"The Gladiator Diet –
How Vegetarian Athletes Stack Up" Recently, the remains of
dozens of Roman gladiators were discovered in a mass grave. The clue to their identities
were the rather distinct types of mortal injuries they found, like being speared in
the head with a trident. Using just their skeletons
they were able to reconstruct the death blows, show just
how buff they really were, and even try to reconstruct
their diet of barley and beans. You can look at carbon isotopes and
see what kinds of plants they ate; nitrogen isotopes reflect any
intake of animal protein. You can also look at the
Sulphur in their bones and the amount of strontium,
leading commentators to submit that the best athletes
in ancient Rome ate largely plant-based diets. Then there were the legionnaires,
the Roman army troopers, famed for their abilities, also
eating a similar kind of diet, suggesting “the best fighters
in the ancient world were essentially vegetarian.” So, if the so-called
perfect fighting machines, the great sports heroes of the day,
were eating mostly grains and beans, should that tell us anything
about sports nutrition and the preferred diets
of elite athletes? Well, most of the Greeks and
Romans were basically vegetarian, centering their diets around
grains, fruit, vegetables and beans, so maybe the gladiators’ diets
weren’t that remarkable.

Plato, for example, pushed
plants, preferring plant foods for their health and efficiency. So yes, the Roman gladiators
were known as the ‘‘barley men,’’ but is that because barley
gives you strength and stamina, or was that just the basic food
that people ate at the time, not necessarily for performance,
but because it was just so cheap? Well, if you look at the modern
Spartans, the Tarahumara Indians, the ones that run races where
they kick a ball for oh, 75 miles just for the fun of it,
running all day, all night, and all day, maybe 150 miles
if they’re feeling in the mood. What do you get if you win? A special popularity with the ladies
(although how much of a reward that would actually prove to be
for a man who had been running for two days straight is questionable; though, maybe their endurance
extends to other dimensions). “Probably not since the
days of the ancient Spartans has a people achieved such a high
state of extreme physical conditioning.” And what did they eat? The same kind of 75 to
80 percent starch diet based on beans, corn, and squash. And, they had the cholesterol
levels to prove it, total cholesterol levels down at an
essentially heart attack proof 136.

And it’s not just some
special genetics they have— you feed them enough egg yolks and
their cholesterol creeps right up. Modern day Olympian runners
eat the same stuff. What are they eating over there in Kenya? A 99 percent vegetarian diet centered
mostly around various starches. But as in all these cases, is
their remarkable physical prowess because of their diets, or
in spite of their diets? Or have nothing to do with their diets? You don’t know…until
you put it to the test.

In spite of well-documented health
benefits of more plant-based diets, less is known regarding the effects
of these diets on athletic performance. So, they compared elite vegetarian
and omnivore endurance athletes for aerobic fitness and strength. So, comparing oxygen
utilization on the treadmill, and quad strength with leg extensions. And the vegetarians beat out
their omnivore counterparts for cardiorespiratory fitness,
but their strength didn’t differ. Suggesting, in the very least,
that vegetarian diets don’t compromise athletic performance. But this was a cross-sectional study. Maybe the veg athletes were just
fitter because they trained harder? Like in the National Runners' Health Study looking at thousands of runners:
vegetarian runners were recorded running significantly
more on a weekly basis; so, maybe that explains
their superior fitness.

Though, maybe their superior fitness
explains their greater distances. Other cross-sectional studies
have found no differences in physical fitness between
vegetarian and non-vegetarian athletes, or even worse performance, as in this
study of vegetarian athletes in India. Of course, there could be socioeconomic
or other confounding factors. That’s why we need interventional
studies to put different diets to the test and then compare
physical performance, which we’ll explore next..

