Ancient grains: Grant will help U-M researchers rethink Roman diets

Laura Motta, University of Michigan paleoethnobotanist, shows peas excavated from the Karanis site in Egypt. Image credit: Eric Bronson, Michigan Photography - For a long time, researchers believed the diets of ancient people were nutritionally poor. Everyday ancient Mediterranean civilizations relied on a diet of grains and pulses (chickpeas, lentils and other members of the bean family). Researchers thought this food lacked micronutrients such as zinc and iron, while also containing components that inhibit the uptake of what nutrients the food did have. But a University of Michigan pilot study on crops grown in Egypt during Roman times suggests that ancient grains were more nutrient dense than grains grown in the same region today. Now, building on that study, U-M is part of a five-university consortium to receive a €3.7 million grant (about $3.85 million), called the AGROS project, awarded by the Belgian program Excellence of Science. The researchers will use cutting-edge technologies to examine the nutritional profile of the food and how its nutrients changed based on the historical methods of food preparation.