The Caveman Diet, also known as the Paleodiet or the Stone Age Diet, came to prominence in a world where carbohydrates were being proclaimed the most evil macronutrient in the world. As a historical diet (fallacy #1) with very little carbohydrate (fallacy #2) it was touted as the “natural” human diet (fallacy #3). But, I’m not going to argue the flaws in the historicity of the Paleodiet, I’m here to sell you another historical diet! Remember, you saw it here first. I give you the Gladiator Diet!

Ok, so someone already cashed in on the name, but what I give you today is the real deal.

Forget about the low carbohydrate high fat diets currently plastered all over women’s magazines and the internet. Real gladiators ate carbohydrates. They were also vegetarians. And, like modern athletes, they took micronutrient supplements.

Ancient writers like Pliny the Elder called gladiators hordearii, “barley men”, after their primary feed while training. But, before you start digging the flour out of the cupboards I must remind you that the Romans did not have white flour and there are many ways of eating grains. My personal Roman barley favourite is to make honeyed barley water and make soup or gruel out of the leftover solids. The gladiators may have eaten such common Roman dishes as barley cake, pearled barley and vegetable stew, or barley porridge.

Skeletal analysis of gladiators from Ephesus has shown that meat and fish were not likely to have been part of the local gladiator’s diet. Instead he would have eaten a wide selection of vegetables, beans and lentils, and fruits. One might argue then that perhaps this was a local necessity due to lack of meat and fish, but thankfully we have the necessary archaeological data to determine that non-gladiatorial locals were not vegetarians.

Additionally, ancient sources tell us that gladiators would concoct strange brews of ingredients such as charred wood, which has been suggested as the gladiator’s main source of calcium.

But, before we throw Atkins or South Beach out of the window we should probably ask what exactly this did to their bodies. Dr. Großschmidt who has studied the skeletons told Archaeology Magazine that gladiators probably ate this way because they needed a layer of subcutaneous fat to “protect [them] from cut wounds and shield [...] nerves and blood vessels in a fight”. Others have gone further yet and insisted that gladiators were outright fat and even obese.

This is one myth I would like to dispel before it takes root. Dr. Großschmidt makes a good point when he says that gladiators probably tried to bulk up somewhat for major fights, which could have spared major blood vessels, but it has been blown out of proportion by media and our modern day fear of carbohydrates.

While fat gladiators may have been able to survive in the theatre, their diet was not as unique as one may think. Roman legionnaires, studies have shown, ate a daily ration of nearly 80% carbohydrates, mostly from wheat and barley. The legionnaires, whom no one has called obese, needed a high energy diet of slow and complex carbohydrates for their high energy expenditure – nearly three times as much as the average modern man with a desk jobs.

As for whether the gladiators were obese, even though the legionnaires were not, because they were more sedentary I propose that we analyse some well-known ancient images of gladiators:

Click for larger view


What do you say? Are those gladiators flabby carb-munchers? Does Roman art simply give us an idealised view that wasn’t actually true to life? Should I start a diet company around this Gladiator Diet? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments section!

About the author: E P Wohlfart is a twenty-something freelance writer with a Classical Archaeology degree, a laptop and a maxed-out library card. Aside from administrating PastPresenters.com, which she started in 2008, she works with several historical publications and is a regular contributor at Suite101.