this post was submitted on 01 Jul 2025
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Today I Learned

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[–] LovableSidekick@lemmy.world 4 points 14 hours ago* (last edited 14 hours ago) (1 children)

It has a mildly sweet taste and also causes brain damage

Well... but so does Jack Daniel's. Interestingly, the Romans were aware of the dangers of lead poisoning, including that it could cause madness - which they called "plumbism" (plumbum being the Latin word for lead). Kind of like we know about the dangers of alcohol, flavored sugar water, and many other things we consume wantonly. Like us, they apparently just didn't GAF.

[–] madcaesar@lemmy.world 1 points 19 minutes ago

Lead and alcohol are on completely different levels.

There is no way Romans understood fully the damage lead does and how it accumulates in the body.

Also alcohol is presumably consumed by adults only, while this sweet shit was probably given to children too which makes it even worse.

[–] AllNewTypeFace@leminal.space 32 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Not having zero, they couldn’t have computers and thus social media, so they had to improvise

[–] Illecors@lemmy.cafe 4 points 22 hours ago

Thanks for a good chuckle!

[–] Chozo@fedia.io 148 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Hahaha, what a bunch of morons, sugar isn't even good for you!

[sips sugar-free microplastic energy-slurry]

Buncha dummies.

[–] roofuskit@lemmy.world 45 points 1 day ago* (last edited 23 hours ago) (2 children)

Yeah, well we pumped it straight into the air for everyone to breathe in. We painted schools and nurseries with it as well.

[–] Diplomjodler3@lemmy.world 16 points 1 day ago

Ah, the good old days. Before those evil woke leftists ruined everything!

[–] kiwifoxtrot@lemmy.world 1 points 15 hours ago

We still pump it into the air via small aircraft!

[–] OCATMBBL@lemmy.world 32 points 1 day ago (3 children)

With the US asbestos comeback, are we getting Sweet Lead now too?

[–] ivanafterall@lemmy.world 2 points 20 hours ago

Isn't that those little rolls of crunchy, colorful candies? SweetTards? (Sorry.)

[–] acockworkorange@mander.xyz 2 points 21 hours ago

The what now?

[–] SereneSadie@lemmy.myserv.one 5 points 1 day ago

Its been in use for a long while over there.

[–] HootinNHollerin@lemmy.dbzer0.com 19 points 1 day ago* (last edited 17 hours ago)

Lead in wine as a sweetener is believed to be why Beethoven was deaf

[–] MNByChoice@midwest.social 22 points 1 day ago (2 children)

They had a lot of names for it.

"salt of Saturn"

And a lot if uses.

How much would cause brain damage, and how much brain damage did the average Roman have?

[–] bizarroland@lemmy.world 30 points 1 day ago (1 children)

One thing that's overlooked about the Romans and lead exposure is that they did have organic forms of oral chelation available, which helped mitigate the effects. The most commonly quoted version of which is eating garlic, but many foods and nutrients can either decrease the amount of lead you absorb from the other foods that you eat, or increase the amount of lead that you excrete, which decreases their effects on your body and brain.

Of course, these foods by themselves are not going to completely remove all of the lead in your blood, but it would have reduced the amount, so it's not like they were completely raw-dogging lead in their wine.

https://lead.org.au/fs/Foods_for_Lead_Detox_A-Z_20150214.pdf

[–] acockworkorange@mander.xyz 3 points 20 hours ago

Man, as if I needed any more reasons to eat even more garlic.

[–] some_designer_dude@lemmy.world 18 points 1 day ago (2 children)

How much brain damage would a brain damaged Roman have if a brain damaged Roman could have brain damage?

[–] thisbenzingring@lemmy.sdf.org 11 points 1 day ago (1 children)
[–] Deceptichum@quokk.au 9 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

It was about that time I realised this wasn’t no Roman legionnaire, it was the goddamn Lernaean Hydra.

[–] ThePiedPooper@discuss.online 5 points 1 day ago

Not as much brain damage as any MAGAt.

[–] bizarroland@lemmy.world 18 points 1 day ago
[–] genuineparts@infosec.pub 6 points 1 day ago

Hmm Wall candy.

[–] driving_crooner@lemmy.eco.br 6 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Didn't they also had lead pipes and lead cutely and coups?

[–] oppy1984@lemdro.id 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)
[–] driving_crooner@lemmy.eco.br 5 points 1 day ago (1 children)
[–] oppy1984@lemdro.id 1 points 22 hours ago

Not a fan of shoowd and JRY, eh.

[–] j4k3@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago

Republicans have a 2k year old 𝔖𝔴𝔢𝔢𝔱 𝔄𝔫𝔡 𝔖𝔩𝔬𝔴 tradition