Cooking Oil in Mediterranean Diet

Aside from which cooking oil(s) might be most appropriate here in the Mediterranean diet, what needs to be considered is that although olive oil may not be harmful for lean and active populations that do not mean more is better. While the people on Crete ate enough olive oil to bring their fat consumption to 40 percent of their total calories, those in southern Italy, who enjoyed similarly low rates of heart disease and various forms of cancer, ate only 28 percent of their calories as fat. Perhaps if they had eaten less olive oil, their rates of chronic disease would have been even lower. Indeed, many researchers believe that for the purpose of avoiding breast cancer, the optimal amount of fat in the diet falls somewhere around 20 percent of total calories. That hypothesis is supported by the fact that in Japan, where fat intake has traditionally been quite low, breast cancer incidence is even lower than it was in 1960 Greece--and life expectancy for both women and men today is just about the highest in the world, certainly higher than in Greece and Italy.

An abundance of olive oil is just one part of the Mediterranean diet that may not travel well. But even from a fat-loving American's viewpoint that might not be a bad thing. As much as some people in this country enjoy olive oil's rich taste and smooth mouth feel, they still may not want to eat as much of it as did the folks in Greece or Italy, who averaged, per person, somewhere on the order of two to three tablespoons of the stuff a day. We currently average about three tablespoons of olive oil per person every four months or so! To make the switch we'd probably have to start eating it in all kinds of dishes at almost every single meal--a shift many would find not just monotonous but also expensive. Olive oil costs a lot more than other cooking oils.

Contrarily, a lot of Americans might not mind making the switch to the greater wine consumption of the Mediterranean. Many people really enjoy the taste of wine and above and beyond that, the calm, relaxed mood it tends to create. Currently, Americans drink very little wine, which in moderate amounts raises HDL-cholesterol levels and has consistently been associated with a reduced risk of heart disease. Consumption here averages less than an ounce per person per day, however, whereas in Greece it averaged three ounces a day and in Italy, an estimated 10 ounces, or two five-ounce glasses. Of course, in those areas people grew up learning to drink wine as an integral part of meals in a family setting; it was not used, as alcohol often is here, away from the table as a recreational drug.

But the issue of drinking more wine in the U.S. is a sticky one just because of our lack of "familiarity" with it. A good deal of strong evidence indicates that as increased wine consumption decreases the risk for heart disease, it increases the risk for breast cancer in women. Thus, the benefit to women who start to drink more wine is murky, as it is for anyone who has a family history of alcoholism or who must operate potentially dangerous machinery or drive a car during the workday. It should be noted, too, that alcohol increases the risk for liver disease as well as the risk of falls and other accidents.


Copyright 2008, All Rights Reserved