Why the Ancient Greek Diet Should Be Followed Today

Hippocrates, the Ancient Greek physician widely regarded as the father of medicine, once wrote “let food be thy medicine, and let medicine be thy food”. This wise advice, followed by most Greeks, allowed them to have a varied & tasty diet, while being healthy. How did this work?

In Ancient Greece, the vast majority of the diet of ordinary people was derived from fruit, vegetables, olive oil, milk, cheese, cereals, pulses, fish, and, sometimes, red meat. This is wildly different to what’s considered healthy today among popular health crowds.

The secret to why this worked? A great ratio of Omega 6 to Omega 3, key amounts of macronutrients, and plenty of antioxidants. Nowadays, western diets have almost 20 to 50 times as much omega 6 as omega 3, mainly coming from seed oils.

The Ancient Greeks ate olive oil in place of these other oils, and ate lots of fish and (sometimes) red meat, keeping these amounts of omega 3 in check. Much meat nowadays comes from animals fed in a diet high in omega 6 and other unhealthy things, upsetting this balance.

Green, leafy vegetables are also full of omega 3 which can help balance this ratio. While greens such as spinach and cavolo nero aren’t what was eaten by the Greeks, they do the same job and are accessible to us.

For Ancient Greeks, their diet hit most macros perfectly. Carb-rich grains held a key position in their diet, with legumes, fish & meat giving them adequate protein, and olive oil & cheese allowing a good amount of healthy fats.

With these things in mind, it is safe to estimate the macronutrient caloric ratio for the average Greek citizen would have been around 35-50% carbohydrates, 20-35% protein, and 20-40% fats, which would fairly closely match modern recommendations for the ideal active individual.

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