The Mediterranean Diet between traditional foods and human health: The culinary example of Puglia (Southern Italy)

The MediterraneanDiet,throughahealthyprofileoffatintake,carbohydrateatlowglycaemicindex,highcontentofdietary fibre,antioxidantsandanti- inflammatorycompounds,reducestheriskofcertainpathologiessuchascardiovasculardisease.However,itrepresentsanythingmuchmorethanadietary regimen anditisalsocharacterisedbyitslinksto thevariousfoodculturesofthedifferentcountriesoftheMediterraneanarea.Ontheotherhand,the traditional cuisineofthePugliaregion(Southern Italy) isbasedonanutritionalmodelmainlyvegetarian becauseonlyasmallshareofcaloriesisof animal origin;cerealsarethebasicingredient,pulsesand oliveoilthemainproteinandfatsource,respectively. Inthispaperwereportedtheculture,history, identity andheritageofthisculinarymodeloftheSouthern Italytraditiontounderstandpossible linkages withtheMediterraneanDiet.Moreover, some traditional recipesofthePugliacuisineareexamined asregardsgastronomicandnutritionalaspects, alsoforbetterexplainingitsrelationship with thefood style bestfamousintheworld