Video Transcript – As found on YouTube

"The First Studies on Vegetarian Athletes" In 1896, the aptly named
James Parsley evidently led a successful vegetarian
cycling club to victory, their competitors evidently having
to "eat crow with their beef." Evidently some Belgian
put it to the test in 1904, with those eating more plant-based
supposedly lifting some weight like 80 percent more times, but I couldn't find the
primary source in English. This I could find though: a famous
series of experiments at Yale, published more than a century ago, on the
influence of flesh-eating on endurance. Forty-nine people were compared:
regular athletes (mostly Yale students), vegetarian athletes, and then
just sedentary vegetarians. "The experiment furnished a severe test
of the claims of those flesh-abstainers." Much to the researchers' surprise,
the results seemed to vindicate the vegetarians, suggesting that
not eating meat leads to far greater endurance compared to those accustomed
to the ordinary American diet.

Check it out: the first endurance test was
how many minutes straight you could hold out your arms horizontally:
flesh-eaters versus flesh abstainers. The regular Yale athletes were
able to keep their hands out for about 10 minutes on average. It's harder than it sounds;
give it a try… OK, but those eating vegetarian
did like five times better. The meat-eater maximum was only
half that of the vegetarian average. Only two meat eaters
even hit 15 minutes, whereas more than two-thirds
of the meat-avoiders did. None of the regular diet
folks hit a half hour, whereas nearly half of
the healthier eaters did, including nine that exceeded an
hour, four that exceeded two hours, and one guy going for
more than three hours. How many deep knee
bends can you do? One athlete could do more
than 1,000—averaging 383— but they got creamed even
by the sedentary plant-eaters.

That's the crazy thing; even
the sedentary abstainers surpassed the exercising flesh-eaters. The sedentary abstainers were, in most cases, physicians
who sat on their butts all day. I want a doctor that that can do
a thousand deep knee bends! And then in terms of recovery, all those
deep knee bends left everyone sore, but more so among those eating meat. Among the vegetarians, of two that
did like 2,000 knee bends, one went straight off to the track to run and
another went on to their nursing duties. On the other hand, among the
meat-eaters one guy reached 254, went down once more and couldn't
get back up, had to be carried away, and was incapacitated for days; another
impaired for weeks after fainting.

It may be inferred without reasonable
doubt, concluded the once skeptical Yale researcher, that the meat-eating
group of athletes was very far inferior in endurance to the vegetarians,
even the sedentary ones. What could account for
this remarkable difference? Some claimed that flesh foods contained
some kind of "fatigue poisons," but one German researcher who detailed
his own experiments with athletes offered a more prosaic answer.
In his book on what looks like physiological studies of
uber-driving vegetarians— I told you I only know English— he conjectured that the apparent
vegetarian superiority was just due to their tremendous determination
to prove their point and spread their propaganda,
so they just make a greater effort in any contest than do
their meat-eating rivals.

The Yale researchers were worried
about this, and so special pains were taken to stimulate the flesh-eaters
to the utmost, appealing to their college pride. Don't let those lousy
vegetarians beat the "Yale spirit." The experiments made it
into The New York Times. Yale's flesh-eating athletes—
sounds like a zombie movie— beaten in severe endurance tests.
Yale professor believes that he has shown definitely the inferiority
in strength and endurance tests of meat eaters compared to
those who do not eat meat.

Some of Yale's most successful
athletes took part in the strength tests, and Professor Fisher declares they
were obliged to admit their inferiority. How has the truth of this result
been so long obscured? One reason, Professor Fisher
suggested, is that vegetarians are their own worst enemy.
In their fanaticism, they jump from the premise that meat eating
is wrong—often based on scripture or some kind of dogma—and jump
from that to meat-eating is unhealthy. That's not how science works
and such logical leaps get them dismissed as zealots and prevent
any genuine scientific investigation. Lots of science, even back then,
was pointing a distinct trend towards more plant-based eating,
and yet the word vegetarian— even 110 years ago—had
such a bad, preachy rap that many were loath to concede
the science in its favor. The proper scientific attitude is to study
the question of meat-eating in precisely the same manner as one would
study the question of anything else.

