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In Annia Ciezaldo’s April 1st article in the “New York Times Magazine,” she asks, “Does the Mediterranean Diet even exist?” She suggests that since half of Spain, Portugal and Italy’s populations are overweight — with Lebanon rapidly following suit — then, contrary to popular belief, the Mediterranean people now have the worst diets in Europe.

She states that the Greeks “are the fattest: about 75 percent of the Greek population is overweight.” From Ciezaldo’s perspective, the Mediterranean Diet research, which spanned over 50 years, was in fact — flawed.

Research on the health benefits of the Mediterranean Diet has been well-documented and includes the Harvard School of Public Health and many esteemed medical researchers. Among them are Ancel Keys and Paul Dudley White, who later became Dwight D. Eisenhower’s cardiologist.

Shortly after World War II, Keys and his colleagues set out to examine whether or not the Mediterranean dietary and lifestyle patterns were directly connected to improved health outcomes identified in Crete, Greece and southern Italy during the 1960s. These outcomes recorded the lowest rates of chronic disease in the world, and the life expectancy of adults in these regions was among the highest. This was particularly remarkable given the limited amount of medical care and services that were available to this population and the poverty these regions experienced.