The Mediterranean Diet. Say the term and it conjures up all that's good and golden and life-saving about eating and drinking. It's one of the holy health grails of the past few decades. Loosely, it's understood by those outside of the Mediterranean to consist of large amounts of fruit and vegetables, fish, nuts and whole-grain, with lashings of virgin olive oil over everything.It was (some sources will tell you) originally inspired by the diets of Greece, France, Spain and the south of Italy during the mid 20th century. Others cite different countries which fit better into their particular argument. It's apparently light on meat and saturated fat. Processed foods, including refined grains, are hardly present. Moderate (and apparently crucial) red wine drinking makes the whole thing more appealing.But should we be so sold on all this? First up, are people in these particular Mediterranean countries really healthier than everyone else? Secondly, if they are, is this largely because of their diet? Thirdly, does the real-life Mediterranean diet even match up to the thing we're being sold, or is it a bit of a fairy tale?It's hard work to find out because, as usual, most studies refute one another and many are done pathetically badly. Some sources, for example, will tell you that the whole-grain and nut component of the diet is one of its healthiest aspects. Other sources point out that when grain appears in much European and Middle Eastern Mediterranean food, it's far more likely to be refined (pizza base, lahmacun and rice for example) than not, and still other research points out that grain in and of itself is pretty much the least optimal item in any human diet (anyone who's read Grain Brain by David Perlmutter will find it hard to disagree).Then too, one wonders, how does France fit into the low saturated fat aspect erroneously touted as a magical component of this diet, with its high consumption of cheese, even in the more southerly Mediterranean parts? Wine is famously forwarded as the ameliorating factor, but that doesn't explain why the Japanese enjoy long life, even with refined carbohydrates (rice) as a main dietary component, and no olive oil in the mix.The World Health Organisation 2015 Life Expectancy Report shows that Switzerland, Japan and Singapore all have higher life expectancies than the Mediterranean countries. Who to believe? In a world with a thousand fads a minute, I suspect the diet least likely to cause early death (simply from neurosis) is the one where you just eat real foods, whole and unprocessed. Then you really don't need to follow one with a special name or from one hallowed spot on the planet...