Healthy Food
Some simple food essential to the Cretan Diet, for your pantry

With this simple store of healthy food and simple ingredients in your fridge, cupboard and pantry, you will be able to build up a store of Cretan food to make the healthy, nutritious and tasty meals that the Cretans enjoy on the Cretan Diet.

The Cretan diet is probably the original Mediterranean diet as it contains the healthiest of foods that promote good health, longevity and is deliciously tasty.

The Greek Island of Crete is renowned for its healthy Cretan food and many of the foodstuffs available in Crete that make up the Cretan Diet are listed below.

All this healthy food is certainly widely available in most local supermarkets, farmers markets or farm shops – you don’t need to live on Crete. Try to get the best healthy food in the form of organic versions where possible because their flavour is much better.

Always make sure you have these Cretan Diet ingredients to hand:

Olive Oil	Very important to the health giving Cretan Diet.
Onions	Always useful to have and are included in most recipes.
Tomatoes	Again, used in most recipes.
Olives	A very tasty and healthy fruit to have.
Yoghurt	Get natural, pure Greek yoghurt (obviously!)
Honey	A natural sweetener full of goodness. Organic is best.
Eggs	Always useful to have in. Free range of course.
Wine	For cooking (and drinking!)
Garlic	Such an important flavour.
Chick Peas	A good staple in the Cretan diet.
Dried Beans	Selection of dried beans for delicious combinations.
Vinegar	Again, another flavour important in some recipes.
Lemon Juice	Try to get fresh lemons wherever possible.
Bay Leaves	An important ingredient for many top chefs.
Cinnamon	Sticks preferably.
Cumin	A good flavour used by the Greeks.

When you follow the recipes, you’ll just need to add one or a few fresh ingredients and soon you’ll be eating like a person from the Greek Island of Crete - and looking forward to a long and healthy life!

(Don’t forget to drive carefully and give up smoking too though!)