Abstract
The term “Mediterranean diet” is commonly used to refer to the historic dietary pattern consumed by the population of the Mediterranean regions in the 1950s and 1960s, which was associated with extremely low rates of coronary heart disease (CHD) and mortality. MedDiet also refers to an idealized and quantifiable dietary pattern developed by nutrition scientists that is derived from this original diet. In the 1950s, nutrition scientists observed a significant geographic disparity in the rates of cardiovascular diseases and mortality in the developed world. Specifically, populations in the olive-growing regions of Southern Europe had lower CHD rates and longer life expectancies than populations in Northern Europe and the United States [1–5]. They evaluated variables in the dietary patterns of these regions in an attempt to find an element or elements responsible for these differences (Fig. 2.1).
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Zacharias, E. (2012). History, Composition, Adherence Scores. In: The Mediterranean Diet. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-3326-2_2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-3326-2_2
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