engleski

Mediterranean Diet – does it work? Does it exist?

We are witnessing a breakthrough of new products which until recently have not been existent in our everyday life. Many of them find a way to our table bringing new flavours and changing our dietary habits gradually. Unfortunately, changes of this kind in our nutrition are not always acceptable for our health. In today’s modern world more and more people find themselves going in to the wrong direction concerning their nutrition. Lack of time combined with a principle of saving money account for the enormous popularity of fast food. It is cheep, prepared instantly and of rich flavours, but very imbalanced concerning nutritional values. We are using too much proteins of animal origin in a form of meat products which are often a source of “bad” animal fat (which are usually “hidden”). If vegetables are on our menu then they are frequently frozen or acidified. This type of food mostly can not compete with fresh food. Technological food processing, consummation of fast food, changes in tastes and habits are inevitably causing bad consequences for people’s health often resulting in – metabolism disorder diseases. Is there “a salvage pathway”? The answer to this question is: yes it is, and the name of the “pathway” to follow is “Mediterranean diet”. The term Mediterranean diet refers to dietary patterns found in the areas of the Mediterranean region and described in nutrition-related literature in 1960s. There are several variants of the Mediterranean diet, but some common components can be identified: high consumption of olive oil, moderate wine consumption, especially red wine, high consumption of vegetables, fruits, legumes, and grains, fish, particularly pilchard, moderate consumption of milk and dairy products, mostly in the form of cheese, and low consumption of meat and meat products. Growing evidence demonstrates that the Mediterranean diet is beneficial to health. This evidence is stronger for coronary heart disease, but it also applies to some forms of cancer and for the majority of chronic inflammatory diseases. Should we approach Mediterranean diet by examining the impact of a whole dietary culture rather than isolating single nutrients? Presumably the answer would be positive since examinations of single nutrients ignore the important and complex interactions between components of a diet. Therefore, dietary recommendations to the population regarding Mediterranean diet should include the whole dietary approach accompanied with the changes in life style in general.

Nutrition; food processing; Mediterranean diet; health benefit; dietary recommendations

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