The UK obesity crisis is again in the headlines, and ‘life-style’ is the culprit. The ancients may have come up with a different analysis.
Our word ‘diet’ derives from the ancient Greek diaita, which meant ‘way of living’ and, medically, a prescribed way of life, or regimen, especially in relation to diet for the ill. But whatever deficiencies are evident in the normal diet of the ancients, a tendency to promote obesity was not among them. Sugar was unknown (honey was the only sweetener), and fats too would have been enjoyed only on special occasions. Grain-based food was the staple (wheat, barley and emmer) with vegetables of one sort or another (beans, peas, lentils, cabbage, leek), fruits, cheese and as a treat eggs and fish, all washed down with wine. Daily life was equally non-fattening, consisting mainly of the battle against nature to grow enough to stay alive; and when one was not doing that, going to war against neighbours.
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