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A study by the UK's University of Warwick found in a study of 3,200 people between the ages of 50 and 70 that 94% suffered from vitamin D deficiency and 42% from metabololic syndrome, a range of disorders that includes heart disease and diabetes. Importantly, researchers found that these factors were linked -- the vitamin D deficiency contributed to the metabololic syndrome . Researchers stated the obvious by saying that subjects suffered from vitamin D deficiency because they didn't get enough sunshine, and because they didn't eat enough of the foods rich in vitamin D. The Spartan Diet calls for daily exposure to sunshine , and for excercising daily in the sun. The Spartan Diet also features a huge variety of vitamin D-rich foods.

Washington Post columnist Jennifer Huget wanted to find out how hard it would be to meet all the USDA's Dietary Guidelines by eating food and without supplementing with vitamin and mineral pills. She turned to a registered dietitian named Danielle Omar, who attempted to put together the actual meals necessary to meet the nutritional requirements for a "hypothetical 35-year-old, 5-foot-4-inch woman who weighs 130 pounds and exercises three times a week." I recommend that you read the article here . Here's my summary: They found it challenging and, in the end, gave the following bad advice: * "Resign yourself to eating some processed foods" * "supplementing your diet may be prudent, particularly when it comes to Vitamin D" * "consider supplementing with calcium, Omega-3 fatty acids (for cardiovascular health) and folic acid" Here's where they went wrong in their thinking, at least from a Spartan Diet perspective: 1. Exercising 3 times ...

Bread is ancient. But more ancient still is gruel, which is at minimum grain cooked in boiling water, but can include other ingredients. Gruel is nowadays called porridge, grits, hot cereal, oatmeal, oatmeal mush, porridge oats, groats, pease porridge, cream of wheat and farina, depending on region, preparation and ingredients – and that’s just in the English-speaking world. Cooked grain in a bowl is as universal to mankind as language and fire. Every country on Earth and every civilization in history had its variants. Gruel is the most ancient and universal of prepared foods, predating even bread. The ancient Greeks called it maza. It’s likely that bread evolved from gruel, discovered by accident in the same way as wine from fruit juice and cheese from milk (hey, if you leave this stuff sitting around, it gets better and easier to carry around!) Ancient Greeks probably conceptualized grain foods differently than we do. For example, they probably conceived of bread and gruel as the sam...

Today is National Peanut Butter and Jelly Day in the United States. It's not a real holiday, but a marketing gimmick invented seven years ago by Smuckers, a company that makes unhealthy industrial peanut butter and jelly. When most people think of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, they think of that staple of American youth: 1) Processed white bread filled with preservatives, sugar and chemicals; 2) peanut butter augmented by sugar, salt and trans fats; and 3) jelly, which is essentially processed juice and water, massive quantities of sugar and corn syrup all gelled into a solid with industrial pectin. The standard, junk-food version of the peanut butter and jelly sandwich weakens muscles, slows digestion and metabolism, spikes insulin, promotes fat storage, decays teeth and provides almost no nutrition. The average American child eats 1,500 of these before adulthood. The peanut butter and jelly sandwich was popularized by American G.I.s during World War II who were trying to ma...

Researchers at the University of Foggia in Italy have found that after three months of storage, extra-virgin olive oil loses none of its antioxidants, one of the qualities that makes olive oil so healthy. But after six months, oil loses about 40 percent of its antioxidants . The Spartan Diet calls for the elimination of all concentrated oils from the diet except for low-acidity, extra virgin olive oil (and organic flax seed oil) that's as fresh as possible. Unfortunately, olives are harvested annually, so it's important to store olive oil properly in a ceramic or dark-glass container in a cool, dark place.

This lecture by Professor Donald Kagan is part of a Yale course on the history of Ancient Greece posted on Academic Earth .

An eight-year study of 161,808 postmenopausal women found similar results as a study in men: that vitamin pills don't significantly reduce likelihood of cancer or heart disease. Researchers came to the obvious conclusion that people should "get nutrients from food. Whole foods are better than dietary supplements." To oversimplify the matter, there are three major reasons why vitamins have little effect. 1) fruits, vegetables and other whole foods have vitamins as just one of the health-giving ingredients, and the body needs all of them together; 2) vitamins are viewed as a substitute for fruits and vegetables, and people are eating unhealthy displacement foods instead of produce; and 3) vitamin supplements tend to be inferior to vitamins as it appears in whole foods.