The Prasouda diet, also known as the Mediterranean diet, is a way of eating practiced by the Cretan people of the Greek Islands. It started to gain popularity in America shortly after Ancel Keys’ 7 country study was published, which found the Cretan people to be some of the healthiest in the world. They lived long, mostly disease-free lives and ate delicious food – no wonder we’re interested in what they ate!
An Overview of the Prasouda Diet
- Frequent consumption of fresh fish
- Lots of fresh fruits, vegetables and legumes
- High consumption of virgin olive oil
- Eggs
- Meat
- Milk, cheese and yogurt
- Nuts
- Unrefined grains
- Wine daily
Pretty simple right? Most of these things you can still get at the supermarket and they can definitely make for some delicious meals. Beyond the exact foods they ate, however, there’s still a few more things to take into account.
Components of the Prasouda Diet
1. Meat, poultry, fish, eggs and dairy
These are the main sources of protein in the Prasouda diet. Although the original Cretans may have used different sources are commonly available today (such as less common types of fish, goat milk and so on), this section of the diet can generally be replicated reasonably well in modern society.
The main difference to be aware of is the variation in the quality of these products that are available today. The lean, disease-free and long-living followers of the Prasouda diet had access to meat from healthy animals that grazed on grass rather than being fed refined grain products, fish virtually void of modern toxins and eggs from chickens eating their natural diet rather than grain byproducts.
This is an important distinction, first because of the toxins taking by today’s animals and stored in their meat, and second because of the difference in omega-3 to omega-6 ratios. Animal products from pasture-raised animals typically have close to a 1-to-1 ratio of omega-6 fatty acids to omega-3, whereas meat raised with modern farming practices can have ratios as high as 30-to-1, omega-6s being higher.
Many health experts have pointed to the importance of omega-3 and omega-6 balance as a factor in overall health, which is one of the reasons omega-3 supplements are so popular.
While conventionally raised animal products are still generally safe and better than alternative dietary choices, it’s important to recognize the difference between pasture-raised and factory-farmed animals and how their consumption affects your health. If you have the means, it’s a good idea to try to get pasture-raised or at least organic animals products and consider raw milk.
2. Olive Oil and Nuts
Other than animal products, olive oil and nuts made up the majority of the dietary fat intake for the original followers of the Prasouda diet. The Cretan’s frequent consumption of olive oil meant their diets were lower in saturated fat, which Ancel Keys (the author of the 7 countries study) falsely believed to be the main reason for their superior health. I address some of the myths about saturated fat in this post this post: A Low Fat Diet Plan.
Nevertheless, virgin olive oil is a very healthy dietary source of fat, especially when compared to cheap vegetable oils substitutes (olives are technically a fruit). Common olive oil substitutes such as canola oil, soybean oil, safflower oil and corn oil are detrimental to health because, as documented thoroughly in Dr. Catherine Shanahan’s book Deep Nutrition, they have a tendency to oxidize when heated and essentially effect your body in the same way transfats do. Moreover, research has shown that a certain percentage of these oils actually resemble transfats even at room temperature.
3. Fruits, Vegetables and Wine
Although today’s fruits are typically bred to be much higher in sugars, and many crops are heavily sprayed with pesticides and other chemicals, this section of the Prasouda diet is perhaps the easiest to replicate.
Local and/or organic fruits and vegetables are ideal, but conventionally grown alternatives are generally okay too. Just make sure to thoroughly wash fruits and vegetables without outer shells, such as apples and tomatoes. Also look check out some of the most and least sprayed crops here.
As far as wine consumption, it’s most likely inconsequential. Some studies have suggested that a glass of wine every evening may be healthy, but others have shown no improvements in health. If you enjoy wine, a glass a day can’t hurt and may even improve your health, but if not, just skip it.
4. Grains
The difference between modern grains and those used by the original followers of the Prasouda diet is perhaps the biggest distinction to be aware of when following a modern version of the diet. The Cretan people did eat grains regularly, but their preparation methods were drastically different from today’s.
Most modern grains are nutritionally poor and contain various anti-nutrients such as gluten (a protein that many people are sensitive too and perpetuates digestive and stomach problems), lectins (essentially pesticides produced by grain plants to avoid being eaten, which can disrupt human immune systems among other things), phytic acid (the storage form of phosphorus in grains which can bind to other vitamins and minerals, creating nutrient deficiencies) and enzyme inhibitors (enzyme inhibitors make it more difficult to extract nutrients from foods).
Traditional preparation methods such as soaking, fermentation and sprouting help to mitigate these anti-nutrients so that grains are less problematic for health, but modern preparation methods do little, if anything, to neutralize these substances. Moreover, modern grains tend to be even more nutritionally lacking than their traditional counterparts due to depletion of nutrients in the soil and refinement.
If you choose to include substantial quantities of grain in your diet, consider traditional methods of preparation, which are further explained in this post.
The Whole Picture with the Prasouda Diet
Breaking down a diet – even an extremely healthy one like the Prasouda diet – into a list like I’ve done above can lead to some issues. We might look at one (or several) specific foods and decide that’s what made the Cretan people so healthy. Or worse yet, we might break the diet into specific macro- or micro-nutrients like carbs, protien, calcium or saturated fat.
That was the mistake Ancel Keys made in his famous 7 countries study. He took a population that was extremely healthy, found that their saturated fat consumption was relatively low, and decided they were healthy because of the low saturated fat. Numerous researchers have now debunked his flawed study.
So what does this mean to you? Look at the whole picture with the Prasouda diet and don’t look for the miracle nutrient. The Cretan people ate a fresh, diverse and nutrient-rich diet, composed entirely of whole foods. Knowing exactly what they ate gives us some good general guidelines to following in the footsteps of some of the healthiest people on earth, but it’s important that we see the whole picture rather than trying to isolate olive oil or lack of saturated fat as the miracle ingredient to perfect health.
And with that, welcome to the Prasouda diet – without a doubt one of the healthiest diets on earth!
