Vitamin A

Famous for promoting good vision, this fat-soluble vitamin facilitates a number of other important bodily processes. Vitamin A plays a vital role in maintaining healthy skin and healthy tissues found in your mouth, genitals, and digestive and urinary tracts. It also assists with the proper development of fetuses, sperm production, growth of children, and more. In terms of cancer prevention, vitamin A’s importance in supporting the immune system makes this nutrient a powerful ally in the fight against cancer.
Getting adequate amounts of vitamin A is easy in a vegetable-rich Mediterranean diet. Identify vegetable sources containing vitamin A by their orange color, and you’ve got beta-carotene—a substance that converts to vitamin A in the body. Beta-carotene, a phytochemical that we’ll discuss below, is also a potent antioxidant. Sweet potatoes, carrots, and melonsstaples in the traditional Mediterranean diet—contain lots of beta-carotene. Pumpkin, native to North America, also contains high levels of beta-carotene and can easily be included in a Mediterranean diet, especially when you grow it yourself or buy organic pumpkins from local growers.

Vitamins

Vitamins are chemical substances in vegetables (and other foods) that have a variety of jobs in the body, from as sisting the chemical reactions that make your body function to promoting growth to preventing infection. There are two kinds of vitamins: water soluble and fat soluble.
Water-soluble vitamins dissolve in water and move through your bloodstream quickly. These vitamins, which include thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, vitamin B , folacin, vitamin B 12 6 , biotin, pantothenic acid, and vitamin C, must be ingested regularly because the body doesn’t store them. Among the many life-supporting functions of water-soluble vitamins, folacin and vitamin C have been shown to have anticancer functions, especially when paired with the fatsoluble vitamin E and beta-carotene (a form of vitamin A).

How Much Olive Oil Can I Eat?

Olive oil is “drizzled” over the top of our Mediterranean Diet Pyramid to indicate that olive oil should be enjoyed as a highlight to a Mediterranean way of eating, but not to drown out the other healthy benefits. We did not specify actual amounts of oil to be consumed because the amount should really be based on individual calorie needs. Calorie needs are determined from your height, weight, activity level, and state of health. As you can imagine, this can vary greatly from person to person. We strongly suggest consulting with a registered dietitian or other health care provider for guidelines on your individual needs. In general, how ever, fat should be used in moderation (no need to limit fat intake for children under the age of four, as infants and toddlers need fat for their growth requirements, yet we would suggest avoiding trans fats for children).
And remember how many other spectacular and delicious foods are integral to a traditional Mediterranean diet. Just take a look at the Mediterranean Diet Pyramid if you need a reminder. If too many of the calories in your diet come from olive oil, you won’t have room in your calorie allowance for the other good stuff—the whole grains, vegetables, fruits, nuts, beans, and so on—that make up such an important part of a healthy diet.
Olive oil is certainly one of the highlights of the traditional Mediterranean diet and the Mediterranean Diet Pyramid, but it is not the only element. To get maximum health benefits that the traditional Mediterranean diet has to offer, enjoy olive oil in moderation.

Fat in the Mediterannian

We’ve already introduced you to the notion that the entire Mediterranean region is olive country and that the primary fat in the Mediterranean diet is olive oil. Olive trees with their fruits burgeoning with oil virtually rim the Mediter ranean Sea. When ripe, the olives are mashed into a paste and pressed between mats, squeezing the cherished oils into vats below. The process is simple, and the first pressing of the olives yields the olive oil that is the most pure, the most nutrient-rich, and the most flavorful: extra virgin olive oil. Extra virgin olive oil is the least processed olive oil.
Depending on the region where the olives were grown, olive oil varies in color, from gold to green. According to Nancy Harmon Jenkins in her Mediterranean Diet Cook book:

[The] strong-flavored, green-tasting Tuscan oils are very different themselves from the lighter, rounder, fat - ter oils from Apulia in Italy’s South. Which again are distinctive from the oils of Catalonia with their hints of almond and the richer, full-bodied oils from Greece and farther east in Lebanon and the bland, sweet oils from North Africa.

