Mediterranean diet

The Mediterranean Diet is a valuable cultural heritage that represents much more than a simple, rich and healthy nutritional guideline. It is a balanced lifestyle that includes recipes, ways of cooking, celebrations, customs, typical products and various human activities. UNESCO recognized it as Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2013.

The first scientific references to a Mediterranean diet date back to 1948, when the epidemiologist Leland G. Allbaugh studied the way of life of the inhabitants of the island of Crete and, among other aspects, compared their diet with that of Greece and the United States. Shortly thereafter, the American physiologist Ancel Keys conducted a study on coronary heart disease, blood cholesterol and lifestyle in seven countries (Netherlands, Finland, USA, Japan, Yugoslavia, Italy and Greece) consolidating the idea of ​​a Mediterranean diet. Keys and his colleagues found that the incidence of coronary heart disease was lower in rural areas of southern Europe and in Japan. They suspected that there was a protective factor in the lifestyle, which they labeled as «Mediterranean style» (Mediterranean way), and which they described as «very physically active (due to the scarce mechanization of agriculture), frugal, and with a predominant ingestion of vegetable products and reduced in products of animal origin ”. The increased consumption of products rich in monounsaturated fatty acids (“good fats”) present in olive oil, fish, especially blue fish, and the moderate consumption of red wine also play a role in the benefits of the Mediterranean diet.

This diet is associated with a lower rate of abdominal obesity (the fat we accumulate in the abdomen, and which is related to the risk of diabetes, hypertension, heart attack and stroke). It also improves embryonic and fetal development, and reduces disovulatory and infertility problems.

The truth is that this diet is a model rather than a reality, since the diet in the Mediterranean countries was not the same for all or for all the regions within each one of them: in the coastal areas they ate a lot of fresh fish, not like that In the indoor ones, and depending on the climate, fruits and vegetables were more or less accessible at different times of the year …

In Spain, for example, in the 70s the production of olive oil increased notably, but since its export allowed a rapid obtaining of foreign exchange, internally the consumption of soybean and sunflower oil was encouraged – which also benefited to the livestock industry. In this way, in these years the consumption of olive oil decreased, rebounding in the 90s.

But the Mediterranean diet continues to be of great value as a benchmark. The Mediterranean Diet Foundation has updated the pyramid for our lifestyle: “One or two servings per meal, in the form of bread, pasta, rice, couscous or others. They should preferably be whole since some nutrients (magnesium, phosphorus, etc.) and fiber can be lost in processing. Vegetables should be present at both lunch and dinner, approximately two servings at each serving. At least one of them must be raw. The variety of colors and textures provides a diversity of antioxidants and protective substances. “