Mediterranean Diet

Mediterranean Diet From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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

Ingredients for the sauce "allo scoglio" for pasta with
 cherry tomatoes "Pachino IGT/IGP", parsley and garlic
(to which must be added the Seafood).

The Mediterranean diet is a modern nutritional recommendation inspired by the traditional dietary patterns of southern Italy, Greece, and Spain. The principal aspects of this diet include proportionally high consumption of olive oil, legumes, unrefined cereals, fruits and vegetables, moderate to high consumption of fish, moderate consumption of dairy products (mostly as cheese and yogurt), moderate wine consumption, and low consumption of meat and meat products.

On November 17, 2010, UNESCO recognized this diet pattern as an Intangible Cultural Heritage of Italy, Greece, Spain and Morocco.

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 Middle East, sheep's tail fat and rendered butter (samna) are the traditional staple fats, with some exceptions.

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. 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.

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.

History

Although it was first publicized in 1945 by the American doctor Ancel Keys stationed in Salerno, Italy, the Mediterranean diet failed to gain widespread recognition until the 1990s. Objective data showing that Mediterranean diet is healthy first originated from the Seven Countries Study . Mediterranean diet is based on what from the point of view of mainstream nutrition is considered a paradox: that although the people living in Mediterranean countries tend to consume relatively high amounts of fat, they have far lower rates of cardiovascular disease than in countries like the United States, where similar levels of fat consumption are found. A parallel phenomenon is known as the French Paradox.

A diet rich in salads was promoted in England during the early Renaissance period by Giacomo Castelvetro in A Brief Account of the Fruits, Herbs and Vegetables of Italy. He attempted, without success, to convince the English to eat more fruits and vegetables.

Health 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 extra virgin olive oil all contain high levels of salt.

The inclusion of red wine is considered a factor contributing to health as it contains flavonoids with powerful antioxidant properties.

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 found that adherence to a Mediterranean diet and healthful lifestyle was associated with more than a 50% lowering of early death rates. A 5-year study of 7,447 people reported that the Mediterranean diet reduced the risk of heart disease in people at high risk by "about 30 percent".

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.

A study published in the Archives of General Psychiatry shows that people who followed the Mediterranean diet were less likely to develop depression.

Medical Research

The Seven Countries Study found that Cretan men had exceptionally low death rates from heart disease, despite moderate to high intake of fat. The Cretan diet is similar to other traditional Mediterranean diets, consisting mostly of olive oil, bread, abundant fruit and vegetables, fish, and a moderate amount of dairy foods and wine.

The Lyon Diet Heart Study set out to mimic the Cretan diet, but adopted a pragmatic approach. Realizing that some of the people in the study (all of whom had survived a first heart attack) would be reluctant to move from butter to olive oil, they used a margarine based on rapeseed (canola) oil. The dietary change also included 20% increases in vitamin C-rich fruit and bread and decreases in processed and red meat. On this diet, mortality from all causes was reduced by 70%. This study was so successful that the ethics committee decided to stop it prematurely so that the results could be made public immediately.

According to a 2008 study published in the British Medical Journal, the traditional Mediterranean diet provides substantial protection against type 2 diabetes. The study involved over 13 000 graduates from the University of Navarra in Spain with no history of diabetes, who were recruited between December 1999 and November 2007, and whose dietary habits and health were subsequently tracked. Participants initially completed a 136-item food frequency questionnaire designed to measure the entire diet. The questionnaire also included questions on the use of fats and oils, cooking methods and dietary supplements. Every two years participants were sent follow-up questionnaires on diet, lifestyle, risk factors, and medical conditions. New cases of diabetes were confirmed through medical reports. During the follow-up period (median 4.4 years) the researchers from the University of Navarra found that participants who stuck closely to the diet had a lower risk of diabetes. A high adherence to the diet was associated with an 83% relative reduction in the risk of developing diabetes.

A 2008 study published in The New England Journal of Medicine examined the effects of three diets: low-carb, low-fat, and Mediterranean. The study involved 322 participants and lasted for two years. The low-carb and Mediterranean diet resulted in the greatest weight loss, 12 lbs and 10 lbs, respectively. The low-fat diet resulted in a loss of 7 lbs. One caveat of the study is that 86% of the study participants were men. The low-carb and Mediterranean diets produced similar amounts of weight loss in the overall study results and in the men. In the remaining participants who were women, the Mediterranean diet produced 3.8 kg (8.4 lbs) more weight loss on average than the low-carb diet.

