The secret of the Mediterranean diet? There is no secret
Researchers
claim that nitro fatty acids, formed when olive oil and vegetables are
eaten together, are the key to the healthy Mediterranean diet. But such a
reductionist approach to food and health is unhelpful
The chemical reaction of oil and vegetable is said to be 'nature's protective mechanism'. Photograph: Ian O'Leary/Getty Images
Whoop-de-doo, researchers at King's College London and the University of California claim to have
identified the "secret" underpinning
the oft-quoted healthfulness of the Mediterranean diet. From their lab
tests on mice (not just any old mice, genetically modified ones) they
conclude that when
olive oil and vegetables are eaten together, they
form nitro fatty acids that help lower blood pressure – a risk factor
for heart disease – by blocking the enzyme epoxide hydrolase.
The
lead researcher, Professor Philip Eaton, describes the chemical reaction
of oil and vegetable as "nature's protective mechanism", and sees a
commercial future in it. "If we can tap into this we could make new
drugs for treating high blood pressure and preventing heart disease."
Nitro fatty acids could soon be touted as the next pharmaceutical
preventative for cardiovascular disease. Pills aside, though, if nitro
fatty acids are indeed the magic formula on which the healthy
Mediterranean diet is predicated, should we be conducting our own
personal diet experiments to take on board this revelation?
Initially,
the more holistic notion that health and slimness lies in combining
food groups, rather than fixating on an ever-changing procession of
"superfoods", has its attractions – not least because few of us lick our
lips at the prospect of eating a bucketload of kale, or can afford to
breakfast daily on chia seeds and blueberries. Combining salads and
vegetables with oil is hardly onerous, but can this double act really be
the holy grail of heart health?
Cynicism is surely merited. This study was part-funded by the British Heart Foundation, a body that
finds itself on a sticky wicket
because its rote script – the oft-quoted "lipid hypothesis" that eating
fat causes heart disease – has gone into meltdown like a defrosting
fridge. In nitro fatty acids, the BHF has a way to explain the apparent
anomaly that a Mediterranean diet is healthy, even though it contains
its dietary villain.
Bear in mind that the BHF, along with other
charities and the public health establishment, has evangelised a
selectively edited, much traduced, some might say mythical account of
the Mediterranean diet. The longevity of Mediterranean populations, we
were assured, was explained by their high consumption of fruit and
vegetables (true), and low consumption of red meat and saturated fat
(false).
In fact, no sentient visitor to southern Europe could
fail to notice the reliance on fatty lamb, full-fat yoghurt and cheese
(feta, mozzarella, manchego, pecorino), kebabs and slow-cooked red meat
dishes, such as the Greek beef stifado. Even vegetables come stuffed
with red meat. Yes, monounsaturated olive oil is the default oil of the
Mediterranean region, but a serious amount of saturated fat is eaten
too.
Modern perceptions of the Mediterranean diet stem from
observation of dietary traditions
in Crete, Greece, and southern Italy in the 1960s, when people were
physically active, spent lots of time outdoors and ate shared communal
meals of fresh, seasonal, homecooked, locally produced foods. That's not
the same thing as bolting down a huge plate of pasta in a cook-in
sauce, followed by a high-sugar, reduced-fat yoghurt, while watching
MasterChef on the settee.
NHS Choices actively encourages us
to "make our diets more Mediterranean" by, among other things, "eating
more bread and pasta" (studiously ignoring the growing body of evidence
that implicates refined carbohydrates in obesity) and telling us,
somewhat inarticulately, to eat "more fruit and salad, including
tomatoes and vegetables". But this reheated, rehashed "Mediterranean"
diet increasingly looks like a lazy student's essay cobbled together
from out-of-date textbooks.
Can there really only be one global prescription for life-sustaining eating?
What about Japanese people? They are some of the slimmest, healthiest, longest-lived people on the planet, and their diet is not Mediterranean.
Might there be something to explore there? All
that fermented food, micronutrient-packed seaweed, low sugar and, last
but not least, the appreciation of beef marbled with a high percentage
of intramuscular fat?
Comparing European countries, it is becoming obvious that
obesity is more prevalent in laissez-faire markets
– notably the UK and Ireland – where a light regulatory touch allows
powerful multinational food companies to maximise profit by encouraging
children and adults to overconsume their highly processed, nutritionally
compromised products.
The debate around what really constitutes
healthy eating is heated and continuing. We may not know yet with great
certainty what is good for us, but using our own powers of observation,
it is crystal clear what is bad for us: a diet of processed,
industrialised junk food.
消基會今天公布網路賣的粽子的標示、營養的調查,抽20家業者都沒人完全符合規定,另外說是出名廚指導包的粽，結果也沒寫清楚，是哪個名廚。而新北市衛生局也抽驗133件肉粽,其中有11件不合格, 
写真を拡大
