Fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and extra virgin olive oil are the foods you'll eat most often on the Mediterranean diet. Many writers define the three central elements of cooking as olives, wheat and grapes, which produce olive oil, bread and pasta, and wine; other writers deny that the diverse foods of the Mediterranean basin constitute a cuisine at all. A common definition of the geographical area covered, proposed by David, follows the distribution of the olive tree. As a leader in food and nutrition in the national media, she divides food science into healthy, digestible snacks. The Mediterranean diet is based on traditional foods from countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea, including France, Spain, Greece and Italy.
The idea of Mediterranean cuisine originated in A Book of Mediterranean Food (1950), by culinary writer Elizabeth David, and was amplified by other writers who worked in English. Carol Helstosky, author of the book Food Culture in the Mediterranean (2002), is one of the authors who use Mediterranean cuisine interchangeably with Mediterranean food. The rules for the preparation and consumption of food are common in the lands bordering the Mediterranean. The cuisine of the area should not be confused with the Mediterranean diet, which became popular due to the apparent health benefits of a diet rich in olive oil, wheat and other grains, fruits, vegetables and a certain amount of seafood, but low in meat and dairy products.
Since David wrote about Mediterranean food in 1950 and, in fact, since dietary researchers demonstrated in the 1950s that people across the Mediterranean had less coronary heart disease than people in Northern Europe, traditional Mediterranean ways of living and eating have changed. It is a modern construction of gastronomic writers and publicists from Europe and North America who earnestly preach what is now considered a healthy diet to their audience, invoking a stereotype of the other healthy on the shores of the Mediterranean. Mediterranean cuisine is the food and preparation methods used by the inhabitants of the Mediterranean basin. The closer you get to that common core, the less visible it is, until Umbrian food seems completely different from that of Tuscany, and comparing it to food from Greece would be absurd.
The Mediterranean diet encourages you to eat lots of foods (such as whole grains and vegetables), while limiting others. David identifies the elements that are always recurring in the food of this vast region, such as olive oil, saffron, garlic and spicy local wines, as well as the aromatic scent of herbs, especially rosemary, wild marjoram and basil, and the bright colors of fresh market foods: peppers, eggplants, tomatoes, olives, melons, figs and shiny fish, silver, vermelon or tiger stripes. There is no single Mediterranean diet, but general guidelines suggest focusing on healthy plant foods and a moderate intake of dairy products and fish or seafood.
