Wild lands, where nature dictates the times
MEDITERRANEAN DIET
The Mediterranean Diet represents a set of skills, knowledge, practices and traditions that go from the landscape to the table, including crops, harvesting, fishing, conservation, transformation, preparation and, in particular, the consumption of food. In essence it represents a lifestyle.
The Diet does not include the exclusion of any type of food, it is limited only to dictating the frequency with which they can be consumed.
Eat at least three daily rations of strictly seasonal fruit and vegetables.
Daily consumption of extra virgin olive oil, bread, pasta, and whole grains (the flours currently on the market are more refined than those used immediately after the war), legumes and dried fruit.
Products rich in calcium, one portion per day.
Fish, white meat and eggs a few times a week.
More rarely, red meats, butter, sweets, etc.
It is possible to drink wine, preferably red, in moderation and only during meals.
The meals, contrary to what the chaotic life of our times suggests, should be consumed in a convivial way.
All this must necessarily be combined with constant physical activity. Choose the one that is most congenial to you, as long as it reproduces the living conditions to which the farmers of Cilento were used to.
Here, in principle, the ingredients of the Mediterranean Diet, declared by UNESCO Intangible Heritage of Humanity.
ORIGINS OF THE MEDITERRANEAN DIET
Ancel Keys - the discoverer of the Mediterranean Diet, was born in 1904 in Colorado Sping USA, he was a biologist, physiologist and nutritionist at the University of Minnesota.
Sent to follow the troops during the Second World War, he was involved, on behalf of the US Government, in a large program on nutrition (he was the inventor of the K-ration). Keys was fascinated by the fact of the low incidence of cardiovascular pathologies and gastrointestinal disorders, detected in Cilento and on the island of Crete.
In 1962, he moved to Pioppi, a fraction of the municipality of Pollica, in Cilento. Pioppi became the headquarters of his studios.
Keys remained in Pioppi for about 40 years and died, in 2004, at the age of 101. Synonymous that the Diet has had the desired effects in its inventor.
His home «villa Minnelea», has now become a museum dedicated to the Mediterranean Diet.
The name of his house is determined by the conjunction of the first part of Minnesota and Elea (archaeological site of an ancient Greek colony, located in present-day Ascea, which is a few kilometers from Pioppi), evidently a demonstrating his deep bond with his land of origin and Cilento.
MEDITERRANEAN DIET STUDIES
Since the discovery of Keys, many studies have followed that have demonstrated the effectiveness of the Mediterranean Diet.
Insights on the Diet were made by the Greeks Antonia and Dimitri Trichopoulos, arriving at formulating the theory of the Mediterranean Diet, as an antidote for cardio vascular diseases and inventing the «Food Pyramid» of the Diet.
Subsequently, in the early 1990s, the EPIC (European Prospective Investigation into Carcer and Nutrition) research project started, which aims to find out what protective foods are and those that instead favor the onset of cancer. The study, involving 500,000 people across Europe, demonstrates a close correlation between low fiber consumption and the onset of colorectal cancer and also the protective role determined by the regular consumption of vegetables, against breast cancer -http://www.epic.iarc.fr/keyfindines.ph
Also demonstrating that the greater the adherence to the Mediterranean Diet, the lower the mortality rate.
In the book written by Marialaura Bonaccio and Giovanni De Gaetano «The Mediterranean Diet in times of crisis» - Scientific Thought Publisher -, you can find, in addition to a precise analysis on the benefits made by the Diet and on the impact that the economic crisis has had on our diet, also a detailed report on the outcome of the main studies which followed one another on the Mediterranean Diet, accompanied by a detailed bibliography on matter.
Recently the results of the research carried out by the Department of Epidemiology and Prevention - IRCCS Mediterranean Neurological Institute - NEUROMED - Pozzilli (Isernia) were published, through Lo studio Moli - Sani» Where the level of incidence of the Mediterranean diet on cardio vascular diseases causes of death has been demonstrated , without neglecting the effects benefits that the diet brings to our psycho-physical well-being.
The study was carried out on approximately 25,000 Molises, cataloged by degree of adherence to the diet.
The results, which confirm Keys intuition, can be found in the book «Mediterranean Diet» and on the link:http://www.moli-sani.org
STUDIES ON LONGEVITY
In Cilento and in particular a Gioi, Cardile and Campora, various studies on the Genome have followed, carried out by the University of Naples, which involved entire populations, aimed at understanding the causes of the high longevity of the area.
Therefore it is conceivable to be able to affirm the relationship between “lifestyle and the "slow passage of time” that characterize Cilento.
