With foods, when you like something the docs usually tell you it is not good for you. The Mediterranean Diet bucks the trend; it has all that we love to eat and yet the docs say : Eat more, Live Longer!. Photo Credit: Microsoft

July 05, 2009, (Sawf News) - The Mediterranean Diet is based on lifestyle patterns typical of Greece and southern Italy in the early 1960s. People in the region tended to be physically active and consumed a diet rich in olive oil, legumes, unrefined cereals, fruits and vegetable. They consumed moderate amounts of dairy products (mostly as cheese and yogurt), fish and wine; they seldom ate meat and meat products.

The longevity of the people was evidence that the diet worked, but doctors and nutritionists have for long disagreed on the health benefits of the different ingredients of the diet.

So what is it in the Mediterranean diet that makes it so healthy?

In an eight and a half year study of 23,000 Greek men and women, researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston and the University of Athens Medical School in Greece compared their health against their adherence to a Mediterranean diet.

The study, published in the British Medical Journal, "indicates that the dominant components of the Mediterranean diet score as a predictor of lower mortality are moderate consumption of [alcohol], low consumption of meat and meat products, and high consumption of vegetables, fruits and nuts, olive oil, and legumes."

In contrast, high consumption of fish and cereals and an avoidance of dairy products in the Mediterranean diet had little health benefits.

Since the study was limited to Greek men and women, the authors agree that their findings could not be assumed to be universally applicable.

Some nutritionists question the very approach of looking for health benefits amidst the ingredients of the diet.

Dr. David Katz, director of the Prevention Research Center at Yale University School of Medicine in New Haven, Conn., says:

"In some ways, looking for the 'active ingredients' in the health benefits of the Mediterranean diet may be a distraction, since it is the overall dietary pattern that matters most to health. Once you have a mostly plant based diet and eat few processed foods, almost any variation on the theme will be fine."

Other experts point out that what the Mediterranean diet excludes maybe more important than what it includes.

"One of the strengths of the Mediterranean diet is what it does not contain: high amounts of sugar and preservatives," said New York-based weight and nutrition expert Dr. Jana Klauer. "The standard American diet stimulates the craving for sweet taste through overly sweetened foods."

News Copyright © Sawf News. May not be reproduced without explicit written permission