The Mediterranean Diet: Origin and Health Benefits

Most major scientific organisations encourage healthy adults to adapt a style of eating like that of the Mediterranean diet for prevention of major chronic diseases since it has been associated with some of the following benefits:

-decreased risk of heart disease and stroke by 30%

-decreased chances of type 2 diabetes

-reduces chances of metabolic syndrome

-reduced the risk of dying of cancer by 6%.

In few researches this diet has not been found better than others when it comes to weight loss goals, but it is optimal to maintain your healthy bodyweight once you reached without counting calories and weighting food as it self regulate.

The concept of a Mediterranean diet was developed by the American biologist Ancel Keys in 1970 after 14 years of research systematically examining the relationships between lifestyle, diet, coronary heart  and stroke in different populations from different regions of the world (Seven Countries Study).

We have to keep in mind that The Real Mediterranean diet is inspired by the dietary patterns typical of Southern Italy in the 1940s and 1950s in a post-war scenario before globalisation, so considerably different from what we might see nowadays.