When you come to Greece chances are you will eat traditional Greek food and, thus, immerse yourself in what doctors, in the last 40 years, proclaim to be the key to a long and healthy life: the Mediterranean diet. What is known as the Mediterranean diet first came to public attention in the 1960s, when doctors and public health officials from Europe and the US started studying the likely factors that contribute to the populations around the Mediterranean basin having considerable better health records and longer life expectancies than the populations of richer countries in the North. This interest was sparked from the observation that the people of Crete exhibited low incidence of chronic disease, including heart disease and cancer, and had perhaps the highest life expectancy rates in the world. Those studies concluded that dietary habits were the factor that made the difference in heart disease, cancer, and mortality rates. In January 1993, a joint committee of the Harvard University School of Public Health and the Oldways Preservation and Exchange Trust, a Boston based educational organization, reviewed data from a variety of epidemiological studies that described the dietary traditions of the people from the Mediterranean area (Crete, the rest of Greece, Southern Italy and Northern Africa) and developed the Mediterranean Food Guide Pyramid. The traditional diets of the Mediterranean region were mainly based on a diverse menu of plant sources, including fruits, vegetables, whole grains, beans, nuts and seeds. In North Africa, couscous, vegetables and legumes form the center of the diet; in Southern Europe it was rice, polenta, pasta, potatoes with vegetables and legumes. In the Eastern Mediterranean, bulgur and rice together with vegetables and legumes, such as chick peas, constitute the core of many meals. Throughout the Mediterranean bread is a staple in the diet and is eaten without butter or margarine. The Mediterranean diet delivers as much as 40% of total daily calories from fat, yet the associated incidence of cardiovascular diseases is significantly decreased because the fat comes mainly from olive oil and fish. As a monosaturated fatty acid, olive oil does not have the same cholesterol-raising effect of saturated fats. Olive oil is also a good source of antioxidants. (Sources: Oldways Preservation & Exchange Trust (www.oldwayspt.org), New England Journal of Medicine (content.nejm.org/cgi/content/short/348/26/2599), Chesire Medical center (www.cheshire-med.com), (www.nyloo.com) and www.mediterraneandiet.gr.)