The Cretan Diet, Yesterday and Today

We do know that the diet of the Minoans bears a remarkable resemblance to that of modern Crete – a diet that is famous today.The benefits of the Cretan Diet first came to light, at least in this millennia, as a result of the so -called Seven Countries Study conducted by Ancel Keys in the 1960s and 70s. Keys found that Cretan men suffered substantially fewer cases of coronary heart disease than their counterparts in such other countries as Finland, the US and Italy. Subsequent studies conducted in later years also proved the benefits of this diet – and not just for guarding against heart disease – though there is some debate among researchers as to what components of the diet make it so effective.

Personally, I suspect that the sum is greater than the whole: less meat, more grains, plenty of olive oil, honey and herbs. And wine – let us not forget the wine. I further suspect that the natural conditions in Crete – its amazing biodiversity – enables food producers there to create products that are both unique and best of class.

What sort of products?
Cretan specialties include such things as parsley dip, creamy hummus, and grape leaves pureed into a spread. There is also a certain kind of highly flavored rice pilaf popular in Crete. And then there are the snails. Cooks in Crete claim they can make them 40 different ways. This reminds me of something said by George Macdonald Fraser’s character, Flashman. Upon coming across a depiction of the positions of the Kama Sutra in an Indian temple, Flashman remarked that position 17 was much like position 34, except one party had their fingers crossed. In this case I’ll trust in the ingenuity of the Cretans and pray that someone there writes a snail-only cookbook.

Where Crete really shines is in its raw and processed materials – the things that go into their traditional recipes. Agriculture and food processing are two of the leading economic activities of the island. Here are some of the specialties available for export:

Olive Oil and Table Olives
Crete’s 34 million olive trees occupy some 395,000 acres which are cultivated principally by families who own small plots. Families often band together, sometimes forming a cooperative. Cooperatives usually have rules governing picking and production to ensure quality. There are also a few single estate producers on the island. Together these producers account for about a third of Greece’s total olive oil production. Almost all of it is Extra Virgin.

It is a good thing Crete produces so much oil, as the Cretans are the largest per capita consumers of olive oil in the world, eating over 23 kilos a year. Greeks in general consume about 20 kilos a year, Spaniards and Italians about 11 and Americans less than half a kilo. One of the most ubiquitous olive varietals on the island is Koroneiki, a small, oval, deep purple olive which produces a very fragrant oil. The tree will grow at altitudes as high as 500 meters. The regions of Chania, Heraklion, Lassithi and Sitia all produce oil from this variety. Sitia is probably the best known of these regions with a well-run cooperative called, well, the Cooperative of Sitia.

It grows mainly in the Chania region.

Many of the oil varieties of Crete are also used for table olives. The rarest of the Cretan olives – at least rare outside of Crete – are the Elitses. More pit than flesh, these tiny olives are sweet and fruity. Locals eat them by the handful, spitting out the pits as they go.