The Mediterranean Diet is one of the most studied eating patterns in the world. But there's something the modern wellness industry often forgets to mention: it was never designed as a diet. It was simply the way people lived. Looking back through years of photographs from my life in Greece, I realized I had been living inside that rhythm all along.
Yesterday, while searching through my archives for our Mediterranean Longevity board on Pinterest, I found this image from March 18, 2015. Five days from now will mark eleven years since that moment.
Spring in Greece is a phantasmagoria of wildflowers, birdsong, warming sunshine, and still chilly breezes drifting up from the sea.
I remember that day driving along the coast with Athan. I asked him to stop so I could throw myself down on that glorious carpet of violets. The rocky cliff, the sea beyond, and in the distance the hazy tumble of Athens across the Saronic Gulf.
For us, it was simply another beautiful day in Greece.
But yesterday, looking at that photograph again, I realized something deeper.
All these years — while living through the same challenges everyone faces in creating a life — I was actually living inside what the modern world now calls Mediterranean Longevity, something the wellness industry spends billions trying to understand.
But here's the thing.
It's not a diet.
Not a menu.
It's a life.
This morning as I write on my terrace, the early sun is warming my shoulders and I can hear the sea echoing up from the distance on cool spring winds. I'm bundled up, but I prefer the fresh air to sitting inside the house.
Earlier I walked Lucy while her BFF Tzintzer, a ginger tabby, launched stealth attacks from the deep grasses in the field.
I love photographing the wildflowers and identifying them. This morning I walked ankle-deep through creamy four-petaled blossoms of wild arugula — rocket — while bees hummed from yellow to red to purple to pink, preparing the honey we'll enjoy later in the season. White butterflies danced seul or a mating pas de deux.
Flocks of seagulls tried to outcall the crows nesting in the pines while songbirds wove melodies between them.
It's spring.
And it's Lent.
Which reminds me of my topic...
Trends and Trendsetters
Like so many wellness trends, people tend to put their own spin on things so they can shape them to sell whatever it is they're selling.
And let's be honest: when it comes to changing eating habits, most people are reluctant. So trendsetters have to sweeten the pot, so to speak, to make change more palatable.
For example, studies in North America have encouraged people to modify familiar dishes — shifting from heavy red-meat meals to lighter alternatives — in order to promote heart health.
But the Mediterranean diet itself wasn't created by marketers or nutritionists.
The Inconvenient Truth
The Mediterranean diet was simply the way people lived — until scientists like Ancel Keys began studying it in the 1950s.*
It wasn't until the 1990s that the familiar Mediterranean Diet Pyramid was promoted as a formal "diet."
What Keys observed was that people in Southern Europe — particularly Greece and Italy — had far lower rates of heart disease than countries like the United States.
But something important got lost in translation.
What was often "weeded out" were the cultural conditions and traditions that were intrinsic to the health of these communities.
After the war, these were poor countries.
Many people came close to starvation. What we now call intermittent fasting was simply life.
People subsisted on wild greens — horta — including dandelions that today we dig out of our gardens as weeds.
In mountain villages people foraged for these greens, walking steep paths, bending and stretching as they gathered food.
Domestic animals were usually raised to produce milk, cheese, or eggs, or to trade for other goods.
Meat was a luxury.
When an animal was slaughtered it was often shared throughout the community, each family receiving a small portion. Plates piled high with steaks and sausages were unheard of.
Chickens, until quite recently, were raised mainly for eggs.
Animals provided food — they were not considered the food itself.
If the village happened to be near the sea, then people had the additional blessing of fish.
Everywhere in Greece and Italy — along the coasts and clinging to mountainsides — are olive groves. Family groves, often in small parcels handed down through generations.
If you've heard Athan's story about his grandparents, you'll know that some olives were picked early and pressed into precious oil kept as family medicine.
Stored carefully in the cellar, it was taken by the thimbleful for aches, pains, cuts and bruises.
