The document discusses the Mediterranean diet and its health benefits. It describes the Mediterranean diet as being primarily plant-based, using olive oil, and consuming fish regularly. Research shows following the Mediterranean diet closely reduces risks of cancer, heart disease, and neurological diseases. The diet emphasizes vegetables, fruits, grains, beans, nuts, seeds, herbs and spices, fish, and wine in moderation.

2. Eating in our time has gotten complicated . This is because people know supermarkets and food brands, but they don’t know what real food is . The secret to eating well isn’t in biochemistry, it isn’t in food labels or in doctors’ advice. The secret to eating well is in the knowledge of food . We need to understand all the different aspects of food to create a food culture. In food culture there are only three protagonists : the farmer who produces food with his work. The cook , who creates taste with his art. The innate necessity/pleasure to eat and taste of all of us .

3. Without food humans can’t survive, without good food humans can’t thrive. Nowadays there is a revival of food culture . This food culture makes food quality , food production quality and food cooking quality a basis for a new concept of well-being. This new food philosophy is a way of life, where food is the core of this way of thinking. This food consciousness connects food to agriculture, gastronomy, health, business, ecology, society, politics, history, science, religion, cooking and pleasure.

4. Food Consciousness Taste and know ( the gastronomy of knowledge ): the gastronomy is a way of knowledge. Taste is culture. Restaurant like a museum. Taste and ethics (sustainable gastronomy) : the gastronomy is a moral guide. Taste is politics. Taste is economy. Taste is ecology. Taste and art (artistic gastronomy) : the gastronomy is art. Taste like the sight. Good like the beauty.

5. Cooking is the art of happiness. Its ultimate aim is to give us an honest pleasure to recover the meaning of the world.

6. Diet and nutrition Diet is the amount of food consumed by a person, it is what someone eats. Nutrition is the science which studies the relation between diet and health.

7. What is the Mediterranean diet? The Mediterranean diet is a modern nutritional recommendation inspired by the traditional dietary patterns of the poor coastal regions of southern Italy (cucina povera), Crete , and coastal Greece in the 1960s, discovered by researchers from the Rockefeller University. The common Italian definition for some of these dietary patterns is “Cucina povera” . “Cucina povera” has been around for thousands of years in Italy, and it’s a sort of rural subsistence diet .

8. Mediterranean Sea

15. Mediterranean diet rules In synthesis, the principal aspects of this diet include high olive oil consumption , high consumption of legumes , high consumption of unrefined cereals , high consumption of fruit , high consumption of vegetables , moderate consumption of dairy products (mostly as cheese and yoghurt), moderate to high consumption of fish , low consumption of meat and meat products and moderate wine consumption .

16. Is the Mediterranean diet the official diet in the Mediterranean area? Despite its name, the “ Mediterranean diet” is not the official diet in the Mediterranean area, but its nutrition patterns are similar in all the Mediterranean nations . In Northern Italy or France, for instance, lard and butter are commonly used in cooking, and olive oil is reserved for dressing salads and cooked vegetables. In North Africa wine is traditionally avoided by Muslims. In both North Africa and the Levant, along with olive oil, sheep's tail fat and rendered butter are traditional staple fats.

21. The health effects of the Mediterranean diet Food is more than the sum of its nutrients, and diet is more than the sum of different foods. In the Mediterranean Diet the synergic effect of food influences our health. The analysis of single nutrients does not take into consideration the important interactions between the components of a diet and, more importantly, because people do not eat isolated nutrients but foods.

22. The health effects of the Mediterranean diet A meta-analysis published in the British Medical Journal (September 12, 2008) showed that following the Mediterranean diet strictly reduced the risk of dying from cancer and cardiovascular disease as well as the risk of developing Parkinson's and Alzheimer's disease . The findings report a 9%, and 6% reduction in overall cardiovascular, and cancer mortality respectively. Additionally a 13% reduction in the incidence of Parkinson's and Alzheimer's diseases is to be expected provided strict adherence to the diet is observed.

23. The health effects of the Mediterranean diet These findings seem to be clinically relevant for public health, in particular for encouraging a Mediterranean-like dietary pattern for primary prevention of major chronic diseases.

