The diet of the ordinary Greek in classical times was largely vegetari

Not exactly! The use of "And" sounds much better to me than the use of a preposition "with". "and" atleast keeps the segue.
I agree with Bunuel, I also chose B and later found out that it was wrong. I still can't understand why E is better than B.

Could any of the experts please chime in, if possible?
Thanks
GMATNinja, IanStewart, KyleWiddison, DmitryFarber, MartyTargetTestPrep GMATGuruNY, egmat zhanbo RonPurewal, AndrewN
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I'm not sure why you quote Ajitesh when you write "Not exactly!" when Ajitesh is the only expert in the thread who you seem to agree with! And Ajitesh is right -- there's nothing inherently wrong with using "and" at the end of a list, and then following that list with another "and". If I write: I mainly eat potatoes, pasta, and rice, and I eat fish on holidays, that's a perfectly good sentence. The whole purpose of the "and" I highlight in red is to indicate that the list is about to end, so we know that a subsequent "and" (the one in blue) is a conjunction joining the list to a second idea.

So I disagree with the many expert posts in this thread, including the top post, that dismiss B because of some blanket objection to using "and" twice. In answer B, the second "and" clearly does not continue the list, but instead joins it to a new idea, so we aren't using "and" twice in the same list (which we can't do). It's not a problem, and I agree with Ajitesh about that (and as far as I can tell, with no other expert in this thread). The problem I see with B comes down to meaning. When we describe meat as "rare", we usually mean "almost uncooked". To be sure the sentence does not convey that unintended meaning, we need to avoid phrases like "rare meat" or "meat was rare", and replace it with "and rarely included meat" or, "with meat on rare occasions", or, as answer E awkwardly does, "with meat as a rarity", so it becomes clear that meat was a rare inclusion in the diet, and not that the meat itself was rare.
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Well, I said "not exactly!" to AjiteshArun over his below statement:

I didn't know that by "rare", he meant "almost uncooked". The link that he had shared is dead so I didn't know what he meant. But after reading your explanation, now I understand what he actually meant.
Thanks for pointing that out. Now it's lucid.
so yea, now I take my "not exactly!" back! lol

PS: Feels pretty good knowing that I, Ajitesh and Bunuel were the only three on this site who could see this flaw.
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While the GMAT generally does not test punctuation, B can be eliminated because of a compelling punctuation issue.

OA: The diet of the ordinary Greek in classical times was largely vegetarian—vegetables, fresh cheese, oatmeal, and meal cakes, with meat as a rarity.
Here, the entire portion in green plays an adverbial role, expressing HOW the diet WAS LARGELY VEGETARIAN.

B: The diet of the ordinary Greek in classical times was largely vegetarian--vegetables, fresh cheese, oatmeal, and meal cakes, and meat was rare.
Here, the red portion is positioned between the two independent blue clauses connected by and.
As a result, the red portion serves as a PARENTHETICAL THOUGHT.
If a parenthetical thought is preceded by a dash, it must also be FOLLOWED by a dash, as follows:
John liked three flavors -- vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry -- and the local market sold all three.
In B, the red parenthetical thought is preceded by a dash but incorrectly followed by a COMMA.
Eliminate B.
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The diet ... was largely vegetarian—vegetables, fresh cheese, oatmeal, and meal cakes, ...

If The list talks about more than 2 items then after second items there should be and. Why not here like vegetables, fresh cheese, AND oatmeal, and meal cakes. Why AND is missing after fresh cheese? Experts????

Not sure I get your question Abhishek.

Basically, if the list talks about more than 2 items then there should be an "and" before the last item.

Quad is a diplomatic network of four countries, which include India, Japan, Australia, and the United States.
- There are 4 items in the list and so, we place an "and" before the last item (United States).

It would be wrong to say:

Quad is a diplomatic network of four countries, which include India, Japan, and Australia, and the United States.
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You got my question. Thank you for clearing my doubt....