Mediterranean Diet and Cancer

Abstract

Mediterranean diet is a popular but very loose term. Being geographically mediterranean does not necessarily mean that the local dietary profile conforms to the purported mediterranean model, nor is it clear what this model is. It has been common to assume that mediterranean diet is a low fat and particularly low satutared fatty acids diet, but there is now evidence that there is more to this diet than just its fatty acids moiety. Thus Greek diet is high in total fat but low in saturated fatty acids whereas the Southern Italian diet is rich in complex carbohydrates and has a low overall fat content — and yet both regions are characterized by very low incidence rates of coronary heart disease and several form of cancers.