Paximadia and Dakos

In the 1950s, Ansel Keys and his colleagues studied the eating habits, health, and life expectancy of various peoples in seven countries, Greece being one of them. The inhabitants of Crete, in particular, were faring best of all. In those days twice-baked dakos or paximadia (barley rusks) were the staple food of the Cretans. But when the foods of Crete were recorded, and became the model for the Mediterranean Diet, the barley biscuits were translated as “whole-wheat bread” for northern Europeans and Americans unfamiliar with barley, dakos, and paximadia.