A meta-analysis published in the British Medical Journal in 2008 showed that following strictly the Mediterranean diet reduced the risk of dying from cancer and cardiovascular disease as well as the risk of developing Parkinson's and Alzheimer's disease. The results report 9%, 9%, and 6% reduction in overall, cardiovascular, and cancer mortality respectively. Additionally a 13% reduction in incidence of Parkinson's and Alzheimer's diseases is to be expected provided strict adherence to the diet is observed. As well, a 2007 study found that adherence to the Mediterranean diet (MeDi) may affect not only risk for Alzheimer disease (AD) but also subsequent disease course: Higher adherence to the MeDi is associated with lower mortality in AD. The gradual reduction in mortality risk for higher MeDi adherence tertiles suggests a possible dose-response effect.

A study published in the British Medical Journal in 2009 showed some components of the Mediterranean diet, such as high vegetable consumption and low meat and meat product consumption, are more significantly associated with low risk of mortality than other components, such as cereal consumption and fish consumption. As part of the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition study, researchers followed more than 23,000 Greek men and women for 8.5 years to see how various aspects of a Mediterranean diet affect mortality. Moderate alcohol consumption, high fruit and nut consumption, and high legume consumption were also associated with lower risk of mortality.

Mediterranean Diet, articulated into extensive lifestyles interventions in a clinical follow-up study, improves renal artery circulation, decreasing renal resistive index, even without significant modifications of Insulin Resistance. This is a beneficial effect and modifies the pathophysiology of essential hypertension. Another study reported in February 2010 found that the diet may help keep the brain healthy by reducing the frequency of mini-strokes that can contribute to mental decline. Mediterranean Diet is becoming a comprehensive popular and successful translational paradigm for the promotion of healthier lifestyles.

A 2011 meta-analysis published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology analyzed the results of 50 studies (35 clinical trials, 2 prospective and 13 cross-sectional) covering about 535,000 people to examine the effect of a Mediterranean diet on metabolic syndrome. The researchers reported that a Mediterranean diet is associated with lower blood pressure, blood sugar, and triglycerides.

A 2012 follow-up study in Israel, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, found that even people who regain some weight after going on a Mediterranean diet can derive lasting benefits from it.

See the full article Mediterranean Diet From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Mediterranean Diet Pyramid

The Mediterranean Diet Cookbook For Dummies

Amazon.com

Improve Your Health, Lose Weight, and Prevent and Fight Disease

For decades, doctors and nutritional experts have observed and confirmed that Mediterranean countries have much lower occurrences of hypertension, cardiovascular disease, obesity, cancer, and diabetes in their citizens than northern European countries and the United States. The Mediterranean Diet For Dummies features expert advice on transitioning to this healthful lifestyle by providing meal planning tips, exercise regimens, and more than 150 recipes inspired by the cuisines of Italy, Greece, southern France, and Spain to improve your health, lose weight, and prevent and fight disease.

Rather than focusing on restricting certain foods and ingredients, the Mediterranean diet embraces a variety of food choices that promote freshness, whole grains, healthy fats, more vegetables and less meat, understanding proper portion control, and using items like wine and olive oil to create rich flavors. With The Mediterranean Diet For Dummies you'll find out how a delicious diet can reduce the long-term risk of obesity, heart disease, Parkinson's and Alzheimer's diseases, and more.

• More than 150 tasty recipes
• Expert tips on meal planning, exercise regimens, and healthy lifestyle choices
• Prevent and fight diseases by eating delicious food

Whether you're just discovering the healthfulness of the Mediterranean diet or are looking for some new recipes to add to your repertoire, The Mediterranean Diet For Dummies has everything you need to start living a healthier life.


See thousands of books and online:

• Amazon - Mediterranean Diet (titles approximate 4000+)
• All Recipes.com - Mediterranean Diet (900+ recipes)
• Epicurious - Mediterranean Diet (1800+ recipes)
• Oldways - Mediterranean Diet & Pyramid
• and many more online ....

Mediterranean Diet Could Help Reduce Heart Disease

Published on Feb 25, 2013

Dr. Richard Besser reports on the latest study reaffirming value of popular diet plan.


Standard YouTube License @ ABC News

Global National : Pros and Cons of Mediterranean Diet

Published on Feb 26, 2013

Mon, Feb 25 / 2013: There is convincing new proof that a diet rich in olive oil and nuts can cut your risk of a heart attack. Dawna Friesen talks to Dr. Ali Zentner for analysis. For more info, please go to http://www.globalnews.ca


Standard YouTube License @ Global News

Mediterranean Diet

Uploaded on Feb 17, 2009

Find out the benefits of diet based on Mediterranean cuisine.


