The ancient Mediterranean diet was not a single, fixed menu but rather a collection of regional diets—dominated by bread—that were shaped by levels of wealth and food availability.
For the Roman Emperor Julian (332–363 AD), bread held a central place at the table. He described it as a food “which, in the opinion of many, is the most nutritious.” This emphasis reflected the everyday cuisine of much of the ancient Mediterranean. Bread and other grain-based products formed the foundation of many diets, supplemented by legumes, oil, wine, and whatever seasonal produce was available.
The reality bore little resemblance to the modern concept of the “Mediterranean diet,” with its familiar emphasis on vegetables, olive oil, and grilled fish. While bread may have been a staple in Julian’s Roman world, not everyone viewed it as desirable. Ethiopians, who relied on meat and milk, considered bread a poor food with low nutritional value; they were baffled as to how Mediterranean peoples could survive on what they saw as “dung.”
The physician Galen (129–216 AD) left behind one of the most detailed surviving accounts of the ancient Mediterranean diet. In his work On the Properties of Foodstuffs, Galen begins with grains and legumes before moving on to plants, animal products, and fish. Among these staples, he regarded wheat as the most widely consumed and “valuable” foodstuff.
Bread was far more than just a side dish; for many people, it constituted the bulk of the meal. Galen carefully distinguished between different varieties, describing fine white bread as the “most nutritious.” Bran bread ranked last, although he considered it more effective for promoting bowel movements. Preparation mattered, too; the best bread was “well-leavened and thoroughly kneaded” and baked “at a moderate temperature.”
An excessively hot oven produced a crust that was “dry and clay-like” while leaving the center raw. Galen believed that completely unleavened bread was unsuitable for almost everyone.
Galen learned the importance of wheat processing through an unpleasant personal experience. While traveling through the countryside with friends, a poor peasant woman served them boiled whole grains because she had run out of bread:
For the entire next day, we had no appetite due to indigestion and could eat nothing; we were plagued by gas, headaches, and blurred vision. We even lacked a bowel movement—the only remedy for indigestion. That same grain became nutritious only after grinding, sifting, kneading, fermenting, and baking.
Ancient people certainly consumed fruits and vegetables. Galen mentions lettuce, cabbage, onions, gourds, figs, grapes, apples, pears, and pomegranates. Yet, he did not automatically regard them as the foundation of a healthy diet.
Many plants were valued primarily for their medicinal properties—such as loosening the bowels, promoting the production of bodily fluids, or stimulating urination—despite containing virtually no nutrients.
A diet rich in plant foods might also reflect poverty rather than a healthy choice. Galen calls oats “food for draft animals, not for humans,” except in cases where “extreme hunger” forced people to bake bread from them.
Legumes played a far more important role than modern perceptions of Mediterranean cuisine suggest. Lentils, chickpeas, lupins, and various flowering legumes provided substantial nutrition.
Galen describes an Alexandrian physician who lived primarily on legumes for four years. His diet seems strikingly modern—until Galen reveals that the physician seasoned the legumes with fish sauce.
Meanwhile, fresh fish was not necessarily a staple of daily consumption. Access to it depended on location and means, as fish could be expensive. Fish caught near Rome could also be contaminated by waste entering the Tiber River from “latrines, baths, or kitchens.”
The Greek writer Athenaeus illustrates why we should be cautious when speaking of a “Mediterranean” diet. Athenaeus, writing around 200 AD, imagined a long dinner party where guests discussed food, wine, and dining customs. His examples show that people’s diets depended largely on where they lived and their level of wealth.
He begins one of his books with a description of Lusitania, a city in present-day Spain. Seafood there, he says, “far surpasses what is found in our seas in abundance, quality, and beauty.”
Wheat, barley, wine, figs, and meat were surprisingly cheap …game. Game was valued so little that vendors sometimes gave it away for free “as a bonus for good intentions.” Elsewhere, however, fish was expensive. Athenaeus quotes a diner at an eatery complaining: “I don’t think I’ve ever seen such expensive fish. Poseidon, if you were given 10% of what is spent on it every day, you would be far from the richest god!”
Fish was not always served simply. Athenaeus preserved a recipe by the Sicilian chef Mithaecus, who lived in the 5th century BC: “After cutting off the head of the ribbonfish, remove the entrails, wash it, cut it into slices, and drizzle with cheese and oil.”
Fish and olive oil sound familiar. Yet, a thick layer of cheese and oil contradicts the modern image of healthy, lightly grilled seafood.
Most ancient Mediterranean inhabitants could hardly live without bread. Grains formed the caloric foundation; legumes, vegetable oil, vegetables, fruit, and fish varied depending on the region, season, and level of wealth.
Ancient evidence does not allow us to identify a single, uniform diet for the ancient Mediterranean. There were many variations: one for regions with abundant food, another for the poor barely making ends meet, and yet another for wealthy gourmets capable of paying exorbitant prices for expensive delicacies.
Thus, the modern Mediterranean diet is not an ancient menu preserved unchanged. It is a selective reconstruction that emphasizes olive oil, vegetables, and seafood, while quietly omitting the mountains of bread and cheese.
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