Greek Mythology

Last week, I talked about the worst diet of 2018 (which happens to be the one that I’m currently on).  This week, I thought I’d go back to the US News list and take a look at their #1 diet of the year, the Mediterranean Diet.   

If you’ve read anything about health and diet over the past ten years, you've probably heard of the Mediterranean Diet.  Though the definition is a bit of a moving target, it’s described in the article as “eating fruits, veggies, whole grains, beans, nuts, legumes, olive oil, and flavorful herbs and spices; fish and seafood at least a couple of times a week; and poultry, eggs, cheese and yogurt in moderation, while saving sweets and red meat for special occasions.”

Nothing shocking here.  What’s more interesting is the history of the Mediterranean Diet.  For that, I turn once again to the amazing Nina Teicholz and her mind-blowing book The Big Fat Surprise, which devotes an entire chapter to the Diet (50 pages, with more than 150 footnotes).

This ancient, traditional diet dates all the way back to the late 20^th century — 1993, in fact, when Dr. Walter Willett, Harvard Professor and current top dawg in the nutrition research world, unveiled his Mediterranean Diet Pyramid at a conference in Cambridge, Massachusetts.  Willett and his team created the pyramid in an attempt to systematize the traditional diet of the people of Crete and southern Italy, who were known for their longevity and low incidence of heart disease.  

One problem with this attempt, at Teicholz points out, is that Willett’s team built the pyramid using flawed 1950s observational studies by researcher Ancel Keys, in which the Cretan subjects (a mere 33 of them, all men) were living through the lean years after World War II and weren't eating their usual diet.   

The really surprising thing, though, was how the Diet was spread.  Over the next 10 years, the Mediterranean Diet was promoted relentlessly through a blitz of conferences that were funded by the International Olive Oil Council.  Doctors and nutrition writers (so-called “Olive-Oil Embassadors”) enjoyed lavish, all-expenses-paid trips to exotic locales where they’d hear lectures and see cooking demonstrations, with the implicit understanding that they’d promote the Diet on their return.  As Dr. Marion Nestle, NYU Professor and author of Food Politics, puts it, “Every single journalist who went on one of those trips was expected to write about it, and if they didn’t, they weren’t invited back.”  

Teicholz quotes the romantic descriptions used to sell the diet back home, including images of "handsome, rugged, kindly and virile" Greek laborers "enveloped in a rich lavender aura from the Aegean sea and sky."  Heady stuff for the American Journal of Cardiology!

Okay, okay.  So the Diet is based on a myth, and was promoted by dirty food manufacturers.  Who cares, so long as works, right?  Well…. there it gets tricky. Teicholz dives into the studies done over the years, which have shown mixed results, and many of which, as it turns out, are deeply flawed. 

The largest, most well-designed of these was a 2008 Israeli intervention study, in which 322 moderately-obese, middle-aged subjects were randomly assigned to one of three diets: Low-fat, Mediterranean, or Atkins.  The Mediterranean Diet outperformed the low-fat diet on both weight loss and heart health.  However — and this is the really wild part — the widely-vilified Atkins Diet (third-lowest on the US News list) outperformed them both.

So what’s the bottom line?  Is the Mediterranean Diet unhealthy?  It’s tough to argue against a diet of plants and fish and olive oil, especially if you stick to whole foods and stay away from processed junk.  And the “Ease of Following” score on this one is quite high. It’s not hard to find Mediterranean-friendly meals in the grocery store or at the restaurant.  

I always go back to the Jason Fung quote: “What problem are you trying to solve?”  If your goal is to upgrade from a junk-food-based diet without stretching too far our of your comfort zone, the Mediterranean Diet may be the way to go.  If you have specific issues you want to address — say, diabetes or heart disease, then you might need something more.  At the end of the day, life is an experiment, and you have to keep looking until you find what works for you.

Note: The ramblings published on this blog are the opinions of the author alone and shared for entertainment purposes only.  The author is an English major with no medical or scientific background; thus, his words should never be taken as medical advice.  Consult with your doctor or medical professional before undertaking any diet or exercise program.