Disparities within traditional Mediterranean food patterns: an historical approach of the Greek diet

Abstract

The scope of this study was to address the historical features underpinning the Greek variant of the Mediterranean diet and to examine whether relevant differences exist among dietary patterns followed in Greece prior to World War II and those recorded in the 1960s within the Seven Countries Study framework. For this purpose, archival data on family budgets were used to extract information on food availability and composition of the diets followed by two rural Greek populations prior to World War II. Results indicate that diets followed by rural Greeks in the nineteenth century and early twentieth century were characterized by a low availability of fat sources, olive oil included. Lipids represented 22–27% of the total available energy, saturated fatty acids accounted for less than 10% of the total energy, while monounsaturated fatty acids contributed 8–9% of the energy. Our results suggest that although the dietary patterns of the nineteenth century and early twentieth century are in line with the Cretan diet of the 1960s with regards to saturated fat intake, important differences can be traced with regards to total and monounsaturated fat intake. These findings suggest that the model of the Mediterranean diet represents a dietary pattern that has not persisted over a long time period in the region.

• Mediterranean diet
• Greece
• dietary patterns
• nineteenth century
• olive oil
• dietary fat