24. Copyright ©2008 BMJ Publishing Group Ltd. Sofi, F. et al. BMJ 2008;337:a1344 Fig 2 Risk of ALL CAUSE MORTALITY associated with two point increase in adherence score for Mediterranean diet. Squares represent effect size; extended lines show 95% confidence intervals; diamond represents total effect size

25. Copyright ©2008 BMJ Publishing Group Ltd. Sofi, F. et al. BMJ 2008;337:a1344 Fig 3 Risk of mortality from CARDIOVASCULAR DISEASES associated with two point increase in adherence score for Mediterranean diet. Squares represent effect size; extended lines show 95% confidence intervals; diamond represents total effect size

26. Copyright ©2008 BMJ Publishing Group Ltd. Sofi, F. et al. BMJ 2008;337:a1344 Fig 4 Risk of occurrence of or mortality from CANCER associated with two point increase in adherence score for Mediterranean diet. Squares represent effect size; extended lines show 95% confidence intervals; diamond represents total effect size

27. Copyright ©2008 BMJ Publishing Group Ltd. Sofi, F. et al. BMJ 2008;337:a1344 Fig 5 Risk of PARKINSON'S DISEASE AND ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE associated with two point increase in adherence score for Mediterranean diet. Squares represent effect size; extended lines show 95% confidence intervals; diamond represents total effect size

28. Top 10 Foods contributing to Energy Intake in the U.S population Rank Food % of total energy 1 Regular soft drinks 7.1 2 Cake, sweet rolls, doughnuts, pastries 3.6 3 Hamburgers, cheeseburgers, meat loaf 3.1 4 Pizza 3.1 5 Potato chips, corn chips, popcorn 2.9 6 Rice 2.7 7 Rolls, buns, English muffins, bagels 2.7 8 Cheese or cheese spread 2.6 9 Beer 2.6 10 French fries, fried potatoes 2.2

29. Top 10 Food Groups Contributing to Energy Intake in the U.S population Rank Food % of total energy 1 Sweets, desserts 12.3 2 Beef, pork 10.1 3 Bread, rolls, crackers 8.7 4 Mixed dishes 8.2 5 Dairy products 7.3 6 Soft drinks 7.1 7 Vegetables 6.1 8 Chicken, fish 5.7 9 Alcoholic beverages 4.4 10 Fruit, juice 3.9

30. For the most part, these foods contain far more calories than can be justified by their nutritional values. In part, this is because they’re largely made from corn, in the form of extracted protein or oil; or refined wheat-white flour all processed to the point where they’re nutritionally worthless or even damaging. The USA is a victim of the industrialization of eating.

32. Energy Balance In biology, energy balance is the biological homeostasis of energy in living systems. Energy balance = energy intake – energy expenditure Energy intake: is part of the diet , which is mainly regulated by hunger and food energy of what is consumed

33. Energy Expenditure Energy expenditure is mainly a sum of internal heat produced and external work Energy expenditure = Basal metabolic rate (BMR) + thermic effect of food + physical activity level (PAL)

34. Basal metabolic rate (BMR) Basal metabolic rate ( BMR ), is the amount of daily energy expended while at rest in a neutrally temperate environment, in the post-absorptive state (meaning that the digestive system is inactive, which requires about twelve hours of fasting in humans). The release of energy in this state is sufficient only for the functioning of the vital organs , the heart, lungs, nervous system, kidneys, liver, intestine, sex organs, muscles, and skin.

35. Thermic effect of food (TEF) Thermic effect of food (TEF) , is the increment in energy expenditure due to the cost of processing food for storage and use . The primary determinants of daily TEF are the quantity and composition of the food ingested; food rich in protein and fiber have an high TEF. Dietary fat is very easy to process and has very little thermic effect, while protein is hard to process and has a much larger thermic effect. Raw celery and fennels are often claimed to have negative caloric balance, because the thermic effect is greater than the caloric content, due to the high fiber.

37. Average Energy Allowance Man: 2300 - 2900 kcal/ day Women: 1900 – 2200 kcal/day Energy balance = energy intake – ( basal metabolic rate + thermic effect of food + physical activity)