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Even Mummies had Atherosclerosis according to this story that appeared on the AP. I find it interesting that they make out like this is a surprise. I was under the impression that heart disease is a condition more related to genetics than lifestyle. If it is related to age as well then it is no wonder many would think it is a modern phenomenon as life spans have only greatly increased in the past 200-300 years.
I thought it had to do with diet. I recall hearing an archaeologist on TV talk about how nicely preserved the teeth of an Egyptian skull was because they did not eat food to give them tooth decay.
I have heard that bout teeth as well. It has been attributed to the lack of cane sugar prior to modern times. That would not stop them from eating fatty foods though. I saw a Roman cookbook somewhere and the amount of fat in their diet was amazing. I think it was on the internet, I will have to see if I can find it tomorrow.
I am thinking, though, that since they were not eating processed foods in the pre-modern world, and in different combinations, the effects would be different than they are today. The so-called Mediterranean diet today is apparently high in fats, but these are in such combinations where they can actually help people lose weight. Add to this the fact that manual labor and physical exertion was much more in the pre-modern world, and at least some of the fat intake would be balanced by all that energy expended.
Well, if you think about the sample they had, it was probably not representative of the population as a whole. Who after all, had the means to be mummified after death? Most Egyptian mummies that are in a good state of preservation were members of the aristocracy and so would have a comparatively easy life. It is probably a safe bet to guess that that also holds true for other societies that mummified their dead. The article does not give a lot in the way of information about eh data set they used. I wonder which journal the results of the study were published in? It would be interesting to look at their data tables.
Yes, that it true – the mummified upper echelons of Egyptian society would not have been required to perform manual labor like the plebeian class, nor would select groups of individuals. I recall a statue of a seated scribe from Egypt, c. 2500 B.C., where he is depicted as somewhat pudgy; so I suppose this does indicate the presence of obesity even back then.
The original study can be found here, it was originally published in The Lancet. It does mention that the Egyptian mummies came from a high socio-economic class but they could not determine this for the other three groups of mummies they studied. It is a pretty interesting article.
