Mediterranean Diet is like U.S. Tax Law

The Mediterranean diet is like U.S. tax law. Every year there's more to know.

Since the day Ancel Keyes published his groundbreaking Seven Countries Study in 1958, revealing that people who live in the Mediterranean basin lived longer and healthier lives because of their diet, scientists, doctors, and nutritionists have studied the reasons why.

The research has revealed important information about the beneficial aspects of Mediterranean cuisine in the prevention and treatment of heart disease, obesity, cancer, and diabetes.

Scientists now know that carotenoids, folic acid, and fiber, all abundant in the Mediterranean diet, play important roles in the prevention of certain cancers, coronary heart disease, neural tube defects, and cataracts. Scientists also believe that diets rich in
Mono-unsaturated fatty acids may play a pivotal role in the management of non-insulin-dependent diabetes.

Cholesterol-lowering properties of the Mediterranean diet are under investigation as well. Studies have shown that diets in which mono-unsaturated fatty acids are the predominant fat source, such as the olive-oil-rich diets of the Mediterranean countries, are also the most heart-healthy.

Epidemiological studies indicate a lower incidence of disease among people who eat a diet composed of vegetables, grains, and fruit. People who live in countries on the northern rim of the Mediterranean, Greece, Italy, Spain, and southern France, live and eat differently from us, and they also are half as likely to die of heart disease.

Americans, by comparison, consume twice as much milk, cream, and butter, but only half as much fish and aged cheese. Americans also eat:
• 20 % less whole grains and beans.
• 66 % less vegetables and 10 % less fruit.
• 45 % more meat.
• 16 % more eggs.
• 1/4 as much olive oil.

"Americans don't even eat the healthy American diet," said Diane Guagliani, a registered dietitian and spokeswoman for the American Dietetic Association. "Studies have shown that we're not getting the minimum of five fruits and vegetables a day even though this is something that teachers, the government, and nutritionists are promoting in this country. Going to the Mediterranean diet with its abundance of grains, legumes, fruits, and olive oils would be quite a leap."

Despite the good press and a multitude of cookbooks, most people don't understand the Mediterranean diet, Guagliani said. "They have a vague notion that it's Italian, but that's not the whole picture," she said.

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