fresh green vegetable.

Byron’s Dacian gladiator, “Butcher’d to make a Roman holiday” faced his grisly end with courage, possibly helped by fennel. Today we know Foeniculum vulgare and its seeds aid digestion and settle the stomach, properties very useful when you are staring death in the face.

In the Roman Army legionaries outfought and out-hustled their opponents with superior weaponry, tactics, and most of all, stamina. Their tribal enemies often towered over them and sneered at these “puny men with their small hands” but were usually vanquished by them.

Legionaries carried 70 pounds of equipment, marched at a frantic pace, dug extensive defensive stockades at the end of 30 to 50 kilometre hauls, and fought long battles on top of it all. Surely these guys ate a cow each at the end of their torrid days?

Nope. When a Roman consul was unable to supply his troops with the grain they craved and gave them oxen to slaughter and barbeque instead, he nearly had a riot on his hands. They preferred their wheat porridge flavoured with a little of the bacon and sharp cheese they carried, supplemented by whatever vegetables they could forage. Soldiers who misbehaved or did not fight to sufficient standard were punished by being slipped down the grain ranks and fed what the pack mules were given - you guessed it - barley.

Of course, pyramid builders and Roman soldiers did not usually live long lives but they showed amazing energy during their short, hazardous lives, unprotected from disease and misadventure by the medicines and comforts of today.

Minotaurs, Atlantis and Long-Lived Islanders

Elsewhere in the Mediterranean, a society of people live long, healthy lives based on the diet of their forbears and encapsulate the benefits of a Mediterranean diet for longevity.

The rocky island of Crete is a place where tradition permeates, especially when it comes to food. Modern Cretan cuisine closely resembles the diet of the Minoan culture which gives us the enduring legends of the Minotaur and Atlantis. It’s likely that the apocalyptic volcanic eruption that destroyed the capital Knossos and spelled the decline of the Minoans in the 17th Century BC also spawned myths of islanders destroyed by nature and sent to the sea bottom to live on in a sub-aquatic existence.

People have lived there for almost 9000 years: a cultural longevity no doubt underpinned by the fertile soil and a healthy diet. In 1956 Dr Ansel Keys began a fifteen-year study of seven countries that compared mortality indices related to cardiovascular disease and cancer. The inhabitants of Crete had the lowest incidences of these diseases per 1000 head of population.

Studies Show… Cretan People Live Longer

A 10-year follow up study by the World Health Organisation in 1987 compared rates of general mortality across numerous countries and once again Crete scored the lowest mortality.

Just to prove the link between the Cretan Diet and longevity was no fluke, a French study divided patients with heart disease into two groups. The control group was put on the low-fat diet recommended by the US Society of Cardiology and the other on the good old Cretan diet. After two years, the Cretan group were not only in better shape but their mortality rate had dropped by 75%!

By now you are probably keen to sink your teeth into some Cretan nosh, so what does it entail?

Pretty much the same ingredients that kept pyramid builders, Roman soldiers and ancient Olympic athletes vigorous. Fruit and vegetables top the list, followed by grains and legumes (beans, lentils, chickpeas), cheese (usually a soft, low-fat homemade variety), and the famous Cretan wine. Lots of herbs infuse Cretan cuisine with flavour.

Sweets are made with honey and grape-juice syrup. Meat? Like their ancestors, most traditional Cretans only consumed it several times a year during festivals, the wealthy once per week.

Most traditional, pre-industrial diets rest on three pillars of foundation foods. Meso-America had maize, beans and squash; Polynesia coconut, breadfruit and taro; the Mediterranean the grape, the fig and the olive.

It’s to these foundation foods we should turn today for anti-ageing nutrition.

Take a Pill Instead

Our modern society turns to the pharmaceutical industry to cure us of so many of the ills that reduce our life span; smoking, stress, overweight, alcohol and drug abuse. We rely on food supplements to plug the gaps in our inadequate industrialised diet. The alternative therapies industry earns huge amounts from us in our quest for health.

We spend so much money ridding ourselves of the pernicious trappings of the modern world yet we overlook a simple, low-cost and delicious means of achieving the same goals; namely the rejection of Franken foods in favour of time-honoured, humble foods that help a small island’s population to consistently top longevity studies.

Your future lies on the plate before you at meal times. What do you see?