If you're looking for a new dietary regimen that promises to be heart-healthy and promote longevity, you'll probably come across the Cretan Diet through your independent research. Although the Cretan Diet is proven to be beneficial to those at risk or afflicted with heart disease, numerous concerns abound about the diet's public perception in relation to the truth behind the medical research scientific community's findings. Therefore, you should speak with your primary physician about the benefits and risks of the diet before you incorporate it into your daily lifestyle.
Identification
The Cretan Diet is the dietary regimen followed by native people on the island of Crete in Greece. Cretan Diet followers use olive oil as their primary fat source; consume low amounts of red meat, eggs and fish; eat mainly locally grown, seasonal fruits and vegetables; and drink a moderate amount of wine every day with meals. Cretan Diet followers also eat small amounts of yogurt and cheese and eat high amounts of breads, cereal products, seeds, beans and nuts.
Seven Countries Study
Ancel Keys, Ph.D., of the University of Minnesota, directed a team of researchers in the late 1950s to study the dietary patterns of healthy men 40 to 59 years of age in the United States, Italy, Japan, Greece, Finland, Yugoslavia and the Netherlands to determine the relationships among what the men ate and the state of their health. At the end of the 15-year study, the researchers found that the residents of Crete had the lowest occurrences of cardiovascular disease, which the researchers attributed to the Cretan Diet's high consumption of olive oil and low consumption of saturated fat, says registered dietitian Rita E. Carey on TodaysDietician.com. The study subsequently led to the popularity of the Cretan Diet worldwide, generally known as the Mediterranean Diet.
Considerations
The Cretan Diet's emphasis on high olive oil consumption, moderate wine consumption and low fish consumption are in fact generalities that do not reveal the diet's nutritionally complex indigenous eating pattern, which cannot be easily duplicated outside of Crete, warns Carey. Y. Manios of the Harokopio's University's Department of Nutrition and Dietetics in Athens, Greece agrees. Manios says on PubMed.com that the fad interpretation of the Cretan Diet leaves out the role of locally consumed snails, wild greens, nuts and herbs that contribute important fatty acids to the diet, and that the public perception of the diet is overly simplified.
Clinical Data
According to the American Academy of Family Physicians, French patients diagnosed with cardiovascular disease who adopted the Cretan Diet's use of olive oil as their primary fat and added more legumes to their diets experienced significant reductions in heart failure and stroke than patients who continued to eat a diet high in polyunsaturated fats such as margarine, soybean oil and corn oil.
Warning
Although you may be tempted to try the all or parts of the Cretan Diet on your own, you should consult with your conventional medical doctor before you adapt the diet because you may have a specific health condition that warrants special dietary needs that the Cretan Diet does not address.
