Extra virgin olive oil is the mainstay of the Mediterranean diet and with its extraordinary nutritional qualities is the foundation of Italian cuisine. In fact, in the Mediterranean diet it is the indispensable food, as it is the basis of all the main dishes of the rural tradition. Just think that foods like: bread, pasta, rice, vegetables and legumes are seasoned mainly with extra virgin olive oil.

The UNESCO intergovernmental committee (United Nations Educational, Natural Social Science and Culture Organization) has proclaimed the Mediterranean Diet intangible cultural heritage of humanity. This UNESCO decision represents a milestone in the path of global recognition of the cultural values of food and sustainable agriculture.

WHY DOES EXTRA VIRGIN OLIVE OIL USE IN THE MEDITERRANEAN DIET?​

The oil for its delicacy and its low fat content, allows you to create dishes with an excellent flavor and great palatability and it is thanks to its use that the Mediterranean diet has become a real nutritional model because it is able to combine of the excellent flavors to a long life. Several studies show that the Mediterranean diet brings numerous benefits to our health and facilitates the maintenance of an ideal body weight.

HOW WAS THE MEDITERRANEAN DIET BORN?

The Mediterranean diet is born from the culinary wisdom that goes through the centuries and comes down to us with a rich, healthy diet, simple as it is varied and complete. Extra virgin olive oil, bread, pasta, legumes, milk and cheese, fruit, vegetables and vegetables, fish and meat are the most representative foods of the Mediterranean food tradition, a tradition that even in the most industrialized countries is today proposed as an ideal model of nutrition and Olive oil occupies a place of primary importance because it is the main source of lipids, the reserve energy that our body needs to perform its vital functions.

OIL PROVIDES ESSENTIAL FATS FOR OUR HEALTH

Fat intake is essential for good nutrition, but you must know how to select the best type of fat for our metabolism, which is why you choose olive oil, capable of providing fat in the best form for the body , ie in the form of monounsaturated fatty acids, which are extremely digestible and help to keep our body in the best possible way, providing a substantial balance between “good” cholesterol (the one transported by HDL lipoproteins, which works as “arterial sweeper”) and the “bad” one (which is instead transported by LDL lipoproteins). It is also a source of vitamins and an aid for the assimilation of vitamins contained in other foods.

To achieve all this, however, you must always consume a high quality product, as a poor oil would only damage our body. Now let’s see.

WHAT ARE THE ADVANTAGES OF THE MEDITERRANEAN DIET?

The Mediterranean diet is indicated by modern nutritional science as an ideal model of nutrition, as:

• has extra-virgin olive oil as the main source of lipids

• presents nutritive values close to the ideal

• offers the advantages of a single dish

• it is a varied and economic diet

WHAT ARE THE ADVANTAGES OF THE SINGLE PLATE?

The typical foods of the Mediterranean tradition are suitable for making “unique dishes”, capable of providing the nutritious intake of the usual “first” and “second” on their own, effectively and economically replacing them in one single course. Typical examples: pasta and beans (or chickpeas or lentils), stew with potatoes, dry pasta with meat and cheese dressing, minestrone with grated cheese, pizza, etc. All you need is the addition of fresh vegetables and fruit to make a complete balanced meal from a nutritional point of view and of course, the high quality extra virgin olive oil will make the dish exquisite, balanced and healthy.

Try to follow the Mediterranean diet and use the excellent Berta oil and then tell us how your diet and your health have changed!