Video Transcript – As found on YouTube

"The Gladiator Diet –
How Vegetarian Athletes Stack Up" Recently, the remains of
dozens of Roman gladiators were discovered in a mass grave. The clue to their identities
were the rather distinct types of mortal injuries they found, like being speared in
the head with a trident. Using just their skeletons
they were able to reconstruct the death blows, show just
how buff they really were, and even try to reconstruct
their diet of barley and beans. You can look at carbon isotopes and
see what kinds of plants they ate; nitrogen isotopes reflect any
intake of animal protein.

You can also look at the
Sulphur in their bones and the amount of strontium,
leading commentators to submit that the best athletes
in ancient Rome ate largely plant-based diets. Then there were the legionnaires,
the Roman army troopers, famed for their abilities, also
eating a similar kind of diet, suggesting “the best fighters
in the ancient world were essentially vegetarian.” So, if the so-called
perfect fighting machines, the great sports heroes of the day,
were eating mostly grains and beans, should that tell us anything
about sports nutrition and the preferred diets
of elite athletes? Well, most of the Greeks and
Romans were basically vegetarian, centering their diets around
grains, fruit, vegetables and beans, so maybe the gladiators’ diets
weren’t that remarkable.

Plato, for example, pushed
plants, preferring plant foods for their health and efficiency. So yes, the Roman gladiators
were known as the ‘‘barley men,’’ but is that because barley
gives you strength and stamina, or was that just the basic food
that people ate at the time, not necessarily for performance,
but because it was just so cheap? Well, if you look at the modern
Spartans, the Tarahumara Indians, the ones that run races where
they kick a ball for oh, 75 miles just for the fun of it,
running all day, all night, and all day, maybe 150 miles
if they’re feeling in the mood. What do you get if you win? A special popularity with the ladies
(although how much of a reward that would actually prove to be
for a man who had been running for two days straight is questionable; though, maybe their endurance
extends to other dimensions). “Probably not since the
days of the ancient Spartans has a people achieved such a high
state of extreme physical conditioning.” And what did they eat? The same kind of 75 to
80 percent starch diet based on beans, corn, and squash.

And, they had the cholesterol
levels to prove it, total cholesterol levels down at an
essentially heart attack proof 136. And it’s not just some
special genetics they have— you feed them enough egg yolks and
their cholesterol creeps right up. Modern day Olympian runners
eat the same stuff. What are they eating over there in Kenya? A 99 percent vegetarian diet centered
mostly around various starches. But as in all these cases, is
their remarkable physical prowess because of their diets, or
in spite of their diets? Or have nothing to do with their diets? You don’t know…until
you put it to the test. In spite of well-documented health
benefits of more plant-based diets, less is known regarding the effects
of these diets on athletic performance. So, they compared elite vegetarian
and omnivore endurance athletes for aerobic fitness and strength. So, comparing oxygen
utilization on the treadmill, and quad strength with leg extensions. And the vegetarians beat out
their omnivore counterparts for cardiorespiratory fitness,
but their strength didn’t differ. Suggesting, in the very least,
that vegetarian diets don’t compromise athletic performance. But this was a cross-sectional study. Maybe the veg athletes were just
fitter because they trained harder? Like in the National Runners' Health Study looking at thousands of runners:
vegetarian runners were recorded running significantly
more on a weekly basis; so, maybe that explains
their superior fitness.

Though, maybe their superior fitness
explains their greater distances. Other cross-sectional studies
have found no differences in physical fitness between
vegetarian and non-vegetarian athletes, or even worse performance, as in this
study of vegetarian athletes in India. Of course, there could be socioeconomic
or other confounding factors. That’s why we need interventional
studies to put different diets to the test and then compare
physical performance, which we’ll explore next..

Video Transcript – As found on YouTube

"The First Studies on Vegetarian Athletes" In 1896, the aptly named
James Parsley evidently led a successful vegetarian
cycling club to victory, their competitors evidently having
to "eat crow with their beef." Evidently some Belgian
put it to the test in 1904, with those eating more plant-based
supposedly lifting some weight like 80 percent more times, but I couldn't find the
primary source in English. This I could find though: a famous
series of experiments at Yale, published more than a century ago, on the
influence of flesh-eating on endurance. Forty-nine people were compared:
regular athletes (mostly Yale students), vegetarian athletes, and then
just sedentary vegetarians.

