The Mediterranean Diets: What Is So Special about it?

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The Mediterranean Diets: What Is So Special about the Diet?

 

Supplement: AICR's 11th Annual Research Conference on Diet,

Nutrition and Cancer

The Mediterranean Diets: What Is So Special about the Diet of

Greece? The Scientific Evidence1

Artemis P. Simopoulos2

 

The Center for Genetics, Nutrition and Health, Washington, DC

To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail:

cgnh

ABSTRACT The diet of Crete...

Bioprotective nutrients and...

EFA and cancer

Implementation of the diet...

LITERATURE CITED

 

 

The term " Mediterranean diet, " implying that all Mediterranean

people have the same diet, is a misnomer. The countries around the

Mediterranean basin have different diets, religions and cultures.

Their diets differ in the amount of total fat, olive oil, type of

meat and wine intake; milk vs. cheese; fruits and vegetables; and

the rates of coronary heart disease and cancer, with the lower death

rates and longer life expectancy occurring in Greece.

 

Extensive studies on the traditional diet of Greece (the diet

before 1960) indicate that the dietary pattern of Greeks consists of

a high intake of fruits, vegetables (particularly wild plants), nuts

and cereals mostly in the form of sourdough bread rather than pasta;

more olive oil and olives; less milk; more fish; less meat; and

moderate amounts of wine, more so than other Mediterranean

countries.

 

Analyses of the dietary pattern of the diet of Crete shows a number

of protective substances, such as selenium, glutathione, a balanced

ratio of (n-6):(n-3) essential fatty acids (EFA), high amounts of

fiber, antioxidants (especially resveratrol from wine and

polyphenols from olive oil), vitamins E and C, some of which have

been shown to be associated with lower risk of cancer, including

cancer of the breast.

 

These findings should serve as a strong incentive for the initiation

of intervention trials that will test the effect of specific dietary

patterns in the prevention and management of patients with cancer.

 

 

http://www.nutrition.org/cgi/content/full/131/11/3065S

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KEY WORDS: • diet of Crete • (n-3) fatty acids • wild plants •

antioxidants • cancer • (n-6) fatty acids