Greece, land of the 12 Olympian gods may be a great deal different today than it was in classical times.

Yet, if you wish, you can follow a diet that the ancients followed, live longer feel healthier protect your self against illness and best of all its tasty and easy to do even today, so here is the traditional Greek diet.

The same foods are grown there today as they always were, and are wholesome, promoting good health and long life.

The statures of the ancient Greek attest to their beautiful and strong bodies.

The ancient Greeks were known to be sexually active into old age and this was due to their diet.

Basics in the Greek Diet

The basics are traditional bread, made without commercial yeast (but use a “prozimi”, or a bit of leavened dough from the previous backing.

This prozimi in many cases is hundreds of years old, or older, in culture.

The basics are honey, olives and olive oil, fresh white cheese (now known as feta), the onion, garlic, natural tomato, eggs, wine vinegar, wine and fresh vegetables and fruits in season.

Pulses, especially the lentil, was (and is) a basic stable of Greek diet. Nuts also form part of the ancient Greek diet.

No Meat?

Actually in ancient times, eating meat was rare anyway. Without refrigeration, meat eating was reserved for some holidays and festivals only.

Therefore, the ancient Greek was mostly vegetarian. This kept them strong and healthy, without illnesses such as cancer and other diseases of excess (as were found in Rome).

Breakfast

An ancient Greek breakfast would, somehow similar to today, consist of some fresh baked bread with honey and cheese.

The beverage of choice was a sort of tea made from mountain herbs (still drunk today, called tsi to vounou ).

This infusion has great antiseptic qualities, and stimulates the immune system. The breakfast would be hardy, as there was no lunch, or if there was, it was symbolic.

Snack – Hunger Breaker

The shepherds of Greece today, follow the meal that is as old as time. They have some hard bread, a tomato, an onion, some cheese (maybe but not always), and water.

It keeps the hunger at bay.

The cheese is the white Greek feta. It is a naturally low fat cheese, and is cured in salty water, then whey. It has a distinctive taste, and it packed full of available calcium, and milk proteins.

End of the Day Meal

The day ended when the sun went down in ancient Greece, and the meal was a cooked one. Lentils (known as faikes) in ancient Greece, as modern Greece, is a culinary art. It is also the oldest food mentioned in the Bible.

It is the food that Jacob was cooking when he traded a bowl of it from Esau’s birthright. Faikes is boiled lentils with fresh tomato, onion, garlic, and laurel leaf.

The smell of cooking lentils awakens a great deal of emotion in almost any human. The taste is delicious, the nutritional value exceptional, and is very satisfying.

If you need to lose some weight, and detox your body some, have some ancient Greek food for a few days. You will not regret it.