Although strongly (and deliciously) flavored, olive oil is more versatile than some strongly flavored oils because its strong flavor diminishes or disappears when heated. It can, therefore, be used with great success in baking. Lesser grades of olive oil are progressively more processed and re fined. Their slightly cheaper prices are not worth the loss of flavor and the benefits of other substances in the oil, not to mention the added undesirable effects of processing. (Keep olive oil out of the light and refrigerate any oil you won’t use in one month.)
Although not a component in traditional Mediterranean cuisine, a good olive oil substitute is canola oil, another rich source of monounsaturated fatty acids. Canola oil, some times called rapeseed oil, contains a large proportion of monounsaturated fatty acids, like olive oil, as well as vitamin E and omega-3 fatty acids. Although it costs less than its Mediterranean cousin, it is also far more refined, less flavor ful, and less widely consumed, historically. Canola oil is also devoid of phytochemicals (nonnutritive substances in plants that appear to offer protective health effects), those extra “goodies” available in olive oil that has been cold pressed. In terms of a heart-healthy choice, however, it still ranks just below olive oil.
During the time when Ancel Keys was conducting his research, some Mediterranean countries consumed greater or lesser amounts of olive oil. Remember how Cretans were found by Keys to be the olive oil heavyweights, consuming an average of about a half cup of olive oil per day per per son? A full one-third of the calories in the Cretan diet came from olive oil. The Greek population in general received about one-fifth of its calories from olive oil. Elsewhere throughout the Mediterranean, olive oil consumption was not quite up to Cretan standards, but still far exceeded con sumption in the United States. According to Keys, average olive oil consumption throughout the Mediterranean region equaled about 15 to 20 percent of total calories, “except in the most northerly part of Italy and the non-Mediterranean parts of France and Spain.”
Coronary heart disease rates in these countries, as we have mentioned before, were (and still are, although not as dramatically) lower than in the United States, and although olive oil is not the only factor, researchers have narrowed the field enough to surmise that a high proportion of mo nounsaturated fatty acids in the diet is likely a significant factor in lower coronary heart disease rates.
But olive oil is healthy for more reasons than the monounsaturated fatty acids that lower the risk of coronary heart disease. As mentioned, olive oil contains phytochemicals, more specifically carotenoids, that give vegetables and their oils color, and the antioxidant vitamin E. Antioxidants in hibit the formation of free radicals, elements produced in the body by pollutants and human metabolism that appear to damage the immune system and may contribute to chronic disease. Remember how oxidized LDL leads to hardened and clogged arteries? Vitamin E helps to further prevent LDL from oxidizing (antioxidants are explained in more de tail in the next chapter).
Again, when it comes to fat, moderation is the key. Focus on consuming a healthy proportion of monounsaturated fats compared to saturated and polyunsaturated fats. Use the Mediterranean Diet Pyramid to help change your diet to re flect the eating patterns and fat consumption of the traditional Mediterranean diet. Overall, fat consumption was moderate, and olive oil was certainly the fat of choice. Olive oil infused the cuisine of the Mediterranean with its rich aroma and its health-bestowing properties. It was (and still is) a culinary star—but not the only star in a richly varied, heart-healthy, Mediterranean-inspired diet.

Fat-Free or Free Fat is Really Fat Free?

What about “fat-free” or “low-fat” foods? How do they fit in with a Mediterranean-inspired eating pattern?

Most prepackaged “fat-free” or “low-fat” foods are often high in sugar and/or artificial ingredients, fillers, gums, and other ingredients meant to simulate the taste and texture fat would have provided. These products are often high in calo ries, expensive, and devoid of nutrients. In addition, many prepackaged low-fat foods are deceiving because they con tain trans-fatty acids. To eat in a true traditional Mediterranean way, limit the use of these foods as much as possible and opt for foods closer to their natural state. Dried fruit, nuts and seeds, and whole-grain crackers (those without partiallyhydrogenated oils—read the ingredients) are as convenient to grab on the go as prepackaged snacks. The Mediterranean way of eating is focused on whole, fresh foods.