Comments on: Gladiators were vegetarian carbo-loaders

By: brian

brian — Sat, 22 Jan 2011 07:30:13 +0000

I just stumbled across this blog looking for stuff on gladiators. I find it funny that the writer assumes high carb diets make someone fat. As a college athlete a few years ago I can tell you how important high carb diets are for athletes as you need the energy (so are high calorie diets for that matter). To say gladiators were fat can’t even be considered a nomenclature error. Olympic sprinters require high carb diets for energy as much is needed, yet they’re not fat (funny how that works isn’t it?). I find it hard to believe that many gladiators would’ve been fat considering their rigorous training. High carb diets do not lead to weight gaining as they’re for energy, high calorie is another story however. You can do simple google searches and discover that high carb diets are not weight gaining diets. Anyways, thought I’d point that out as it somewhat casts a confusing shadow over our perceptions of what gladiators must’ve been like.

By: livius drusus

livius drusus — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 02:42:41 +0000

I’m not sure what modern bias you mean exactly, but perhaps the paleo-pathologists overstated the case, or used “fat” in a colloquial way to indicate gladiators were probably not skin and sinew like they are in the movies today.

By: Lance

Lance — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 12:27:37 +0000

Why do they think gladiators were fat? Wouldn’t they burn off calories with their extensive exercise? Modern vegetarian athletes like Carl Lewis are not fat and none of the ancient images of gladiators show them as fat. Perhaps they were just “carb loading” for energy on a grand scale. The ‘fat’ characterization seems more a modern bias and not based on evidence.

By: livius drusus

livius drusus — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 14:45:04 +0000

You’re too good to me.

By: Mr Lemming

Mr Lemming — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 21:39:05 +0000

I like the convoluted! Huzzah for tangents!