sutton067

In a previous post, we pointed out that monks on Mount Athos, who eat something similar to the Spartan Diet , never get Alzheimer's, which suggests that Alzheimer's is made far worse by diet . New research at Canada's University of Laval has found that mice fed a diet rich in animal fat and poor in omega-3 showed amyloid-beta and tau protein concentrations 8.7 and 1.5 times higher than the control group mice, respectively. These proteins are associated with Alzheimer's. They also found that high-fat diets reduced the levels of drebrin protein in the brain, which is another sign of Alzheimer's. One co-author of the study told a reporter that "metabolic changes induced by such a diet could affect the inflammatory response in the brain." It's likely that as more research emerges on the causes of Alzheimer's, it will increasingly be understood to be a lifestyle disease like most diabetes and cancers, totally preventable by simply eating a healthy diet....

The Spartan Diet is obsessed with the qualitative aspect of food. Most diets, and in fact the whole of our health food culture, focuses on categorical distinctions between different kinds of foods. For example, the idea that olive oil is "good for you" has seeped into mainstream conventional wisdom. But that notion is only potentially true. The Spartan Diet emphasizes the quality of olive oil, not just the category. Non-organic, refined olive oil, and olive oil heated to an excessive temperature while cooking, isn't all that healthy. First cold pressed (extra-virgin), low-acidity olive oil is the very best kind, and the only kind we recommend. And the Spartan Diet calls for keeping olive oil below it's " smoke point " -- the temperature at which the oil begins to break down from the heat and becomes less healthful. This obsession with quality over category is part of the Spartan Diet revolution in how we think about food -- and should be applied to every sin...

Healthcare is a big topic in the current presidential race, and the debate centers largely around who pays for health insurance. But that's not the biggest problem. Americans spend more than twice as much on healthcare as the number-two national spender, but is ranked 42nd in life expectancy . We spend a fortune on healthcare, but how many people do you know who have "health"? The stark truth is that Americans spend their entire lives damaging health with processed junk food, then try to counteract the effects of their food choices with expensive drugs that further damage health. So while politicians blather endlessly about who's going to pay America's $2.3 trillion annual healthcare bill, nobody's talking about the food that makes us so damned sick. Do yourself a favor and don't wait for politicians, insurance companies, your doctor or anybody else to take responsibility for your health. It's up to you.

Thucidides asked, "How will the men of the future realize the glory of Sparta from its Ruins?" The answer to that question turns out to be: through reputation. Famous battles, including the Battle of Thermopylae in which 300 Spartans (and a few hundred allies and slaves) held off the mighty Persian invasion for an entire week, and killed some 22,000 in the process, helped build Sparta's awesome reputation, which lives on to this day. When we think about the Spartans, we think of military prowess. But this is an outsider's view. It's true that the whole of Spartan society was mobilized for winning battles. But why? What were they fighting for? A useful way to understand Spartan culture is to focus on the radical transformation of Spartan culture that resulted from radical reforms enacted during the 7th century BC -- new laws and rules created to eliminate corrupting influences that were thought to weaken Spartan citizens. This historically unprecedented innovation...

Nearly three millennia ago -- somewhere between 776 BC (also the year of the first Olympic Games) and 710 BC, five little towns on the bank of the Eurotas River on the beautiful and fertile Laconian plain in Western Greece organized themselves into one of the most extraordinary societies in the history of mankind. They called themselves Dorians (a tribal or quasi-ethnic distinction), Lacedaemonians (the proper name of their "city state"), or Homoioi (translated as "Similars." We know them as Spartans. Democracy, philosophy, engineering, trade and the arts -- as well as slavery and military conquest -- provided many ordinary Greek citizens with something historically rare -- leisure time, personal freedom and plenty to eat. Although many Greeks lived happy and fulfilling lives, the threat of war and slavery was ever present. The external threat to Greeks was real and palpable -- defeat in war could mean slavery for the citizenry and the permanent destruction of their...

"Lycurgus, the [Spartan] lawgiver, wishing to recall the citizens from the mode of living then existent, and to lead them to a more sober and temperate order of life, and to render them good and honorable men (for they were living a soft life), reared two puppies of the same litter; and one he accustomed to dainty food, and allowed it to stay in the house; the other he took afield and trained in hunting. Later he brought them into the public assembly and put down some bones and dainty food and let loose a hare. Each of the dogs made for that to which it was accustomed, and, when the one of them had overpowered the hare, he said, 'You see, fellow-citizens, that these dogs belong to the same stock, but by virtue of the discipline to which they have been subjected they have turned out utterly different from each other, and you also see that training is more effective than nature for good…. So also in our case, fellow-citizens, noble birth, so admired of the multitude, and our bei...