to question my diet. Why would I? I was in the “1 percent”
of grain consumers, eating them nearly exclusively in their
whole, unadulterated state. But here’s the devastating truth: I
was misled about the health quality of grains, and you were
too.
Origins of a Myth
One of the most well-known dietary patterns shown to
confer cardioprotective and neuroprotective effects is the
Mediterranean diet, first popularized by renowned fat
disparager Ancel Keys (you may remember him from such
popular hits as chapter 2). Keys enjoyed vacationing on the
Greek island of Crete, a region of exceptionally long-lived
people, and he used their diet as the backbone for his
studies in human nutrition. If Keys had visited the East, he
might instead have singled out the diet of the exceptionally
healthy Japanese, rich in fish eggs, fermented soybeans (a
dish called natto), and kelp noodles. But Greece and Italy
were popular destinations at the time; they were closer and
warmer and certainly had better wine.
As he saw it, the people of the Mediterranean built their
diets around plant foods and seafood—vegetables, legumes,
fish, olive oil, grains, and nuts. But people in the Greek
islands also love their meat, and fatty cuts of lamb are
regularly enjoyed. This was perhaps lost on Keys, who
happened to visit Crete during a particularly lean time,
stationing himself on the impoverished island just after
World War II, and during Lent, when meat consumption