FOOD AVAILABILITY

Some points regarding the availability of foods among rural and urban Greeks
deserve mention. Based on the examination of the sources presented above,9-16
cereals were the foods that provided more energy than any other food group to
the populations examined. Energy from cereals represented about two thirds of
the total available energy for the rural groups. The dietary importance of cereals
however, diminished with increasing affluence and urban environment. Urban
representatives of the working, middle, and upper class derived 60%, 48% and
43% of their total food energy, respectively, from cereals. Cereals consumed by
peasants in southern Greece were wheat, barley, and corn. Peasants in northern
Greece based their diet on corn, rye, and wheat, deriving somewhat more food
energy from corn than either rye or wheat, and approximately equal energy
amounts from rye and wheat. Urban Greeks, on the other hand, consumed wheat
and barley as well as substantial amounts of rice. Rice consumption appears to
have paralleled economic affluence.
Southern peasants relied heavily on legumes to meet their food needs and derived
16% of their calories from broad beans and other dry legumes. For the urban Greeks,
however, legumes contributed much less to energy intake, and represented 3-5% of
the total available energy, with members of the prosperous class exhibiting the most
limited use of these food commodities.
Olive oil was available to urban Greeks at much higher quantities than to their
rural counterparts. Among the former, olive oil contributed 14% to 18% to total
available energy, while it accounted for only 5% and 2% of the available energy in
southern 19th-century peasants and 20th-century herders, respectively. A limited
availability of olive oil among 19th-century Greek peasants has also been previously
reported; availability estimates for peasants on the island of Evea ranged between
6.5 and 10.2 g/capita/day.60 The increased olive oil consumption among middle- and
upper-class urban representatives was responsible for the higher availability of
monounsaturated fatty acids, as well as for a good portion of the saturated fatty
acids' availability. Middle-class and prosperous urban Greeks used butter on a regular
basis, while this item was not used by southern peasants.
Contribution of animal products to the regimens varied according to economic
environment and degree of affluence. A remarkable difference emerges regarding
consumption of meat. The per capita meat availability among southern 19th-
century peasants was, on the average, 30 g/day whereas among working- and
middle-class urban Greeks, it was 55 g/day and 77 g/day, respectively. Meat and
eggs provided 4%, 6% and 8% of the total available energy to peasants, working-
class, and middle-class city inhabitants, respectively. For northern herders, meat
and eggs provided 11% of the total calories. Use of milk was greater among 20th-
century Greeks than in their 19th-century counterparts. Cheese, however, was
consumed in higher quantities by rural Greeks than by urban Greeks; and
accounted for 4% and 5% of the total available energy for southern peasants and
northern herders, respectively.
Wine contributed significantly to energy intake in all populations except the
northern herders, accounting for 2-5% of the total available energy. These figures
do not reflect consumption levels among adults, especially males, for whom
actual availability must have been considerably higher. Sugar and honey were
used by all groups. Consumption of these sweeteners was limited among 19th-
century Greeks (10 g/capita/day among rural; 21 g/capita/day among prosperous
urban). Sugar availability however, was greatly increased among the 20th-cen-
tury urban Greeks and reached 48 g/capita/day among representatives of the
middle class.
Evidence for an extensive use of vegetables is provided by all household logs
and survey results used in our analysis. For northern herders, for instance, it is
mentioned that onions, peppers, and various green vegetables were produced by the
household, while herb tea was collected by the children of the family.10 For repre-
sentatives of the working and middle class, daily vegetable (other than the potato)
and fruit availability ranged between 160 g and 170 g per capita. The sources,
however, provide incomplete accounts on production and purchases of vegetable
and fruit items and, furthermore, do not allow for identification of the particular
species used. For this reason, vegetables, other than the potato, were excluded from
the analyses on energy and macronutrient availability.