The diet of Templar Knights: Their secret to longevity?

Anno Domini 1071: the Turkish Sunni Muslim Seljuq dynasty is expanding its dominion all over the Middle East, threatening the Byzantine Empire. Alessio I Comnenum, the Byzantine Emperor, is concerned about the Muslim threat and the killing of Christian pilgrims travelling to Jerusalem, the main symbol of Christianity. The need for a permanent army aimed at protecting people visiting the Holy Sites became then mandatory for Europeans [ ]; Geoffrey of Bouillon arrived in Jerusalem with a group of crusaders and conquered Jerusalem in 1099 (1, 2). After the First Crusaders did reconquer Jerusalem, the city was quite secure, while the remaining part of the Holy territories still remained dangerous and the killing of pilgrims resumed. Around 1119, the French knight Hugues de Payens asked King Baldwin II to create a military-monastic order for the protection of pilgrims; it was initially composed of 9 knights and initially named “Poor Knights of Christ” who were given a palace built above the ruins of Salomon's Temple: hence the name Templars [ ]. They were vowed to poverty, chastity, obedience and, differently from the other Christian Orders, to take up arms, based on the Saint Bernard of Clairvaux rule [ , ]. The Order was officially accepted by the Catholic Church in 1129, gaining noble-born sons, money, lands, farms and castles from families willing to help Europeans in maintaining the dominion of the Holy Land, thus meriting salvation. They rapidly became a “State among States” as they could pass freely through all borders, answering only to the Pope. Their motto was “Non nobis Domine, non nobis, sed Nomini Tuo da gloriam”, which means “Not to us, o Lord, not to us, but to Your Name give glory”. As bankers they conferred personal loans and this practice was very common among European Kings, especially Philip IV of France, who was desperate to cover war expenses and to pursue a conspiracy against the Templars [ , , , ].