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Ancient and modern

Mixed messages about body weight are nothing new

8 August 2020

9:00 AM

8 August 2020

9:00 AM

Tackling obesity is the latest government initiative, universally condemned as nannying. Ask a Spartan.

From an early age, Spartan children were taught not to be fussy: to eat up their food, and not to fear the dark or being left alone. At the age of seven, boys were taken from their homes and lived together in ‘herds’, exercising bare-footed and often naked, keeping fit and learning obedience.

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