The Los Angelas Times has a good review:
Around the middle of the 20th century, scientists noticed that people living in Mediterranean areas had longer, healthier lives than people in many other parts of the world — even though smoking rates were high and healthcare wasn’t that great in some of those countries. Some of the first hard evidence supporting this observation came from the so-called Seven Countries Study, published in 1970: It found that Greece — as exemplified by the island of Crete — had lower rates of cardiovascular disease and cancer than the other six countries in the study: the United States, Finland, the Netherlands, Italy, the former Yugoslavia and Japan.
The paper does a good job covering the details of the diet. It’s unusually good for this sort of piece, and (mostly) stays away from over compartmentalizing important information.
If you’re curious, read the whole thing.
Health Kismet Blog 