The Mediterranean Diet recognizes healthy benefits for the people who observe it as shown by numerous valid scientific evidence collected over the last 50 years.
The characteristics of this diet are represented by a high income of vegetable foods including vegetables and fruit, cereals and bread, legumes, nuts and seeds; olive oil as the main source of fat; followed by a moderate intake of dairy products and fish and finally a low amount of red meat. The diet also includes red wine in moderate quantities (2 glasses for men and 1 glass for women). The Mediterranean diet is to be considered a healthy style of life that also involves various social and economic aspects: sustainability, seasonality, conviviality, frugality, recall of traditions and regionalisms.
Pasta and bread (carbohydrates) therefore represent an important energy component of this dietary style.
The scientific study “Dietary carbohydrate intake and mortality: a prospective cohort study and meta-analysis” 1 published in The Lancet Public Health in August 2018 allows to observe how important this component of the diet is . The study was carried out on more than 15,000 people followed for about 25 years and showed an increase in mortality in people who followed diets with carbohydrate consumption of less than 40% of total calories and also in those who had consumption above 70%. People who followed a diet with a percentage of carbohydrates on total calories of 50-55% showed the lowest mortality. This is in perfect compliance with what the Mediterranean diet proposes.
Many dietary styles and diets applied for weight reduction that provide for a restriction of carbohydrates in favor of proteins or fats should take greater account of this scientific evidence. The same applies to the “information” that magazines and newspapers often address to the public but which often do not have a proven scientific basis.
Another study to be mentioned in this context concerns the consumption of red meat.
“Association of changes in red meat consumption with total and cause specific mortality among US women and men: two prospective cohort studies” 2 published in the British Medical Journal in April 2019 reiterates the possible negative role on human health related to the consumption of red meat. The study followed over 80,000 people by periodically analyzing their diet over several years. The conclusion was that a higher consumption of red meat is associated with a significant increase in chronic diseases and premature deaths.
The Mediterranean diet therefore remains an excellent dietary style to stay healthy. It is also important to recognize when our diet moves away from this model by periodically checking what we eat.
