Why is the Mediterranean diet so important?
The article in the Wall Street Journal clearly explains why the latest results of the massive study conducted on more than 7,000 patients in Spain and published Monday in the New England Journal of Medicine are extremely important.
The WSJ says “Few previous studies have succeeded in proving a direct link between a diet (rich in EVOO, seafood, beans, good grains, vegetables and fruit) and a reduction in life-threatening events like strokes, instead assessing the diet’s impact only on weight loss or certain cardiovascular risk factors, like blood pressure or cholesterol”.
For this post I interviewed Dr. Rascazzo (cardiologist, whose e-book inspired the Stile Mediterraneo Cooking School’s principles).
Based on her experience, she says that this study is really important because it proves that extra virgin olive oil and the Mediterranean diet or “way of eating” have the same preventive effect of taking statins!!
This is important for several reasons:
1) people can do PREVENTION WITH FOOD instead of medicines;
2) statins may have side effects! (EVOO does NOT have any side effect!);
3) by doing prevention (with food) the whole HealthCare System can benefit in terms of reduced public expenditures;
4) the Mediterranean-style way of eating is NOT a DIET to lose weight. It is a style of eating that features TASTY FOOD: people feel WELL and HAPPY instead of getting depressed!
Unfortunately, as the article correctly mentions, today also in the Mediterranean countries we are running the risk of losing the Mediterranean-style way of eating, especially among the new generations.
Recent researches have found that heart diseases have increased also among new generations. This is due to the introduction of “modern” ways of eating which are rich in bad fats and sugars.
At the Stile Mediterranean Cooking School Italy we strongly believe that it is so much better to prevent diseases with food than with medicines.
Stile Mediterraneo’s goal is to promote an “old” way of eating which is simple, tasty…..and healthy …..but AT RISK of being lost.
This is why we wrote the ebook: The Cuisine of Southern Italian Women – Mediterranean Secrets for a Healthy & Happy Life.
With this e-book we want to promote a way of eating which is based on: good fats (EVOO), good proteins (seafood, beans, little meat), good carbs (good grains) and vegetables and fruit. Red meat and sweets are also admitted, but as treats and not the rule.
We want to promote balance and moderation.
We also want to promote an ancient COOKERY METHOD which is about simplicity and does not feature complicated preparations in order to enhance the ingredients’ taste.
We want to highlight the role of Southern Italian Women in handing down this un-written cookery method, which is now UNESCO heritage.
The beauty of the Mediterranean style diet is that this way of eating and cooking can easily be replicated in other countries and cultures: ingredients are easy to find and cookery methods are very simple, not requiring sophisticated cooking techniques.
We hope more and more people adopt this way of eating which is healthful and delicious.
For information about our cooking classes and Cookery School in Italy please contact us.
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