"The experiment furnished a severe test
of the claims of those flesh-abstainers." Much to the researchers' surprise,
the results seemed to vindicate the vegetarians, suggesting that
not eating meat leads to far greater endurance compared to those accustomed
to the ordinary American diet. Check it out: the first endurance test was
how many minutes straight you could hold out your arms horizontally:
flesh-eaters versus flesh abstainers. The regular Yale athletes were
able to keep their hands out for about 10 minutes on average. It's harder than it sounds;
give it a try… OK, but those eating vegetarian
did like five times better. The meat-eater maximum was only
half that of the vegetarian average. Only two meat eaters
even hit 15 minutes, whereas more than two-thirds
of the meat-avoiders did. None of the regular diet
folks hit a half hour, whereas nearly half of
the healthier eaters did, including nine that exceeded an
hour, four that exceeded two hours, and one guy going for
more than three hours.

How many deep knee
bends can you do? One athlete could do more
than 1,000—averaging 383— but they got creamed even
by the sedentary plant-eaters. That's the crazy thing; even
the sedentary abstainers surpassed the exercising flesh-eaters. The sedentary abstainers were, in most cases, physicians
who sat on their butts all day. I want a doctor that that can do
a thousand deep knee bends! And then in terms of recovery, all those
deep knee bends left everyone sore, but more so among those eating meat. Among the vegetarians, of two that
did like 2,000 knee bends, one went straight off to the track to run and
another went on to their nursing duties. On the other hand, among the
meat-eaters one guy reached 254, went down once more and couldn't
get back up, had to be carried away, and was incapacitated for days; another
impaired for weeks after fainting. It may be inferred without reasonable
doubt, concluded the once skeptical Yale researcher, that the meat-eating
group of athletes was very far inferior in endurance to the vegetarians,
even the sedentary ones.

What could account for
this remarkable difference? Some claimed that flesh foods contained
some kind of "fatigue poisons," but one German researcher who detailed
his own experiments with athletes offered a more prosaic answer.
In his book on what looks like physiological studies of
uber-driving vegetarians— I told you I only know English— he conjectured that the apparent
vegetarian superiority was just due to their tremendous determination
to prove their point and spread their propaganda,
so they just make a greater effort in any contest than do
their meat-eating rivals. The Yale researchers were worried
about this, and so special pains were taken to stimulate the flesh-eaters
to the utmost, appealing to their college pride. Don't let those lousy
vegetarians beat the "Yale spirit." The experiments made it
into The New York Times. Yale's flesh-eating athletes—
sounds like a zombie movie— beaten in severe endurance tests.
Yale professor believes that he has shown definitely the inferiority
in strength and endurance tests of meat eaters compared to
those who do not eat meat. Some of Yale's most successful
athletes took part in the strength tests, and Professor Fisher declares they
were obliged to admit their inferiority.

How has the truth of this result
been so long obscured? One reason, Professor Fisher
suggested, is that vegetarians are their own worst enemy.
In their fanaticism, they jump from the premise that meat eating
is wrong—often based on scripture or some kind of dogma—and jump
from that to meat-eating is unhealthy. That's not how science works
and such logical leaps get them dismissed as zealots and prevent
any genuine scientific investigation. Lots of science, even back then,
was pointing a distinct trend towards more plant-based eating,
and yet the word vegetarian— even 110 years ago—had
such a bad, preachy rap that many were loath to concede
the science in its favor. The proper scientific attitude is to study
the question of meat-eating in precisely the same manner as one would
study the question of anything else.

