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Scientists at The University of Texas Health Science Center San Antonio are experiementing with extracts from Spartan Diet foods that, when applied to the skin, may prevent skin cancer. The researchers have found that combinations that include resveratrol, found in red grapes; ellagic acid, present in berries and walnuts; and calcium D-glucarate, found in a wide variety of both fruits and vegetables have already proved effective in protecting against skin cancer, even in low quantities. Interestingly, these ingredients worked far better in combination than when each was tested by itself. The ongoing research supports previous experiements that found that right foods (all major Spartan Diet foods) can prevent skin cancer and sun damage to the skin . It also supports research conducted in Japan that found extra virgin olive oil applied to the skin after sun exposure greatly reduced skin damage and skin cancer . Interestingly, some 2,600 years ago, the Spartans started the "fad...

The ancient Spartans made a constant ally of hunger. They cultivated familiarity with hunger, and were so controlled in their diet that outsiders were shocked, horrified and amazed at how little the Spartans ate. Of course, they ate well, and generally got enough to eat. And our modern Spartan Diet involves neither deprivation nor excess. But wealthy aristocrats from Athens and elsewhere given a rare invitation to join a Spartan mess for dinner found something very different to the gluttonous, drunken symposia they were accustomed to. Spartans made an art form out of providing each person with precisely enough food to sustain health, but not a bite more. Boys in the agoge were repeatedly starved so they would become familiar with, and tolerant of, real hunger. If you can imagine hundreds of teenage boys capable of going days without food -- without complaining -- then you can imagine the Spartan agoge. The irony of Spartan hunger is that Sparta was an incredibly wealthy polis, and thei...

Brazilian researchers believe they have discovered why people who don't exercise feel hungrier than people who do. In a study conducted at the Department of Internal Medicine at the State University of Campinas in São Paulo, researchers found that "physical activity reorganizes the set point of nutritional balance through anti-inflammatory signaling," at least in the obese rats they studied. It turns out that during exercise, the muscles release key proteins that optimize the body's signaling system for hunger. Stated another way, in the unnatural condition of little to no exercise, all aspects of the body's hunger triggering system are not present, which explains in part why couch potatoes experience more intense hunger than triathletes. The Spartan Diet calls for daily exercise, and relies upon the fine-tuning of your hunger-satiety system for optimizing food quantity (instead of counting carbs or calories).

New research has discovered that in addition to health effects previously discovered, polyphenolics in berries and other whole foods actually perform "housekeeping" chores in the brain, sweeping away "biochemical debris" that causes age-related memory loss and mental decline. The research, presented by Shibu Poulose and James Joseph of the U. S. Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service (USDA-ARS) Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging in Boston, found that in younger people cells called microglia engage in a process called autophagy, which involves removing biochemical debris that would interfere with brain function . As we age, microglia slowly become less effective, the debris builds up and people experience age-related mental decline, including memory loss. The research found that the polyphenolics sustain the effectiveness of microglia, enabling them to continue protecting the brain well into old age. A wide range of foods contain these polyphen...

Extra-virgin olive oil is a wonderful thing. The "extra virgin" designation indicates the highest quality: Olive oil extracted from the first pressing that has an acid content of less than .8 percent. Organic extra-virgin olive oil is the only oil on the Spartan Diet. But there's a problem. A recent study by the University of California at Davis Olive Oil Center, in collaboration with the Australian Oils Research Laboratory, found that many products labeled as "extra virgin olive oil" in fact are not . Unlike in Europe, where the "extra-virgin" designation is defined by law, there is no enforcement of standards in the United States. Researchers found that 69 percent of imported oil labeled as "extra-virgin" in fact was not, whereas 10 percent of oils produced in California and sold as "extra virgin" were not. However, nearly all (99%) of oil labeled as extra-virgin olive oil in the United States is imported, so many American olive-...