Tragically, Mediterraneans Are Abandoning Their Famous Cardio Healthy Diet Pt 1

Ironically, just when we are coming to understand that the traditional Mediterranean Diet may be one of the healthiest eating styles in the world, the Mediterraneans are abandoning their famous diet.  Seventy years ago, a visionary scientist named Dr. Ancel Keys, while vacationing in Pioppi, Italy, noted that people of this small village to the south of Naples, seemed to be vigorous, healthy and exceptionally long-lived.  Indeed, Dr. Ancel Keys, who lived to be 102 years of age himself, decided that the Mediterranean Diet was playing a large role in the exceptional health of the cultures.  After decades of subsequent research showing benefits of various components of the Mediterranean Diet, the medical world has come to embrace this eating style.

Unfortunately, when the average American thinks of the “Mediterranean Diet”, he or she visualizes pasta or pizza.  While these foods are consumed in small quantities by some of the traditional Mediterranean peoples, they are not the central features of this diet, nor the ones that promote health and longevity.  Instead, the most important components of the Mediterranean Diet are lots of vegetables, fish and seafood with little red meat, olive oil, fruits, nuts and berries, legumes, and moderate amounts of red wine with the evening meal.

Sadly, this cardio health focused Mediterranean Diet is being abandoned by the people famous for inventing it.  Recent reports indicate that Italy is the ‘fat man’ of Europe now with the highest rates of obesity on the continent.  Obesity is particularly common in the young people where up to 36% of 12-16 year-old Italians are now overweight or obese.

The “Industrial Global Diet” is the new term for what we use to call the old standard American diet.  When a country’s standard of living rises, the population tends to abandon its traditional eating patterns and instead adopts a diet of processed foods, fast foods, and high calorie fare. Italy,Spain,Greece, andCrete—young people are abandoning the Mediterranean Diet and in all of these places, and their rates of obesity are skyrocketing.

In Part 2 I will discuss how you can still gain the health benefits of the Mediterranean Diet!

In Good Health

James O’Keefe, MD

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