The Mediterranean Diet

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What does the Mediterranean Diet include? 

• Lots of plant foods
• Fresh fruit as dessert
• High consumption of beans, nuts, cereals (in the form of wheat, oats, barley, corn or brown rice) and seeds
• Olive oil as the main source of dietary fat
• Cheese and yogurt as the main dairy foods
• Moderate amounts of fish and poultry
• No more than about four eggs each week
• Small amounts of red meat each week (compared to northern Europe) 
• Low to moderate amounts of wine
• 25% to 35% of calorie intake consists of fat
• Saturated fat makes up no more than 8% of calorie intake

Olive oil is one of the main sources of dietary fat.

Fats - the Mediterranean diet is known to be low in saturated fat, high in monounsaturated fat, and high in dietary fiber. 

Legumes - the Mediterranean diet includes plenty of legumes. Legumes are plants in the pea family that produce pods which slit open naturally along a seam, revealing a row of seeds.

Examples of legumes include peas, chick peas, lentils, alfafa and beans.

Scientists from the University of Toronto reported in Archives of Internal Medicine¹, October 2012 issue, that eating more legumes helps improve glycemic control in people with diabetes type 2, as well as lessening the risk of developing coronary heart disease.

The Mediterranean diet - worldwide recognition

Became popular in the 1990s - even though the American Scientist Dr. Ancel Keys (1904-2004) publicized the Mediterranean diet while he was stationed in Italy, it was not until about the 1990s that it was widely recognized and followed elsewhere by nutritionally conscious people.

An enigma - compared to other Western diets, the Mediterranean diet was seen by others as a bit of an enigma. Although fat consumption is high, the prevalence of hypertension, cardiovascular disease, obesity, cancer and diabetes has always been significantly lower in Mediterranean countries than northern European countries and the USA. The American diet is more similar to the northern European diet - with high red meat consumption, greater consumption of butter and animal fats, and a lower intake of fruit and vegetables, compared to the eating habits of Italy, Greece, southern France, and Spain.

More popular in non-English speaking nations - the non-English speaking countries of northern Europe, such as Scandinavia, the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Switzerland and Austria have adopted the Mediterranean diet to a much greater degree than English speaking nations, such as the UK, Ireland, the USA, Australia and New Zealand.

Dietary habits in Canada vary; with the French-speaking Quebec areas tending more towards a Mediterranean diet, compared to the rest of the country. Many experts believe that is why developed English-speaking nations have a lower life expectancy than the other developed nations.

Mediterranean countries consume higher quantities of red wine, while northern European countries and the USA consume more beer. Red wine contains flavonoids, which are powerful antioxidants, according to a study in the Journal of Natural Products.²

The Mediterranean diet, compared to the Anglo-saxon diet, contains much higher quantities of unprocessed foods.

What are the benefits of the Mediterranean diet? 

Studies have been carried out which compare the health risks of developing certain diseases, depending on people's diets. People who adopted the Mediterranean diet have been compared with those who have an American or Northern European diet.

An article published in Food Technology³ in October 2012 explained that plant-based diets either considerably reduce or totally eliminate people's genetic propensity to developing chronic diseases, such as diabetes type 2, cardiovascular disease, and cancer.

Mediterranean diet helps prevent a genetic risk of stroke - a variant (mutation) in the Transcription Factor 7-like 2 (TCF7L2) gene, which is associated with the development of type 2 diabetes, is also linked to higher stroke risk, especially if a person carries two copies (homozygous carriers).

Scientists from Tufts University, USA, and the CIBER Fisiopatología de la Obesidad y Nutriciόn, Spain, found that the Mediterranean diet may protect homozygous carriers of the mutated gene.

The researchers wrote in the journal Diabetes Care⁴ "Being on the Mediterranean diet reduced the number of strokes in people with two copies of the variant. The food they ate appeared to eliminate any increased stroke susceptibility, putting them on an even playing field with people with one or no copies of the variant."

An Italian study published in BMJ Open⁵ reported that people who stick to a Mediterranean diet tend to have better HRQL (health-related quality of life). They added that the link is stronger with mental than physical health. "Dietary total antioxidant and fibre content independently explain this relationship," they added.

The following health benefits have been observed by people who have a Mediterranean diet:

• It's good for your heart - researchers at McMaster University found an association between good heart health and certain food groups or dietary patterns including vegetables, nuts, monounsaturated fatty acids, and overall 'healthy' dietary patterns, such as the Mediterranean diet. The study was publshed in the Archives of Internal Medicine.⁶
• It can prevent diabetes - a study published by the BMJ⁷ revealed that the traditional Mediterranean diet can help protect people from type 2 diabetes.

Recent developments on the benefits of the Mediterranean diet from MNT news

Good for the brain. Researchers discovered that a Mediterranean diet is associated with reduced damage of small blood vessels in the brain, their findings were published in the Archives of Neurology.⁸

Helps protect your bones. A study published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism (JCEM)⁹, found that going on a 2 year Mediterranean diet enhanced with olive oil can increase serum osteocalin concentrations, which can help protect a person's bones.

'Better than low-fat diet' for cardiovascular risk. A study published in the American Journal of Medicinesuggested that people who adopt a whole diet approach - such as a Mediterranean diet - have a lower risk of heart attack and cardiovascular-related death than those who follow a strictly low-fat diet.

Following the Mediterranean diet could slow aging process. Vegetables, fruits, nuts, copious amounts of olive oil and a glass of wine with a meal; while the Mediterranean diet sounds like a the makings of a delicious lifestyle, it has also long been regarded as one of the healthiest ways to eat. Now, researchers have suggested that the diet could also help slow the aging process.