I know that the news today can be overwhelming, even just mentioning the word facts can trigger all sorts of reactions.

I'm Dr. Michael Greger and I happen to really like facts, so I devoted my life to learning all there is to know about the latest nutrition research so that you and your family can lead healthier or productive lives.

Today on the show we transport ourselves to the Greek islands.

Or at least the food used to be good for you. What was it about the diet on the Greek island of Crete in the 1950s that made it so healthy?

The Mediterranean diet is an in-topic nowadays in both the medical literature and the lay media. 450 papers published in medical literature over just the last year alone more than one a day.

Uncritical lotatory coverage is common but specifics are hard to come by. What is it? The word did come from why is it good? Marits are rarely detailed, possible downsides never mentioned so let's dig in.

After World War II, the government of Greece, asked the Rockefeller Foundation to come in and assess the situation.

Impressed by the low rates of heart disease in the region, nutrition scientists and cell keys after which key rations were named,

initiated its famous seven countries study in which you found the rate of fatal heart disease on the Greek island of Crete was 20 times lower than that in the United States.

They also had the lowest cancer rates and the lowest deaths overall. What were they eating?

Their diets were more than 90% plant-based which may explain why coronary heart disease was such a rarity.

A rarity that is except for a small class of rich people who's diet differed from that of the general population they meet every day instead of every week or two.

So the heart of the Mediterranean diet is mainly vegetarian, much lower in meat and dairy which keys considered the major villains in the diet because of their saturated fat content.

Unfortunately no one is really eating the traditional Mediterranean diet anymore even in the Mediterranean.

The prevalence of coronary heart disease skyrocketed by an order of magnitude within a few decades in Crete blamed on the increased consumption of meat and cheese at the expense of plant foods.

Everyone is talking about the Mediterranean diet but few are those who do it properly.

People think pizza or spaghetti with meat sauce but while Italian restaurants brag about the healthy Mediterranean diet they serve a travesty of it.

So no one's really eating this way anymore how do you study it?

Researchers came up with a variety of Mediterranean diet adherence scoring systems to see if people who are eating more Mediterranean-ish do better.

You get maximum points the more plant foods you eat but effectively get points deducted eating just a single serving of meat or dairy a day.

So no surprise those that eat relatively higher on the scale have a lower risk of heart disease, lower risk of cancer and lower risk of death overall.

After all the Mediterranean diet can be considered to be a near vegetarian diet as such it should be expected to produce the well-established health benefits of vegetarian diet.

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