Video Transcript – As found on YouTube

“” The Gladiator Diet plan –
Just How Vegan Athletes Pile Up” “Lately, the remains of
dozens of Roman gladiators were discovered in a mass grave. The idea to their identifications
were the instead distinctive sorts of temporal injuries they found, like being speared in
the head with a trident. Utilizing simply their skeletal systems
they were able to rebuild the fatality blows, show just
just how lover they really were, and also attempt to rebuild
their diet regimen of barley and beans. You can take a look at carbon isotopes and
see what sort of plants they consumed; nitrogen isotopes mirror any kind of
consumption of animal healthy protein. You can also consider the
Sulphur in their bones and the amount of strontium,
leading commentators to send that the very best professional athletes
in ancient Rome consumed mostly plant-based diet regimens. After that there were the legionnaires,
the Roman army troopers, famed for their abilities, likewise
eating a comparable kind of diet, recommending “the most effective boxers
in the old globe were basically vegan.” So, if the so-called
perfect battling makers, the excellent sporting activities heroes of the day,
were eating primarily grains and beans, need to that tell us anything
about sporting activities nutrition and the preferred diet plans
of elite professional athletes? Well, a lot of the Greeks and
Romans were primarily vegan, focusing their diet plans about
grains, fruit, vegetables and beans, so perhaps the gladiators’ diet regimens
weren’t that remarkable.Plato, for instance

, pressed
plants, liking plant foods for their health and wellness and performance. So yes, the Roman gladiators
were referred to as the “barley guys,” however is that since barley
gives you stamina and stamina, or was that just the fundamental food
that people ate at the moment, not necessarily for performance,
however since it was simply so affordable? Well, if you take a look at the contemporary
Spartans, the Tarahumara Indians, the ones that run races where
they kick a sphere for oh, 75 miles just for the fun of it,
running all day, all evening, and all day, perhaps 150 miles
if they’re feeling in the mood.What do you

get if you win? A special appeal with the ladies
( although just how much of a benefit that would really prove to be
for a male who had actually been running for 2 days right is suspicious; though, perhaps their endurance
prolongs to other dimensions). “Probably not considering that the
days of the ancient Spartans has a people accomplished such a high
state of extreme physical fitness.” And what did they consume? The exact same type of 75 to
80 percent starch diet plan based upon beans, corn, and squash.And, they had the cholesterol
degrees to prove it, complete cholesterol levels down at an
basically heart attack evidence 136. And it’s not just some
special genetics they have– you feed them enough egg yolks and
their cholesterol creeps right up. Modern Olympian runners
consume the same stuff. What are they eating over there in Kenya? A 99 percent vegan diet focused
primarily around various starches. Yet as in all these instances, is
their remarkable physical expertise since of their diet plans, or
in spite of their diet plans? Or have absolutely nothing to do with their diet plans? You don’t understand … up until.
you place it to the test.In spite

of well-documented health and wellness.
benefits of even more plant-based diet plans, less is recognized regarding the results.
of these diets on sports performance. So, they compared elite vegetarian.
and omnivore endurance athletes for aerobic health and fitness and toughness. So, contrasting oxygen.
application on the treadmill, and quad toughness with leg extensions. And the vegetarians beat out.
their omnivore counterparts for cardiorespiratory fitness,.
however their strength really did not vary. Recommending, in the extremely least,.
that vegan diets don’t endanger sports efficiency. However this was a cross-sectional research study. Perhaps the veg professional athletes were simply.
fitter since they educated harder? Like in the National Runners' ' Health and wellness Study checking out thousands of runners:.
vegetarian runners were recorded running substantially.
more on a weekly basis; so, maybe that describes.
their premium physical fitness. Though, perhaps their remarkable fitness.
clarifies their better ranges. Other cross-sectional research studies.
have discovered no distinctions in fitness in between.
vegetarian and non-vegetarian professional athletes, or perhaps worse efficiency, as in this.
study of vegetarian professional athletes in India.Of program

, there could be socioeconomic.
or various other confounding elements. That’s why we require interventional.
studies to place various diet regimens to the test and after that compare.
physical efficiency, which we’ll discover following.

