Food & Drink: Healthiest cuisine under the sun: Fresh fish, dried tomatoes, garlic and olive oil save lives. Michael Bateman and Sudi Pigott on the Med Diet

IT'S DELICIOUS and it does you good. But what kind of diet is it that doesn't call for self-denial or physical effort? You'll never have to breakfast on dry toast with lemon juice. Nor pump iron to a disco beat, while dressed in thigh-hugging Lurex tights. Indeed, it's no hardship to obey the six commandments of the Mediterranean Diet: eat more bread; eat more fish; eat more poultry; eat more vegetables; no day without fruit; eat more mono-unsaturated fat (especially olive oil).

No wonder designer olive oil has become the acceptable social lubricant of today's dinner parties. It may be an estate-bottled, cold-pressed extra virgin olive oil costing

pounds 5- pounds 15 a litre, but this is a small price to pay for longer life and a healthy heart.

In fact, there is more to good health than switching to olive oil, but it could be a start. Not only can it replace saturated fats and oils in meals but is now thought to have distinctly beneficial qualities in its own right. TV researchers Gilly Smith and Rowena Goldman, authors of a new book out this month, The Mediterranean Health Diet (Headline pounds 4.99), quote research by Dr Serge Renaud, in Lyon. He is satisfied that olive oil, being a mono- unsaturated oil, acts as an anti-oxidant in the body, preventing heart disease. His tests also suggest that changing to a Mediterranean-style diet can be curative as well as preventive. Patients who had suffered a heart attack were five to six times more likely to have a second one if they did not adjust their diets in this way.

Of course, you can achieve the required effect by eating the Anglo-Saxon Diet: the high level of vitamins present in fresh apples and pears, salads, cabbage and carrots act as anti-oxidants, too. And you can try using sunflower oil, but none of this has quite the cachet of a Mediterranean Diet.

The Americans were first to set the fashion as long ago as 1975 when Doctors Ancel and Margaret Keys, two medics from Minnesota, wrote a best-selling book, How to Eat Well and Stay Well the Mediterranean Way. Around this time the Royal College of Surgeons warned us that our unhealthy diet was responsible for epidemic levels of heart disease. Yet it was not until 1992 that a government White Paper suggested that we might adopt a diet closer to Mediterranean patterns.

An increasing number of restaurants are beginning to interpret the Mediterranean Diet. This is good news, since the best of Mediterranean cooking, what the Provencal chef Roger Verge calls Cuisine of the Sun, is wonderful with its assertive flavours. One such restaurant is Soho Soho, in London. Its chef Tony Howorth, though classicly trained at Le Caprice, Mirabelle and The Ivy, now fully embraces the new precepts.

They are all about freedom of expression, he says - putting together simple, first-class ingredients imaginatively but with as little fuss as possible. Yet his down-to-earth approach to Mediterranean food does not preclude innovation. Current enthusiasms include toasted focaccia (flat bread) with avocado and Parmesan, and a galette of sun-dried and fresh tomatoes made with puff pastry rolled out through a pasta machine to ensure it is biscuit thin.

Soho Soho's owner, Lawrence Issacson, has a special reason for being devoted to the diet. It helped him overcome high cholesterol and lose weight. 'I was thrilled to find I could still eat pasta and an endless variety of sauces and fresh foods - and lose 9kg over four months.'

Uncompromising, brave yet foolhardy are the epithets most often applied to chef Simon Gueller. After a rigorous London training, notably with Marco Pierre White, he has returned to his roots and opened Millers in Harrogate. Despite his traditional haute cuisine background, he has always leant towards healthier food - but it was a holiday in Provence that completely changed his attitude.

'We spent an evening on the verandah of Roger Verge's Moulin de Mougins; everything was cooked with olive oil, even the freshest vegetables, with the wonderful aroma of Provencal herbs. He let the natural flavours speak for themselves. After that, I was hooked.'

Gueller admits it has been an uphill struggle to implement his trail-blazing Mediterranean style in his home town. 'People here associate eating out with rich, creamy treats. It is up to chefs like me to show them adventurous, visually exciting ways to enjoy healthy food.'

Phil Owens, chef of The Arts Theatre Cafe, in London's West End, is by contrast totally self-taught. He became a devotee of Mediterranean-style cooking through travelling in Italy and Spain. From his holidays in Sicily, he has picked up an Arab influence of sweet and sour flavours. 'I'll use pine nuts and raisins together in a dish with pomegranates and coriander, or sardines marinated in red onions and balsamic vinegar. I try to get away from meat being the centrepiece of a plate. My menu is about 60 per cent vegetarian.'

For Owens, the health implications of adhering to the Mediterranean diet were especially decisive. Two years ago, he was diagnosed as having chronic arthritis. By cutting out all dairy products, switching to Mediterranean-style foods and avoiding the combination of protein and carbohydrate foods in the same meal, he has minimised the pain and lost weight.

As his confidence with his own distinct brand of Mediterranean-style cooking increases, Owens is keen to experiment with unexpected combinations: fusilli with nettles and ricotta; tomatoes stuffed with rice, Swiss chard and fennel; poached plums with honey and rosemary. Here are two of his recipes.

BAKED SKATE WITH CAPERS,

ANCHOVY AND CHILLI

Serves 4

2 1/2 -3lb skate wings, trimmed and cut into 4 pieces

2 tablespoons capers, rinsed and soaked (if salted)

8 anchovies

3 green chillies, chopped (seeded if you prefer)

salt and pepper

4-5 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

Pre-heat the oven to 375F/190C/Gas 5. Place skate in an earthenware dish, with capers, anchovies and chillies on top. Season to taste, but go easy on the salt because of the anchovies. Drizzle with olive oil, cover with foil, and bake for 15-20 minutes. Serve with steamed broccoli and plenty of bread to soak up the juices.

PANZANELLA

Tuscan bread salad

Serves 4

4 slices good white bread, cubed

8 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

4 plum tomatoes, cubed

1 small cucumber, peeled and cubed

1 yellow pepper, cut into chunks

2 tablespoons chopped mixed fresh herbs

1/2 fennel bulb, 1 red onion, 1 celery stick,

all three sliced thinly and soaked in iced water

salt and pepper

3 teaspoons each of balsamic and white wine vinegar

1 handful each of rocket and watercress leaves, shredded

4 anchovies

about 8 black olives

Preheat oven to 400F/200C/Gas 6. Drizzle bread cubes with half the olive oil, then bake on a tray in the oven for 10-15 minutes until golden. Drain on absorbent paper. Drain and dry fennel, onion and celery. Mix in a bowl, with tomato, cucumber, pepper and chopped herbs. Season, then dress with remaining olive oil and vinegars. Toss then, and just before serving mix in croutons, rocket and watercress, and garnish with anchovies and black olives.-

(Photograph omitted)