Standard YouTube License @ Armstrong Atlantic State University

Typical Foods on the Mediterranean Diet

Published on Jan 22, 2013

If you're interested in following the Mediterranean Diet, this About.com video will help you determine which foods to enjoy and avoid. This diet offers plenty of variety, so you never have to feel deprived while eating healthy!


Standard YouTube License @ About.com

Dr Oz - Diet Mediterranean

Uploaded on Dec 22, 2011

Best short guide to healthy food.


Standard YouTube License @ SYMBALLERO

Mediterranean Diet

Uploaded on Sep 17, 2008

http://the-mediterranean-diet.com provides Mediterranean diet recipes, food, a pyramid and research surrounding this highly regarded diet. Apart from its high level of nutrition and antioxidants, it is renowned for reducing the risk of heart disease, cancer, allergies while being a healthy alternative for weight loss.

You can also sign up at that URL for more tips and articles on the mediterranean diet as well.

Comments:

mokugin81 In The Mediterranean Countries we dont just eat vegetables fruits olives and Avocados. We Also Eat Plenty Of Cheese( France,Italy,Spain) Parma Ham and Chorizo( Italy and Spain) Feta Cheese( Turkey and Greece) Lamb and red Meat in most Countries and in Turkey Kefir is Soo Popular!! This Are Facts!!  

evertharder1949 An informative video on the Mediterranean Diet, and the unlimited food from countries we tend to forget about especially on the African side. The health benefits when you enjoy the Mediterranean culinary delights, are well documented in this...

Standard YouTube License @ Photography Business

Healing Quest: Portion Control - The Sonoma Diet

Uploaded on Nov 16, 2007

http://www.healingquest.tv Nutritionist Connie Guttersen, author of best-selling 'The Sonoma Diet,' shows us how to improve our health by doing a better job of controlling how much we put on our plate every day.
SSTattler: The Sonoma Diet is a sub-set of Mediterranean Diet.


Standard YouTube License @ Healing Quest

Mediterranean Diet Improves Sex Too!

Uploaded on Jan 29, 2009

Find out why the Mediterranean diet is not a weight loss diet at all but a healthy lifestyle that promotes a healthy weight.

http://diet.com/videos

Similar to a vegetarian diet, the Mediterranean diet also shows to improve your sex life. They are a classy bunch though and didn't need to create some racy TV commercial. Check out the facts now!


Standard YouTube License @ DietHealth - Diet.com Video

A Registered Dietitian Discusses the Mediterranean Diet

Published on Mar 4, 2013

Carol Burke Sloan is a registered dietitian who works with the California Walnut Commission. She has information regarding the new diet study out of Spain showing the cardiovascular benefits of including more olive oil, fish, whole grains, legumes, and nuts in your diet.


Standard YouTube License @ Eat Drink Explore Media

Mediterranean Diet on Greek Food TV ☼ - Healthy Cooking

Uploaded on Sep 10, 2009

The Greek-Mediterranean Diet is the healthiest in the world. Discover the grains, greens, fresh, seasonal recipes and more with Diane Kochilas.

That's it for your Greek Salad & Mediterranean diet. Well-known Greek food expert and award-winning author DIANE KOCHILAS and photographer VASSILIS STENOS own and operate the THE GLORIOUS GREEK KITCHEN COOKING SCHOOL and DV FOOD ARTS CONSULTING. We run cooking classes and organize culinary tours in Greece for recreational and professional cooks. We produce specialty books and other food-and-wine-related literature for a wide variety of clients and independently for the tourist and other markets.

Diane consults on Greek cuisine for restaurants, retail outlets and producers of fine Greek foods. Vassilis Stenos offers an extensive archive of food and travel photographs of Greece. Name: Diane Kochilas Well-known Greek food expert, consultant, chef, and author Diane Kochilas has written 12 books on Greek and Mediterranean cuisine. She is the consulting chef at Pylos, one of New York's top-rated Greek restaurants.

Diane divides her time between Athens, Ikaria, and New York. In Athens, where she's lived for the last 15 years, she is the weekly food columnist and restaurant critic for Ta Nea, the country's largest newspaper. Diane writes frequently for the US food press and appears regularly on American television.

Her books: The Food and Wine of Greece, The Greek Vegetarian, The Glorious Foods of Greece, Meze, Against the Grain (good carbs), Mediterranean Grilling, Mastiha Cuisine, The Northern Greek Wine Roads Cookbook , Aegean Cuisine. Forthcoming: The Country Cooking of Greece, Greek Food with Greek Feta.


Standard YouTube License @ Greek Food TV ☼

Diane Kochilas, My Life, My Work and GreekFoodTV ☼

Published on Mar 11, 2012

Welcome to this short video bio of me and my work over the last 20-plus years promoting Greek cuisine all over the world. Greek cooking is so delicious and healthy.