As found on YouTube

“” The First Studies on Vegetarian Athletes”” In 1896, the aptly named
James Parsley seemingly led a successful vegetarian
biking club to success, their competitors seemingly having
to “” consume crow with their beef.”” Evidently some Belgian
place it to the test in 1904, with those consuming extra plant-based
apparently raising some weight like 80 percent much more times, however I couldn'' t locate the key resource in English. This I can find though: a renowned series of experiments at Yale, released greater than a century ago, on the
impact of flesh-eating on endurance. Forty-nine people were contrasted: routine professional athletes (mostly Yale trainees), vegan professional athletes, and then just sedentary vegetarians. “” The experiment furnished a serious examination of the claims of those flesh-abstainers.”” Much to the researchers' ' shock, the outcomes appeared to justify the vegetarians, recommending that not consuming meat brings about far greater endurance contrasted to those accustomed to the average American diet.Check it out

: the very first endurance test was the number of minutes straight you could hold up your arms flat: flesh-eaters versus flesh abstainers. The routine Yale professional athletes were able to maintain their hands out for about 10 mins generally. It'' s more difficult than it sounds; provide it a try … OK, yet those consuming
vegetarian simulated five times better. The meat-eater maximum was only fifty percent that of the vegan standard. Only two meat eaters even hit 15 mins, whereas even more than two-thirds of the meat-avoiders did. None of the routine diet regimen individuals hit a half hour, whereas virtually half of the much healthier eaters did, including nine that went beyond an hour, 4 that surpassed two hours, and one individual going with greater than 3 hours. The amount of deep knee bends can you do? One professional athlete could do more than 1,000– balancing 383– but they got creamed even by the less active plant-eaters. That'' s the insane point; also the inactive teetotalists surpassed the exercising flesh-eaters.

The inactive abstainers were, most of the times, doctors who rested on their butts all the time. I desire a doctor that that can do a thousand deep knee bends! And afterwards in terms of recuperation, all those deep knee flexes left every person sore, however a lot more so among those eating meat. Amongst the vegetarians, of two that did like 2,000 knee bends, one went directly off to the track to run and an additional took place to their nursing obligations. On the other hand, amongst the meat-eaters one individual got to 254, dropped one more time and couldn'' t. return up, needed to be lugged away, and was immobilized for days; an additional.
damaged for weeks after fainting.It may be presumed

without sensible. question, ended the once cynical Yale scientist, that the meat-eating. team of athletes was very far inferior in endurance to the vegetarians,. even the sedentary ones.
What could account for. this exceptional distinction? Some claimed that flesh foods included. some kind of “fatigue poisons,” but one German researcher who described. his own explores athletes used a more prosaic solution. In his publication on what resembles physical researches of. uber-driving vegetarians– I informed you I only know English– he judged that the obvious. vegetarian prevalence was simply because of their significant determination.
to prove their factor and spread their publicity,.
so they simply make a higher effort in any contest than do. their meat-eating opponents. The Yale researchers were worried.
concerning this, therefore special pains were taken to promote the flesh-eaters. to the utmost, interesting their college pride.Don ' t let those poor.
vegetarians beat the “Yale spirit.

” The'experiments made it
. into The New York City Times. Yale ' s meat-eating athletes–.
audios like a zombie film– defeated'in serious endurance examinations. Yale professor believes that he has actually revealed most definitely the inability. in toughness and endurance tests of meat eaters compared to.
those who do not eat meat. A few of Yale ' s most effective. athletes took part in the toughness examinations, and Teacher Fisher proclaims they. were required to confess their inability. Exactly how has the truth of this outcome.
been so long obscured? One reason, Professor Fisher. suggested, is that vegetarians are their own worst enemy. In their fanaticism, they leap from the property that meat eating. is wrong– often based upon scripture or some kind of conviction
— and jump. from that to meat-eating is harmful. That ' s not just how scientific research functions. and such logical leaps obtain them rejected as zealots and stop.
any type of authentic clinical investigation.Lots of scientific research, even back then,. was aiming a distinctive fad towards more plant-based eating,. and yet the word vegetarian– also 110 years ago– had. such a bad, preachy rap that several were hesitant to acknowledge.
the scientific research in its favor. The correct clinical mindset is to study. the concern of meat-eating in exactly the same manner as one would. research the concern of anything else
.

As found on YouTube