a word from the expert
Cured meats and the MEDITERRANEAN diet A relationship that has never been broken
Giuseppe L. Pastori – Food Technologist
The belief that the Mediterranean diet is only based on a vegetable regimen is wrong. The contribution of animal proteins, meat, fish and cured meats, is essential for the nutritional equilibrium of a food regimen that is among the most complete in the world.
W
hen we look at a picture or watch a video, only who has made it can connect the memory of that event and its history. He knows the background behind the scenes and the feelings he had in that moment. If those scenes represent a lifestyle or a group of people, there is no need for who looks at that scene to contextualize the moment (even if he was not present and knows the setting and its history): he perfectly knows what it is about. If there is a title or a caption, it will be easier to remember the event and understand it with the right interpretation, even after years. Sometimes the author or the protagonists may omit the title, which is then added by people who are foreign to the context, who have perceived it indirectly, reported by others. In this case the interpretation will not be univocal: whoever looks at the document at a later time can’t understand its full meaning. He can only restrict himself to a few superficial aspects, without examining in depth. When we talk about Mediterranean Diet, we – Italians – don’t have to clarify what we are talking about, because we live in this lo-
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cal context. It’s obvious that the food regimen of our diet takes inspiration from our culinary tradition, though our environment is now more urbanized. The strong connection with our agricultural production and with the excellence of our land remains and gives life to a variety of foods and to their balanced combinations. The concept of Mediterranean Diet appeared in the ‘50s last century (though it was not known with that name; it will become popular in 1975, when the Americans gave it this qualification). In 1945 the Ministry sent an American physiologist and nutritionist, Ancel Keys, to follow the US troops in Italy during the Second World War and study human performances in hypo nutritional conditions (he will later develop the so called K ration, which has been named after him and will be widely used by the US and allied troops). Keys was studying the relation between body configuration and blood pressure, and between diet, cholesterol and coronary disease. Keys was the first to emphasize the relation between
energy intake, energy waste and metabolic rate at rest, which enabled to understand the waste of calories in an activity and the phenomena that lead to obesity and type 2 diabetes. In the early ‘50s he took part in the first FAO meeting on Food and Agriculture in Italy and was impressed by the low effect of cardiovascular pathologies and gastrointestinal upsets among Campania inhabitants. This observation required a scientific explanation. He compared the Mediterranean Countries’, Italy’s and Crete’s diets with northern Europe’s, Japan’s and US diets, and discovered that the mortality rate for ischemic heart disease was lower in the Mediterranean populations, and they even lived longer. He settled in Italy with his wife Margaret, in Pioppi in Cilento area to be precise, and after decades-long investigations he concluded that a diet based on bread, pasta, fruit, vegetables, beans, extra virgin olive oil, fish and very little meat was responsible for the extraordinary healthy effect on the local
