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The Mediterranean diet is not only olive oil and vegetables; UNESCO treats it as a culture of growing, cooking and eating together.

UNESCO Intangible Heritage

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UNESCO first inscribed the Mediterranean diet on its Intangible Cultural Heritage list in 2010 for Greece, Italy, Morocco and Spain, and in 2013 extended the listing to Cyprus, Croatia and Portugal. What it protects are skills and customs rather than nutrients: farming and fishing calendars, markets, preserving, cooking and eating together. The health interest came earlier, from the American physiologist Ancel Keys. His Seven Countries Study, begun in 1958, compared diet and heart disease across seven countries, and its results linked the low rates of heart disease in places such as Crete to meals built on olive oil, vegetables, grains, legumes and fish, with little meat.

Türkçe oku
Akdeniz diyeti yalnızca zeytinyağı ve sebzeden ibaret değildir; UNESCO onu ürünü yetiştirmekten yemeği pişirip birlikte yemeye uzanan bir kültür olarak tanır.

UNESCO, Akdeniz diyetini ilk kez 2010'da Yunanistan, İtalya, Fas ve İspanya adına Somut Olmayan Kültürel Miras listesine aldı; 2013'te listeye Kıbrıs, Hırvatistan ve Portekiz de eklendi. Korunan şey besin değerleri değil, beceriler ve alışkanlıklardır: Tarım ve balıkçılık takvimi, pazarlar, kışlık hazırlamak, yemek pişirmek ve sofraya birlikte oturmak. Sağlık açısından ilgi daha önce, Amerikalı fizyolog Ancel Keys'le başlamıştı. Keys'in 1958'de başlayan Yedi Ülke Çalışması, yedi ülkede beslenme ile kalp hastalığını karşılaştırdı. Sonuçlar, Girit gibi yerlerde kalp hastalığının az görülmesini zeytinyağı, sebze, tahıl, baklagil ve balığa dayanan, etin az yer aldığı sofralarla ilişkilendirdi.

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