Greek Food - souvlaka is healthiest choice - Statistical Data Included

Nutrition Action Healthletter, Nov, 2000 by Jayne Hurley, Bonnie Liebman

A MEDITERRANEAN MIXED BAG

Vegetables, grains, olives, grapes. For centuries, those staples have been the essence of traditional Greek cooking. Few countries have such a rich and fascinating culinary history grounded in thousands of years farming and cooking and influenced by Turkey, Lebanon, Italy, and other neighbors. What's more, studies in the 1950s found that residents of the Greek island of Crete had one of the lowest rates of heart disease in the world. Mediterranean cuisine has become almost synonymous with heart healthy. But not when most restaurants in America serve it.

Americans love to eat out. And when it comes to ethnic cuisine, what the industry calls "The Big Three"--Italian, Mexican, and Chinese--are the runaway favorites. In fact, spaghetti, tacos, and egg rolls are so familiar that many people no longer think of them as any less American than a burger and fries.

But we also have a growing interest in other ethnic foods. And comfortably ensconced in the second tier of popularity is Greek restaurant fare. In a 1999 survey by the National Restaurant Association, more than half of the respondents said that they eat Greek food occasionally or frequently.

Most people know that burgers, fries, nachos, and doughnuts are unhealthy. But what about gyros, spanakopita, souvlaki, and baklava? Those and other Greek specialties are popping up not only in sit-down restaurants, but in mall eateries, airports, and other locations. Yet as ethnic foods grow in popularity, it's not always easy to spot the menu items that may make a beeline to your waistline or heart.

Some "healthy" restaurant guides endorse (or disparage) restaurant foods based on looking at recipes from cookbooks. But recipes can't tell you what a typical restaurant ladles out to its customers. Only laboratory analyses--like the ones we conducted for this article--can supply reliable numbers. And while our results can't tell you exactly what's served in the Greek restaurant in your neighborhood, they do offer a ball-park estimate of what a typical dish might contain.

And those estimates are a mixed bag. A few dishes--like chicken, lamb, or pork souvlaki--are as healthy as the healthiest meals at Italian, Chinese, or typical American restaurants. Others make you wonder whether "Greece" should be spelled "Grease." A typical entree of stuffed grape leaves or spinach pie, for example, has more artery-clogging fat than a Big Mac. A gyro or an order of moussaka has twice as much.

Why haven't those dishes harmed the Greeks? Over the centuries, their diets consisted largely of vegetables, grains, and olive oil, with just a smattering of seafood, meat, and cheese. In the landmark Seven Countries study, which began in 1947, the men from the Greek island of Crete, who had a remarkably low rate of heart disease, got only eight percent of their calories from saturated fat. They weren't sitting down to a plate of spanakopita every day. (They were barely sitting down, period. They were far more active than Americans--or Greeks, for that matter--are today.)

But to the average American, who can have pizza on Monday and a beef burrito or an order of moo shu pork on Tuesday, a portion of moussaka is another story. We can dine on a different artery-clogging cuisine every day. And our arteries and bellies show it.

How We Got Our Numbers

We bought dinner-sized takeout portions of six popular main dishes, one sandwich, one side dish, and one dessert at nine Greek restaurants in Chicago, Los Angeles, and Washington, D.C. We made a composite sample for each dish (by blending together equal portions of each restaurant's chicken souvlaki, for example) and sent the composites to an independent laboratory to be analyzed for calories, total fat, saturated fat, trans fat, cholesterol, sodium, and (for baklava) sugar.

Here's what we found, listed from least artery-clogging fat (saturated plus trans) to most, with dessert (baklava) at the end.

Chicken Souvlaki

Whether it's called souvlaki in Greece or shish kebob in the Middle East, it's usually the same: marinated chicken (or lamb, beef, or pork) threaded on a skewer (with vegetables), then broiled or grilled and served over rice. Of the main dishes we tested, it's clearly the winner.

A typical order of chicken kebobs will run you only 260 calories, eight grams of fat (two of them saturated plus trans), and 370 milligrams of sodium. What's more, the skewers often yield about two-thirds of a cup of vegetables, not counting the usual side dishes like green beans or carrots.

When you add rice, the numbers climb to just 500 calories and 14 grams of fat (five of them saturated plus trans)--about the same as a grilled chicken breast plus vegetables and a baked potato. For a restaurant meal, that's hard to beat (though 1,050 mg of sodium is nothing to boast about).

To make it better: Until someone invents a salt vacuum, you can't.

Lamb or Pork Souvlaki

If you're looking for red meat, you can't beat kebobs. On the skewers you'll find only 310 calories and 11 grams of fat (four of them saturated plus trans). Add rice and the numbers rise to 550 calories, 18 grams of fat (seven of them saturated plus trans), and an unfortunate 1,230 mg of sodium.