Q. What is the Mediterranean Diet?

A. The Mediterranean Diet is often considered one of the world’s healthiest. Salmon, olive oil, red wine and almonds top the list of must-eat foods in this cuisine.

Whether you’re consider adopting a Mediterranean Diet to lose weight or just incorporating the cuisine’s principles into your daily life, read on to learn the basics of this European regional diet.

Since much of the Mediterranean area is surrounded by water, fish is a main source of protein in this cuisine. People in the Mediterranean eat fewer high-fat meats and more lower-fat plant proteins such as nuts, seeds and legumes. Dishes mainly feature whole grains, healthier fats (particularly omega-3 fats) and lots of fruits and fresh veggies. Red wine is also a staple.

Several scientific studies have associated this diet with extending life expectancy and lowering risks for heart disease and cancer.

More guidelines for this diet:

— Use lots of fresh herbs and spices to flavor your meals instead of salt.

— Eat fish at least twice a week.

— Eat minimal red meat.

— Get your omega-3 fats from walnuts, fatty fish and canola oil.

— Exercise is a must!

— Enjoy your meals with family and friends.

With a Mediterranean Diet, you’re turning to simple, fresh food choices — not buying pricey prepackaged meals or signing up for special diet programs. Note that because many of the foods recommended are fresh, your grocery bill might be a bit pricier.

This article is about the dietary recommendation that became popular in the 1990s. For food of the areas around the Mediterranean Sea, see Cuisine of the Mediterranean.

The Mediterranean diet is a modern nutritional recommendation inspired by the traditional dietary patterns of southern Italy, Crete and much of the rest of Greece in the 1960s.

On November 17, 2010, UNESCO recognized this diet pattern as an Intangible Cultural Heritage of Italy, Greece, Spain and Morocco, thus reinforcing it not only as a fundamental part of their history and background, but also as a great contribution to the world.

Despite its name, this diet is not typical of all Mediterranean cuisine. In Northern Italy, for instance, lard and butter are commonly used in cooking, and olive oil is reserved for dressing salads and cooked vegetables. In North Africa, wine is traditionally avoided by Muslims. In both North Africa and the Levant, along with olive oil, sheep’s tail fat and rendered butter (samna) are traditional staple fats.

The most commonly understood version of the Mediterranean diet was presented, amongst others, by Dr Walter Willett of Harvard University’s School of Public Health from the mid-1990s on, including a book for the general public. Based on “food patterns typical of Crete, much of the rest of Greece, and southern Italy in the early 1960s”, this diet, in addition to “regular physical activity,” emphasizes “abundant plant foods, fresh fruit as the typical daily dessert, olive oil as the principal source of fat, dairy products (principally cheese and yogurt), and fish and poultry consumed in low to moderate amounts, zero to four eggs consumed weekly, red meat consumed in low amounts, and wine consumed in low to moderate amounts”. Total fat in this diet is 25% to 35% of calories, with saturated fat at 8% or less of calories.

The principal aspects of this diet include high olive oil consumption, high consumption of legumes, high consumption of unrefined cereals, high consumption of fruits, high consumption of vegetables, moderate consumption of dairy products (mostly as cheese and yogurt), moderate to high consumption of fish, low consumption of meat and meat products, and moderate wine consumption.

Olive oil is particularly characteristic of the Mediterranean diet. It contains a very high level of monounsaturated fats, most notably oleic acid, which epidemiological studies suggest may be linked to a reduction in coronary heart disease risk. There is also evidence that the antioxidants in olive oil improve cholesterol regulation and LDL cholesterol reduction, and that it has other anti-inflammatory and anti-hypertensive effects.

A number of diets have received attention, but the strongest evidence for a beneficial health effect and decreased mortality after switching to a largely plant based diet comes from studies of Mediterranean diet, e.g. from the NIH-AARP Diet and Health Study.

The Mediterranean diet is often cited as beneficial for being low in saturated fat and high in monounsaturated fat and dietary fiber. One of the main explanations is thought to be the health effects of olive oil included in the Mediterranean diet.

The Mediterranean diet is high in salt content. Foods such as olives, salt-cured cheeses, anchovies, capers, salted fish roe, and salads dressed with olive oil all contain high levels of salt.

A study published in the Archives of General Psychiatry shows that people who followed the Mediterranean diet were less likely to develop depression.
In addition, the consumption of red wine is considered a possible factor, as it contains flavonoids with powerful antioxidant properties.

Mireille Guiliano credits the health effects of the Mediterranean diet to factors such as small portions, daily exercise, and the emphasis on freshness, balance, and pleasure in food.

Dietary factors are only part of the reason for the health benefits enjoyed by certain Mediterranean cultures. A healthy lifestyle (notably a physically active lifestyle or labour) is also beneficial. Environment may also be involved. However, on the population level, i.e. for the population of a whole country or a region, the influence of genetics is rather minimal, because it was shown that the slowly changing habits of Mediterranean populations, from a healthy active lifestyle and Mediterranean diet to a not so healthy, less physically active lifestyle and a diet influenced by the Western pattern diet, significantly increases risk of heart disease. There is an inverse association between adherence to the Mediterranean diet and the incidence of fatal and non fatal heart disease in initially healthy middle aged adults in the Mediterranean region.

A 10-year study published in the Journal of American Medical Association (JAMA) found that adherence to a Mediterranean diet and healthful lifestyle was associated with more than a 50% lowering of early death rates.

The putative benefits of the Mediterranean diet for cardiovascular health are primarily correlative in nature; while they reflect a very real disparity in the geographic incidence of heart disease, identifying the causal determinant of this disparity has proven difficult. The most popular dietary candidate, olive oil, has been undermined by a body of experimental evidence that diets enriched in monounsaturated fats such as olive oil are not atheroprotective when compared to diets enriched in either polyunsaturated or even saturated fats.

A recently emerging alternative hypothesis to the Mediterranean diet is that differential exposure to solar ultraviolet radiation accounts for the disparity in cardiovascular health between residents of Mediterranean and more northerly countries. The proposed mechanism is solar UVB-induced synthesis of Vitamin D in the oils of the skin, which has been observed to reduce the incidence of coronary heart disease, and which rapidly diminishes with increasing latitude.

Interestingly, residents of the Mediterranean are also observed to have very low rates of skin cancer (which is widely believed to be caused by over-exposure to solar UV radiation); incidence of melanomas in the Mediterranean countries is lower than in Northern Europe and significantly lower than in other hot countries such as Australia and New Zealand. Its been hypothesized that some components of the Mediterranean diet may provide protection against skin cancer.

Mediterranean diet and Weight loss with Bill & Sheila