Today we know this oil as high-phenolic extra virgin olive oil — rich in olive oil biophenols, the compounds responsible for many of the protective benefits associated with traditional olive oil. What village families once used instinctively as medicine is now supported by modern research.
If you're curious, you can explore the science behind olive oil biophenols and how these compounds contribute to health and longevity.
The rest of the olives were harvested later when they were fully ripe and yielded larger quantities of oil used for everyday cooking.
Here's where the fine print of the Mediterranean diet becomes harder to read.
Olive oil is indeed a healthy monounsaturated fat.
But the traditional Mediterranean diet was healthy in fats largely because olive oil was essentially the only fat used. Butter, lard and other animal fats were rare.
Wine — usually homemade — was also part of the culture and valued for its polyphenols, as were fruits, berries, nuts, legumes and beans that helped provide protein.
In other words, the Mediterranean diet was never simply about food. It was about a rhythm of living that shaped how people moved, ate, rested, and gathered together.
What Mediterranean Longevity Really Looks Like
The Rhythm of Life
I mentioned Lent earlier because both Catholic and Greek Orthodox traditions observe long fasting periods.
During Lent people traditionally avoid meat and dairy, creating what amounts to a seasonal cleanse built into the calendar.
These customs continue to shape eating patterns.
But food is only one part of the picture.
Meals are rarely eaten alone.
People gather with family, neighbours and friends.
Children finish school early in the afternoon and go home to a proper meal — often with grandparents.
Afternoon rest helps sustain energy for the rest of the day and evening.
Children are taken everywhere and learn to fall asleep amid the hum of conversation, music and laughter.
Movement is simply part of life.
Even today on the island, many errands are done on foot, by bicycle, or by motorbike. Gasoline is expensive and unnecessary for short trips.
It's not unusual to see a strong teenage boy riding home behind his grandmother on her motorbike — something you would rarely see in North America.
Age is not hidden here.
The elderly are respected, cared for, and remain part of daily family life.
And interestingly, those values keep older people engaged, active, and relevant.
A Changing World
Of course, things are changing.
Western habits are creeping in.
Teenagers now zip around on electric scooters and weight issues that once were rare are appearing among younger generations.
The old rhythm of life is being challenged by the modern world.
Our Journey
Athan and I came here in search of something.
What we found — quite literally — was in the olive oil.
Early-harvest olive oil rich in olive oil biophenols, recognized by the European Union health claim in 2012 but known for centuries in village traditions as medicinal.
Our mission now is to share this knowledge while working with a growing number of producers.
For me, living on Aegina Island means choosing a slower life, even while the pace of global business continues through the internet.
Increasing numbers of expatriates are coming to Mediterranean countries in search of something similar — a culture that still values tradition, beauty, art and a life lived well rather than lived fast.
At dinner last night our table included friends from Australia, Romania, Greece and Canada.
And if we include Lucy, our Havanese rescue, then we can count Cuba as well.
There's a saying here on the island:
"You don't find Aegina. Aegina finds you."
We all arrived for different reasons.
But as we agreed over a wonderful meal and a glass of wine, we stay for the sunshine, the simplicity of life, and the quiet promise of Mediterranean longevity.
~mh
P.S. Here's a snippet from an conversation I had with Dr. Simon Poole, author of "The Real Mediterranean Diet" at Zonar's beneath the Acropolis late last month. → video here
*About the Science:
Much of what the modern world knows about the Mediterranean diet comes from the work of Ancel Keys and his landmark Seven Countries Study. Beginning in the late 1950s, Keys and his colleagues observed that people living in places like Crete and southern Italy had dramatically lower rates of heart disease than populations in northern Europe and the United States. What fascinated researchers was not just what these communities ate, but how they lived — walking daily, eating seasonal foods, sharing meals with family and neighbours, and using olive oil as their primary fat. The science confirmed something villagers had long understood intuitively: health was woven into the rhythm of everyday life.