Atherosclerosis and diet in ancient Egypt

http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140673610602942/fulltext?rss=yes

“The palaeopathological evidence can now be examined in conjunction with ancient texts to provide further insight into the occurrence of the disease among the ancient Egyptian elite. We have undertaken a new translation of hieroglyphic inscriptions on Egyptian temple walls that give details of the food offered daily to the gods. Since this food was subsequently eaten by the priests and their families, the inscriptions also provide details of their dietary habits. This has enabled an estimation of the fat content to be made. Interpretation of the hieroglyphs indicates that the diet consisted mainly of beef, wildfowl, bread, fruit, vegetables, cake, wine, and beer. Many of these food items would obviously have contributed to an intake of saturated fat, and our analyses of the individual meat and wildfowl they consumed would demonstrate that all provided greater than 35% of energy from fat. Goose, which was commonly consumed, contains around 63% energy from fat with 20% being saturated, while the bread that was eaten differed from that consumed today, often being enriched with fat, milk, and eggs. The cakes were typically made with animal fat or oil. Although it is difficult to calculate exactly how much was consumed in terms of portion size, variance in food storage, preparation, and cooking methods, it is still evident from a conservative estimate that the dietary energy was more than 50% from fat with a significant portion of this coming from saturated fat. Other components of the diet may have also increased the risk of cardiovascular disease: fruit and vegetables in addition to a reduction in fat intake are thought to play a key role in prevention. Current recommendations state that the daily energy intake should contain no more than 25—30% fat in total, with the saturated fat being less than 7% of this amount. It is difficult to establish whether the dietary intake of priests achieved this amount. Moreover, Egyptian priests consumed little fish, and while oily fish is a major source of omega 3 fatty acids, which are also advocated in cardiovascular disease prevention, it is unlikely that the intake would have achieved anything like that required. Finally, salt intake is likely to have been high, because it was often used as a preservative. Similarly alcohol, known to increase triglyceride levels, was a common feature of the diet and the intake would probably have exceeded today’s recommendations.”

Very convenient…..

Weston Price did study African Tribes, but nowhere in his excellent treatise does he comment on anything besides physical stature, as well as the development of dental arches and caries in various tribes (please go back and read Chapter 9 of Nutrition and Physical Degeneration). He concludes that those tribes who live on traditional ethnic diets (even the grain based ones), have much better dentition than those who ate modern diets. The meat and dairy heavy tribes (who also ate cereals btw) did tend to have an even lesser rate of caries formation, but no mention is made of cardiac and chronic diseases, or longevity.

Yes, you can blame grain based diets on everything, but cannot ignore that whole food, grain based diets have actually been shown to REVERSE existing heart disease as well as diabetes in prospective scientific studies. I am not aware of any similar trials with Paleolithic diets.

There is a growing body of evidence suggesting that excess protein intake, especially with methionine rich protein (ie, animal proteins), negatively effect longevity. For more data, please look up the research being performed at Washington University in Saint Louis (Luigi Fontana, et al).

I will not be surprised if diets that advocate consumption of such high levels of protein will in the long term be proved dangerous.

Also interesting is that, off the top of his head, he named the foods that were known to make you fat: cakes, pies, candies, cookies. Notice he does NOT list eggs, bacon, butter, cheese, etc. This confirms Gary Taubes’ claim that it was fairly common knowledge pre-1970s that carb foods, especially refined carb foods, were what makes a person fat, as seen in this video: http://www.diabetesnewsstand.com/video/promo.wmv. By the way, I point out fatness because it is well established that obesity “increases the risk” for all the other diseases of metabolic syndrome. Of course, what they don’t tell you is that they correlate because they are caused by the same underlying disorder- insulin resistance.

First of all, there is nothing BAD about lard, tallow, or meats. Many primitive and healthy societies favored the fat the most- see http://www.westonaprice.org. Bone records (and cave paintings) will tell you that the primary and healthiest diet of humans was meat. To boot, skelletal construction and health always took a sharp nosedive in cultures that turned agricultural. According to Michael Eades, “It takes a physical anthropologist about two seconds to look at a skeleton unearthed from an archeological site to tell if the owner of that skeleton was a hunter-gatherer or an agriculturist.” Humans also did not restrict themselves in how much they ate, and by all accounts food was in abundance for hunter-gatherers. On these unshakable historical foundations, I refuse to believe that any health problem, including obseity, is caused by dietary fat or overeating.

Of course, then you get people like Jack Lalanne, who has been on a low fat diet, probably since the 70s, and has even dabbled in vegetarianism, though he usually at least eats fish and egg whites (http://www.shareguide.com/LaLanne.html). I can’t really explain these cases. The best I can say is that at least he put down sugar in the 1950s, correctly accusing it as the thing that makes people fat, and recommends meat and eggs for breakfast (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJVEPB_l8FU).

