Vegetables and Health

Of all the foods in the world, vegetables offer the greatest diversity of form and nutrients. A healthy diet is one that includes lots of vegetables, and micronutrients in vegetables appear to help in preventing a variety of chronic diseases. Today there is a consensus among health experts that a diet rich in vegetables and fruits reduces the risk of certain cancers.

The Mediterranean food pyramid places a great emphasis on an abundance of food from plant sources, on seasonally fresh and locally produced foods, using olive oil as principal cooking fat. The pyramid also emphasizes two other components of a healthy lifestyle: exercise and moderate consumption of wine, normally with meals, about two glasses a day.

The basic message of the Mediterranean Diet Pyramid is to eat a largely plant-based diet, low in saturated and trans fatty acids, such as butter and margarine. The Mediterranean diet is an entire diet linked to certain lifestyles. You do not need to become a vegetarian, nor will certain vegetables provide the elixir to long life, but if you eat a lot of vegetables, you will be doing your body good.

Perhaps Mediterranean food could be described as "peasent food", not in a derogatory sense, but as a homage to the people who have provided and inspired us with such a vast and wonderful repertoire of recipes, ancient and new.

In the Mediterranean, ingredients should be fresh and of the highest quality, even if this means waiting for some of them to be in season.

Recent research has proved the Mediterranean diet to be a very healthy one thus increasing its popularity. Olive oil is at the heart of this theory; used in cooking, it contains a high proportion of mono-saturated fats. Olive oils vary in color, from the golden varieties to the deep greens.

The people of the Mediterranean have known great hardship. Although we have holiday images of sunny days, the weather can be wild and unjust. Lack of rain, terrible winds and a capricious sea ruin crops and the fishermen's haul; in the past, foreign domination and disease caused poverty and death. Because of this, the most basic foods are, even today, a celebration of life to the Mediterranean people. Bread is an important staple and always accompanies a meal, be it a bowl of soup or a platter of grilled fish.

Perhaps Mediterranean food could be described as "peasent food", not in