Greece's first health food on-the-go a hit

ATHENS (Reuters Life!) - Pass up the cholesterol-rich meats and sauces next time you are in Greece and gorge on the ancient fast food credited with bestowing long life to the islanders of Crete for the last 4,000 years.

A Greek company has delved into Crete's ancient cuisine to create a menu of dishes it hopes will become the basis for a fast food restaurant chain providing a healthy diet and profits.

Dakos, named after the traditional Cretan barley rusk, aims to bring to rushed urbanites some of the tastes of Crete, whose inhabitants are known for their long lives.

"We wanted to capture consumers' need to eat something wholesome outside home," Alexandra Plevraki, marketing manager of Eurocreta told Reuters.

"So, we said: Why don't we set up a restaurant chain which will be based on wholesome eating, such as the Cretan diet?"

Eurocreta, an affiliate company of Greek listed processed meat firm Creta Farm, hopes to cash in on consumers' growing demand for healthy, low-fat fast food, she said.

But what differentiates Dakos from other fast food chains is the low-fat Cretan ingredients most of its dishes are based on.

Modeled after Britain's Pret-a-Manger and Spain's 100 Montaditos, Dakos's offers organic salads and sandwiches and some unusual dishes such as pies filled with Cretan cream cheese or herbs, garnished with honey and walnuts.

Beverages include several kinds of Cretan herbal tea.

"In Dakos, the basic raw material is Cretan olive oil. We use nothing but extra-virgin olive oil," Plevraki said. "Butter is forbidden."

Plevraki said Dakos has grown very popular since its debut in December and was planning to open a few more stores in the greater Athens area by 2008. Expansion in Britain and the United States could follow.

"When Dakos opened at the end of December, we had about 110 customers per day and by early March the number grew to about 740 per day," Plevraki said.

A study of 16 populations from seven nations has indicated the Cretan diet, which dates back to the Minoan Age some 4,000 years ago, is responsible for the longevity of its inhabitants.

A Greek professor who worked on the project said this was thanks to their consumption of mainly olive oil, bread, herbs and fruit.

"We have been studying the Cretan population since 1985 and the latest results in 2000 show Cretans have the lowest mortality rate from heart attack and cancer compared to all other examined populations," said Antonis Kafatos, professor of preventive medicine and nutrition at Crete University.