The Mediterranean diet. The Mediterranean diet describes a way of eating and drinking associated with a notion of well-being and good health. This is the first of two parts.

The entire concept originated in the renaissance era when, in 1614, Italian Giacomo Castelvetro published a book on promoting dietary change through consuming fruit, herbs, and vegetables.1 He tried, without success, to convince the English to eat more fruits and vegetables. Interestingly enough, his sixteenth century diet was not dissimilar to modern-day diets for the prevention of cancer based on individual genetic make-up. It was, however, more economical then! USDA’s MyPlate United States Department of Agriculture In the 1950s, the concept reached the level of ‘evidence based’ with the Seven Countries Study, when Ancel Keys a nutritionist living in Salerno near Naples, who was enjoying the local mozzarella and tomatoes, noticed that the cardiovascular performance of southern Italians and Cretans was much better than that of their counterparts in northern Europe.2 He attributed this to their high consumption of olive oil, bread, fruits, vegetables, and cereals. At that time, little attention was paid to ‘other social confounders’. For example, the length of ‘siesta’ taken in the south vs. the north could also have played a crucial role in this outcome. As is often the case, the concept of the Mediterranean diet was popularized by the Americans, who are indeed excellent communicators. In 1993, Oldways and the Harvard School of Public Health presented the science behind the Mediterranean diet at a conference. To make this easier to nderstand, they unveiled a chart—the Mediterranean Diet Pyramid. The Pyramid has undergone several changes over the years, and in 2005, it became the more tailored ‘MyPyramid.gov’. More recently, as part of her healthier eating initiative in the USA, the First Lady, Michelle Obama, unveiled the new ‘MyPlate’ design which is now a circular plate split into four portions, fruits, vegeta- bles, grains, and proteins, with a small dairy portion on the side