This is mainly because Europeans find that the incidence of cardiovascular diseases in this area is low, which can be traced back to their reasonable diet. Their diet is dominated by fresh vegetables and fruits, fish, whole grains, nuts, beans and olive oil. When cooking, they seldom fry, and use olive oil instead of animal oil and margarine. According to research, the fat in the Mediterranean diet accounts for about 35% of the total energy, and the saturated fatty acids (such as those in pigs, cattle and sheep) are less than 9%. So many scientific research institutions have studied this kind of diet.
With the deepening of research, people are surprised to find that people who follow the Mediterranean diet have a lower incidence of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases such as hypertension and coronary heart disease. Therefore, people gradually realize that the Mediterranean diet is a healthy way of eating. Both the American College of Cardiology and the American Heart Association recommend the Mediterranean diet as a diet to prevent cardiovascular diseases.
There are at least 16 countries and regions around the Mediterranean, with different cultures, nationalities, religious beliefs and eating habits. However, due to the same climate and products, different eating habits have many common characteristics, which constitutes a special diet model, that is, Mediterranean diet. The eating habits of Greece, southern Italy and Spain are the most typical.