Fast food overtakes healthy Mediteranean diet; SFVS Discount Program update

[Guest guest]

SFVS Discount Program update: Paleologos discount offer does not

have expiration date :-)

 

Paleologos S.A – 5, 25th August Street – 71202 Heraklion – Crete –

GREECE, Tel. (211) 0030 2810 372570 + 317358 + 332847 Fax. (211)0030

2810 372570 & 346208 (www.ferries.gr & www.portoclub.gr/vegeterian-

recipes-holidays.html Email: info &

Portokalakis) 5% discount plus extra 5% for early

booking offer on tours, including Cretan Vegetarian-Vegan Option.

 

Paleologos tours feature the traditional & healthful Cretan diet!

 

From http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/24/world/europe/24diet.html:

September 24, 2008

Fast Food Hits Mediterranean; a Diet Succumbs

By ELISABETH ROSENTHAL

KASTELI, Greece —

Small towns like this one in western Crete, considered the

birthplace of the famously healthful Mediterranean diet —

emphasizing olive oil, fresh produce and fish . . . the

Mediterranean diet . . . has been associated with longer life spans

and lower rates of heart disease and cancer,. . . " This is a place

where you'd see people who lived to 100, where people were all fit

and trim, " Dr. Stagourakis said.

 

Greece, Italy, Spain and Morocco have even asked Unesco to designate

the diet as an " intangible piece of cultural heritage, " a testament

to its essential value as well as its potential extinction.

 

The traditional diet, low in saturated fats and high in nutrients

like flavonoids, was based on vegetables, fruit, unrefined grains,

olive oil for cooking and for flavoring, and a bit of wine — all

consumed on a daily basis.

Fish, nuts, poultry, eggs, cheese and sweets were weekly additions.

Red meat, refined sugar or flour, butter and other oils or fats were

consumed rarely, if at all.

Research on the diet took off in the 1990s, as scientists noted that

people in Mediterranean countries lived longer and had low rates of

serious disease despite a penchant for patently unhealthy habits

like smoking and drinking. But that protection is now seen as

rapidly eroding.

A generation ago, the typical diet in all Mediterranean countries

complied with nutritional recommendations by the World Health

Organization that less than 10 percent of calories come from

saturated fats and that less than 300 milligrams of cholesterol be

consumed per day.

On traditional Crete, there was no need for calorie counting or food

pyramids. People were poorer then, so their food was mostly

homegrown, and producing it required more physical activity.

" We ate what we grew and what we could make from it, " said Eleni

Klouvidaki, 46, who lives in Kalidonia, a mountain village outside

Kasteli, and describes her preferred diet as " whatever's green. " On

a recent day she prepared a meal of her staple mix of zucchini,

tomatoes and other vegetables, and tossed it all in homemade olive

oil.

Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company