There are so many recipes that are easy, accessible, but most importantly, plant-based. Greece is one of the few countries in the world--the Mother of the Mediterranean Diet, remember!--where vegetables and beans are the ingredients in countless main courses. We don't relegate them to side-dish status. My goal is to share healthy, delicious Greek cuisine with the world. The secrets to longevity are hidden in the traditional cooking. And the key to fighting the obesity epidemic plaguing the United States can be found in the tremendous variety of wonderful Greek food, from luscious fresh vegetable stews and casseroles to savory pies filled with wild greens to desserts made with olive oil. Indeed, olive oil and the generous use of it on almost every Greek dish, is one of the secrets to eating and living well.

I hope the video will be an enticing journey through Greece, one that inevitably ends around a table.

Beyond that, on GreekFoodTV you will find dozens of other videos in which I demonstrate traditional and contemporary Greek classics and lots of regional Greek specialties.

If you enjoy this site, you might also enjoy one of my books and want to keep an eye out for my forthcoming book, The Country Cooking of Greece. It was really an honor to have been asked by Chronicle Books to write the Greek tome for what has turned into an award-winning series. For me, that was yet another sign that Greek cuisine in the United States was finely being given its due and finally being embraced by the mainstream. The Country Cooking of Greece will be out in the fall of 2012, and in it I look at the simple, delicious, healthy foods that are still the mainstay of life in the Greek countryside today.

But before the publication of any book, especially a cookbook, which is complicated and multifaceted, there is the process, the road the author takes to get her to those first bound galleys. I thought it would be fun to take readers on a parallel journey, into what went into the making of the book. So starting now, and running through its publication in November, 2012, I will serve forth what I like to think of as a "poikilia" a meze platter of behind-the-scenes tidbits that I hope will eventually entice you to sit down for the full-course meal, the book itself. I share that information on the GreekFoodTv Facebook page.

There, I share recipes that never made it into the actual book for all sorts of reasons, text that I had to cut because of space limitations, photos of places, people, and dishes that we had to nix because they just couldn't all fit, manuscript pages that were edited, cut, slashed, commented on, and filled with queries, and so much more. Mostly, I'll share with you the labor of love, from inception and fruition, which brought The Country Cooking of Greece to life.

I enjoyed every minute of researching this book and hope to share some of the adventures leading to the Country Cooking of Greece (Chronicle Books 2012): For example, one of my favorite farmers and a spearheading figure in the organic movement in Greece, is Alexandra Valopetropoulou, whose farm is just 45 minutes from downtown Athens. She is but one of many passionate artisans working the field, the vine, the table and more all over Greece.

In another photo album I talk about a "Greek Touch:" Rusks. Rusks, or paximadia, as they are called in Greek, are one of the ancient foods that still define Greek cooking today. This ultimate peasant treat, a twice-baked bread that is great for breakfast, lunch and dinner and extremely versatile.

Thanks for joining me at GreekFoodTV, both on youtube and on Facebook. Enjoy all the delicious Greek regional and authentic recipes. Eat and live well the Greek way!


Standard YouTube License @ Greek Food TV ☼

Men in Aprons - Mediterranean Diet

Uploaded on Jun 24, 2011

Chefs Pete & Dave prepare a menu that showcases the wide variety of healthy ingredients that are the foundations of the Mediterranean diet.


Standard YouTube License @ Beverly Hospital

How To Mediterranean Diet

Published on Feb 26, 2013

What Is a Mediterranean Diet?

"The Mediterranean Diet is a lifestyle where good taste meets good health," says Sara Baer-Sinnott, president of Oldways, the nonprofit food and nutrition group that first introduced the Mediterranean Diet Pyramid in 1993.

There is no single Mediterranean diet. Instead, each region across Europe -- from Spain to the Middle East -- customizes the basic diet to take advantage of food availability and cultural preferences.

Similarities include a reliance on plant foods such as vegetables, fruits, beans, whole grains, nuts, olives, and olive oil along with some cheese, yogurt, fish, poultry, eggs, and wine. These foods form the basis of the plan and provide thousands of micronutrients, antioxidants, vitamins, minerals, and fiber that work together to protect against chronic disease.

Most of the foods on the plan are fresh, seasonal whole foods - they're not processed. Preparation methods tend to be simple; foods are rarely deep-fried.

Only small amounts of saturated fat, sodium, sweets, and meat are part of the plan.

The Mediterranean lifestyle also includes leisurely dining and regular physical activity, which are an important part of the equation.


Standard YouTube License @ How Can ItDo