My understanding is that the so-called Mediterranean diet is based on the diet of Crete during Lent, when for religious reasons they eat no meat or dairy at all. Researchers forgot to check back at Easter, when they roast a whole lamb or three, along with dozens of eggs and loads of butter, full fat cheese, heavy cream, and a luxuriously sinful spread made by combining the cheese, butter, eggs, and cream with sugar, almonds, and dried fruit.

The problem with a lot of these studies is first that almost anything they study is healthier than the Standard American Diet. (I call it the Purina Rat Chow phenomenon: clearly the Chow is very bad for rats, since every diet they stack up against it comes out ahead.) Secondly, people who eat any diet considered to be good for you are likely to also do other healthy things, like exercising and quitting smoking,which further confounds the data.

Andromeda



> Date: Tue, 21 Oct 2014 15:02:17 -0400
> From: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: Paleolithic diet, Mediterranean diet linked to lower colorectal cancer
> To: [log in to unmask]
> 
> They did not define the paleo diet nor the Mediterranean diet.  According to
> Nina Teicholz, the Mediterranean diet identification is a scam because the
> Mediterranean countries have a widely diverse diet that is difficult to
> define.  For example, back when this term was being formulated the people of
> Crete ate a lot of snails - not something consumed much by some of the other
> Mediterranean countries.  She found the most common denominator was that
> those countries ate real food which was not very processed, even though
> ratios of fats, carbohydrates and protein differed quite a bit from country
> to country.
> Paula H.
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Paleolithic Eating Support List [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
> On Behalf Of Don Wiss
> Sent: Tuesday, October 21, 2014 2:50 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: [PALEOFOOD] Paleolithic diet, Mediterranean diet linked to lower
> colorectal cancer
> 
> Paleolithic diet, Mediterranean diet linked to lower colorectal cancer
> http://www.foodconsumer.org/newsite/Nutrition/Diet/paleolithic_diet_mediterr
> anean_diet_1019140240.html