THE MEDITERRANEAN DIET

The Mediterranean diet is linked to Italy's cultural and gastronomic traditions,in which agriculture has played  a primary role. These traditions tend to survive more in South than in the North of Italy, partly because the climatic and environmental conditions of the former are more favourable to the cultivation of those products on which the diet is based (cereals,pulses,olives,vegetables and fruit). The Mediterranean diet does not vary much from the pyramid diet, the basic principles being the same. Today,many people,even abroad,are rediscovering the eating habits of the ancients in the Mediteranean basin and putting healthy food on their table. Up to the first half of the twentieth century,the Italian diet was based primarily on the consumption of cereals,pulses,vegetables,milk,cheese,fish,olive oil; meat was not a common dish. With the post-war economic boom and the years of affluence,the Italians adopted new eating habits,imported from the more industrialised countries: they began to consume mainly meat,animal fats,sugars and generally to eat too much. What people eat has always been conditioned by socio-economic and environmental factors. The results of this were increasingly frequent problems of overweight and the so-called "affluence diseases": coronary heart diseases, hypertension,diabetes,obesity and gout. Many reports drawn up by renowed dieticians conclude that coronary heart diseases are directly related to the type of diet followed in the industrialised countries,which privileges the consumption of food rich in satured fats and cholesterol. These diseases were less frequent in countries which adopted the so-called "Mediterranean diet". They found that the dietary, traditions of Italy,Spain,Greece,the south of France,northern Africa and the Middle East were the most correct and healthy for people's needs,and that their gastronomic traditions,in which agriculture played a primary role,are varied and rich. 

Giorgia Stroppa