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Spartan Diet fans are posting pictures of their Spartan Diet recipes, which often lead to great conversations about ingredients (and where to find them), cooking methods and Spartan Diet principles.

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Scientists test Spartan Diet foods as sunscreen

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" in Ancient Greece of applying olive oil to their skin after competing in the Olympic Games and other athletic competitions (which always took place in the blazing Greek sunshine). The Spartans were just doing something they did every day -- after training and excercising all day in the sun, the Spartans routinely applied olive oil to their skin.

Scientists are just now starting to understand how a diet like that of the Ancient Spartans, and also how applying antioxidant rich food to to the skin, prevent skin cancer.

It's worth noting that even though Spartan men and women spent enormous time in the sun every day, and altough they mostly lived well into their 80s and older, they didn't seem to get skin cancer.

Food for thought.

How to do a Spartan Reboot

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 their wealth existed entirely in the form of fertile farmland and food production. Every Spartan citizen by definition owned a huge farm. They had the means -- far more than most ancient Greeks -- to have stuffed their faces at every meal, but, as a matter of principle, abstained.

In the modern industrialized world, the cultivation of sensible hunger is utterly alien to us. We never go hungry. Not really. Although our incredibly low-quality food and sedentary lifestyles make us experience an urgent, panicky kind of hunger, most of us never go very long without eating all we want -- and more.

We're habituated with food-related discomfort. We're used to feeling edgy, dull, bloated and "stuffed." We've all experienced the cloudy, weak feeling from over-indulging in greasy, fatty or sugary foods. But hunger? We really don't understand it.

The Spartans did. And for good reason: It's a powerful practice to cultivate. If you do it right, hunger can sharpen your mind, lighten your body, and give you incredible energy.

New research at Washington University explains at least in part why the Spartan Reboot gives you mental and physical energy. Apparently hunger changes how the body manages the storage and use of fat molecules called lipids in a way that prevents those molecules from activating fatigue.

Want to try it?

A technique we call the Spartan Reboot enables you to use hunger to quickly attain high energy, mental clarity, physical stamina and overall vitality. Here is how to do it:

(This is a great thing to do on Sundays, by the way, to prepare for an awesome Monday.)

Eat a healthy balanced breakfast and lunch at the normal times, plus some fruit in the mid-afternoon. Then, after eating your fruit, go on a very long walk, hike or run – at least fifty percent more time or distance than you usually do. We generally do about 15 miles or so, but your miles may vary. Make sure you stay well hydrated.

Then you skip dinner. Go to bed early enough to get a solid 8 hours of sleep.

That's it! You've only skipped one meal. But when you wake up, you'll feel like a different person. Your body will feel light. Your mind will be super sharp and clear. And you'll have physical and mental energy and stamina all day. And you won't even be that hungry. In fact, if you follow your hunger, you'll probably want to eat less than you normally do.

Try it, and please report your results back to us here in the comments area of this post!

Exercise makes you less hungry - study

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).

Berries prevent age-related memory loss - new research

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 polyphenolics, including berries and other fruits, especially those with dark red, orange or blue colors, and also nuts, including walnuts.

Eat these foods according to Spartan Diet principles -- eat them as fresh, raw and organic as possible.

(Photo shows Spartan Muesli with Spartan Cashew Milk topped with blueberries and acai.)

How to get REAL extra-virgin olive oil

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-oil eaters have never even tried US-made olive oil.

Researchers found that a wide variety of events can disqualify olive oil from the extra-virgin designation. Inferior-quality olives, oxidation of the oil, improper storage or the addition of lower-quality oil all can ruin olive oil and make it not truly extra virgin at the time of purchase.

In other words, many olive oils sold as extra virgin in fact did qualify at the time the oil was pressed, but has been degraded by some event later in the storage, transportation or bottling process. Oil can be oxidized, for example, by sunlight, heat or oxygen. The oxidation process raises the acidity level to above the "extra-virgin" limit, no matter what the label says.

This may explain why California olive oils tested so much better than imported oils: UC Davis is in California, so the California oil was all local, less handled and probably fresher.

Even olive oil that's high-quality extra-virgin stuff when you buy it can degrade in your kitchen. Improper storage (with sunlight or heat) can damage the oil, of course. But even in ideal conditions, the quality of olive oil naturally degrades over time. One study found that after 6 months, olive oil loses about 40% of its antioxidants.

You can also ruin olive oil at the last minute by cooking it at too high a temperature.

So what's an olive-oil obsessed Spartan Dieter to do? First of all, we need to think of extra virgin olive oil as something different than the indestructible cooking oils we grew up with. Because it's unheated and unprocessed, olive oil is really almost a fruit juice.

You want to make sure your extra-virgin olive oil comes from a reputable producer, has been properly stored and handled between the producer and the store, and has been pressed as recently as possible.

Some farmer's markets offer locally produced extra virgin olive oil. Because you're buying it directly from the producer, it's less likely to have been damaged during shipping and so on. This is not always the case, however. Grill the seller until you're satisfied he or she is doing it right and selling the real deal.

Look for domestic olive oil, wherever you live. The less transportation the oil undergoes, the fewer the opportunities for spoilage.

Buy only organic. In our experience, organic producers tend to be more honest and more careful with oil quality. Besides, who wants pesticides in their salad?

Look for acidity level. Some olive oils proudly boast of their low acidity levels. This is a good sign. The lower, the better.

Ultimately, however, there is no substitute for becoming an olive-oil snob and knowing the difference based on how oil looks, smells and tastes. Because even good oil can go bad in your kitchen.

Look for olive oil tasking opportunities, and cultivate your ability to tell good oil from bad, virgin from non-virgin and extra from not-so-extra.

Extra-virgin olive oil in small quantities is the foundation of the Spartan Diet. But if you want truly extra-virgin olive oil, you can't just passively accept what labels are telling you. You've got to fight for high-quality olive oil -- but it's worth the battle.