Sure, exercise is good- Michael Eades says in Protein Power how it increases sensitivity to human growth hormone- but implying the common misperception that people get fat because they are lazy is not only wrong, it can actually be dangerous. Studies often show that people do not lose a significant amount of weight through exercise (unless they simultaneously starve themselves). See http://www.fathead-movie.com/index.php/2009/08/05/guest-post-exercise-bologna/. People either become discouraged and quit, or push themselves continuously harder, which is not natural and damages the body. We hear reports of people like Jim Fixx, author of “The Complete Book of Running”, dying of a heart attack while jogging. And I’m sure there are plenty of people who are moderately active and still get fat and have heart attacks. It’s not a matter of simply getting a sweat going. Gary Taubes gives some examples of societies that were poor and had lots of physical labor to do, but were still fat in “Good Calories, Bad Calories”.

I don’t know enough about the subject of the Egyptians myself, but I got somewhere the impression that these afflictions affected all class levels. I know at least from the bones that severe dental problems affected all class levels, and I’m not so sure that the only mummies we have are from the wealthy, or that the upper class got NO exercise, or that they actually ate that much meat or fats.

As for the Romans, I’ve heard that they were also issued rations of cod liver oil, and made sauerkraut from cabbage along their routes- no doubt these were keys to their success. I have also wondered about the paradox of a few of Weston Price’s cultures (Gaelics and Swiss) eating relatively high amount of carbs (though still lots of saturated fat from butter and cheese), and yet were prefectly healthy. But don’t try to imply that beans and rice are equal to, much less healthier than, a steak- based on human evolution this makes no sense.

I know what you mean when you say that it’s really “simple”- it often seems like the desire to live, have fun, and be active does more amazing things for health than diet ever could. But these are the people that you notice- you don’t notice all the people who are impeded by their health. I can’t really say what the truth is. As Gary Taubes argues, perhaps people don’t get fat or tired due to lack of effort, but instead lose their will because they got fat or tired.

By the way, in older days, the “diseases of the rich” were probably not caused by meat or alcohol, but white flour and sugar, which were not available to the lower class for quite a while (alcohol was plenty available to all classes). In the first half of the 1900s, fructose was firmly established to be a factor in gout, but they don’t tell you that these days. And sugar is half fructose. Fructose is also what they use to INDUCE insulin resistance in laboratory animals. High insulin causes the kidneys to retain uric acid. It’s true that uric acid is a by product of high protein foods like meat, but normally the kidneys would have no problem filtering it out of the blood. Once again, high insulin screws everything up. Read about it here: http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/2009/10/05/gout/.

It is quite simple really, the upper class were fat, lazy and rich. Especially the kings and queens eat allot of meat, tallow, lard, meats and carbohydrates in the form of grains and got very little or even NO daily, heart pumping, cardiovascular physical activity. Physical labor or exerting oneself or breaking a sweat was seen as lower class work.

The major means of getting about was, not surprisingly, by foot. The upper class were transported around by carrying-chairs and in chariots, rafts, boats.

It has been shown time and time and time again in medical studies and in real life how daily, heart pumping cardiovascular exercise can reduce or help to eliminate heart disease, and other diseases and the lack of it can cause it.

From the research that I have done, I personally believe the Egyptians had heart disease because of their rich diet and lack of heart pumping, challenging, cardiovascular exercise

Take the Roman men for example: They are allot of barley and were called “Barley Men” but were physically fit, strong despite their high grain consumption. Many men fought in the army well into their senior years. The difference here is that they got allot of cardiovascular exercise.

Modern day examples would include Mr. Jack Lalanne. He ate a very healthy diet including whole grains (probably not as much as the egyptians did though), but DID NOT eat lard, tallow, rich diet with meats like the Egyptians did. Unlike the elite Egyptians, Jack is a rich man but made sure he got DAILY, rigorous, cardiovascular exercise. Jack is pushing 100 years old and healthy. Go figure!

You’ve heard of a poor mans steak right? — Beans and Rice. You’ve heard of the poor mans life — Physical labor. Many lower class men eat better and are more fit than the same aged upper class man.

A Jack Laanne quote: “Nutrition is Queen. Exercise is King. Put them together and you have a kingdom!”

Everyone wants to make it so complicated. It’s quite simple, really.

Growing up, I ate lots and lots of sweets, and was pretty fat as a result. I was known to eat brown sugar, and even white sugar, by the spoonful. And as disgusting as that sounds, I almost never brushed my teeth. Literally, almost never.

Here’s the funny part: I never had even one cavity. Zero. Zilch. ( And I never had bad breath.) The only thing I can ascribe that to is that I drank a LOT of milk. Up to a half-gallon a day during some periods. Then about age 19, I went on a macrobiotic diet, lost about 60 lbs. to the point that I looked like an concentration camp survivor. Then I was mostly a vegetarian. A couple of years later I went to the dentist, and lo and behold, at age 21, I had my first cavity.

I don’t believe cavities have anything to do with brushing or flossing. I think it’s pretty much all internal–your dental immune system. And obviously a lot of things contribute to that, but I think Dr. Price pretty well nails it. There could be some genetic factors, but both my mother and father had terrible teeth.

Again, totally anecdotal, but at least suggestive.