A few years ago,  Public Television Station KCET (in Southern California) was airing a documentary on nutrition with a guest speaker, a nutrition doctor, who conducted a study correlating cultural diets with Cardio-Vascular problems, as well as certain occurrences of colon cancer.  The research was focused on dietary habits of people inhabiting the eastern portion of the Mediterranean Sea, namely Syria, Lebanon, Turkey, Greece and other Middle Eastern countries.  As I remember, this doctor’s findings showed this part of the world has one of the lowest incidents of Cardio-Vascular and colon cancer ailments.  She concluded that this could be explained by the dietary habits of these people.  It was found that they extensively used grains, had a low meat intake, extensive use of Nuts, Dry Fruits, Olives and Olive Oil.