When people talk about strange diets in the animal kingdom, a few obvious examples come to mind — koalas eating almost nothing but eucalyptus leaves, or vultures thriving on carrion that would send most creatures running. But before we point fingers at the dietary quirks of other species, maybe we should look in the mirror.
Humans are the only animals that tear through layers of plastic to eat food manufactured months ago, containing ingredients we can’t pronounce. We microwave dinners made in factories thousands of miles away and drink liquids engineered in labs to taste like strawberries, despite containing no fruit.
As an evolutionary biologist, I often ask, and am often asked: Is this what we were built to consume?
To understand what our bodies were really designed to eat, we don’t necessarily have to begin from the beginning. In fact, a more recent chapter in our history might be a lot more revealing — the Roman Empire, which reached its peak around 100 A.D., about 1,900 years ago.
Let’s explore what the Romans were actually eating — and why some of it might be worth resurrecting in the 21st century.
The Surprisingly Simple Staples Of The Roman Diet
If you sat down for dinner in a Roman insula (apartment building) or even a rural villa, you wouldn’t be served elaborate banquets daily. The average working class Roman actually ate what’s now considered the Mediterranean diet prototype: high in whole grains, legumes, vegetables and olive oil.
Puls, the Roman’s foundation food, was a thick porridge made from emmer wheat or barley. Sometimes it was fortified with lentils or fava beans, drizzled with olive oil or seasoned with herbs. Coarse-grained bread, often sourdough, was also a given.
Today, we strip the fiber and micronutrients off our grains and consume them as refined starches. But back then, whole grains were the norm. The key benefit? Fiber that enriches our gut microbiome and uplifts not just health and immune system, but also our mood.
Suffice to say, the Roman diet was not only practical, it was biologically elegant.
A Forgotten Roman Superfood?
One of the more curious components of Roman cuisine was garum, a fermented fish sauce, comparable to the beloved modern soy sauce or ketchup.
Garum’s seemingly unappetizing preparation process of layering fish innards with salt and letting it ferment in the sun, produces a surprisingly savory result rich in umami flavor and nutrients—particularly amino acids, calcium and omega-3s.
To the modern palate, it might sound unappealing, but garum had much in common with today’s fermented health foods: kombucha, kimchi and miso. From a biological perspective, the fermentation process introduces beneficial bacteria and pre-digests proteins, making them more bioavailable. These microbial dynamics are increasingly recognized as essential to human digestion and immune health.
Much Less Meat Than You’d Think
Despite what Hollywood may suggest, most Romans weren’t feasting on roasted boars or endless platters of meat. Meat consumption was actually an occasional occurrence, not daily, especially for the poor and working classes. And when meat was eaten, it was typically pork, followed by goat, lamb and then poultry. Partly due to cattle’s value in agriculture, beef rarely found its way into the Roman diet.
And this is exactly where the Roman diet diverges sharply from modern Western norms, where meat often dominates the plate. This might be a win for the Romans from an evolutionary perspective. Despite our omnivorous dietary flexibility, our physiology, including our relatively long intestines and dependence on fiber fermentation, suggests a preference for plant-heavy diets.
Eating red and processed meat, regularly and indiscriminately, has been associated with increased risks of colorectal cancer and heart disease. The Roman balance of occasional meat, mostly plant-based fare aligns more closely with what our biology appears optimized for.
The Famine-And-Feast Cycle
One thing we must acknowledge is that the Roman diet was shaped not only by culture but by availability and seasonality. Food preservation was primitive. People ate what was in season, and often endured periods of scarcity.
This intermittent scarcity may have induced mild forms of what we now call intermittent fasting. The life of people in the Roman empire can help understand why this trending biohack has gained so much attention today. Our bodies evolved under rhythms of feast and famine, a natural inevitability of the time. It’s no wonder why even today, in the age of abundance, evidence still suggests that time-restricted eating can support metabolic health, reduce inflammation and even promote cellular repair processes.
In essence, the biological systems that made ancient Romans resilient to food scarcity are the same systems many modern humans are trying to “re-activate” through deliberate fasting windows.
The Roman Drink Of Choice?
Romans, across the class divide, were unified by wine, a drink they often mixed with water, herbs or honey. It was safer than water alone in many cases, and more nutritious than we might think. Red wine contains polyphenols, particularly resveratrol, which has antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties.
That said, their wine was vastly different from the high-alcohol, sugar-laden versions we find today. It was lower in alcohol content and consumed in moderation as part of meals.
From a biologist’s point of view, the Roman approach — moderate alcohol in a food context — is healthier than the binge-drinking patterns that plague many societies today.
What Lessons Can We Take Away From The Roman Empire?
As we compare the Roman Empire’s diet to current food trends, a few key biological insights emerge:
- Human bodies thrive on fiber-rich, plant-based staples like legumes, grains, and vegetables — foods that formed the Roman dietary base.
- Fermentation isn’t just culinary, it’s biological. Romans used garum instinctively; today, we rebrand it as “gut-friendly.”
- Moderation in meat and alcohol consumption aligns with evolutionary and epidemiological evidence for long-term health.
- Cyclical food availability, once a hardship, is now mimicked through intermittent fasting with surprisingly similar biological effects.
In a world of protein bars, keto plans, and ultra-processed everything, the Roman diet offers a refreshingly grounded model — one rooted in biology, simplicity and necessity. While we don’t need to ferment fish guts in our backyard to be healthy, there’s a lot to learn from a civilization that, at its peak, fed tens of millions using sustainable principles.
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