The traditional Mediterranean diet is the diet that prevailed in the olive tree-growing areas of the Mediterranean basin up to the early 1960s, before globalization invaded the local food culture. The seminal studies by Keys and his colleagues brought the concept of the Mediterranean diet into the mainstream of the science focusing on the relation between nutrition and health. The interest in the diet has resurged in recent years with further studies indicating lower incidence of coronary heart disease and reduced mortality in those adhering to this traditional dietary pattern
