Mediterranean diet, traditional Greek foods and health

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Mediterranean diet, traditional Greek foods
and health

• Trichopoulou Antonia, MD
• WHO
  Collaborating Centre for Nutrition
• Department of Epidemiology
• Medical School, University of Athens

Conference on Greek Gastronomy
CRETE 8 June 2007
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Study of Traditional Foods in Greece

• Health aspects
• Cultural aspects
• Economical aspects

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Health aspects of traditional foods

• ?raditional foods are often considered healthy
• However, the influence of the simple and
  composite traditional foods on health should be
  substantiated by scientific evidence
  

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Cultural aspects of traditional foods

• ? need also exists to systematically study
  traditional foods in order to preserve elements
  of our
• nutritional inheritance and
  culture

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Economic aspects

• The combination of healthy and palatable
  properties of traditional foods
• creates
• promising prospects for the production and
  export activities of the food
  sector

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• Rather than single foods or nutrients, a global
  health dietary pattern could exert protective
  effect
• The combination of different types of food with
  healthy characteristics might be necessary to
  harvest their protective potential

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STUDY OF TRADITIONAL FOODS

• Provides scientific evidence on the effects of
  traditional foods on health
• Contributes to the preservation of our cultural
  inheritance

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Study of Traditional Foods

• Traditional Yogurt Tzatziki
  
• Feta Cheese
  Cheese of Sifnos
  
• Unsalted Mizithra
• Paste
• Must cookies Traditional Spoon Sweets
• Watermelon peel spoon sweet
• Halva made from tachini
  Pasteli
• Bean Soup
  
  Mousaka
• Cretan green pies
  Fava (split pea puree) of
  Santorini
• Ipirus Green Pie Macedonia Green
  Pie
• Sausages with leek
  Limnos Fried Courgette
• Sausages with orange peel
  Egg-plant Salad
• Siglino (cured pork meat)
  Taramosalata (Fish Roe Salad)
• Tsakoniki Egg-Plant Dish
  Chick Pea Balls of Sifnos Island

The above studies have been co-financed by the
Hellenic General Secretariat of Research and
Technology and the European Union
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Protected Designation of Origin (PDO)
Protected Geographical Indication ( PGI)
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Flavonoid content of green pies (mg/100g) and
selected beverages (mg/100ml)
Trichopoulou et al. Food Chemistry 2000
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The saturated, monounsaturated,
polyunsaturated(g/100ml) and cholesterol
(mg/100g) content of sesame bar and other snacks
Trichopoulou et al. Trends in Food
ScienceTechnology in press
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The content of sesame bar and other snacks in
inorganic constituents (mg/100g)
Trichopoulou et al. Trends in Food
ScienceTechnology in press
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Snails boubouristi

Pearl onions, cooked (kremidia stifado)
Sea Urchin (Achinos)
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1. Commission of the European Communities.
Food-Science Techniques Reports of the
Scientific Committee for Food (Thirty-first
series), Office for Official Publications of the
European Communities, Luxembourg,1993,pp 1-248
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Contributors to the main flavonoids categories
intake for Greece The Netherlands
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1. Hertog, Hollman, Katan, Kromhout Intake of
potentially anticarcinogenic flavonoids and their
determinants in adults in The Netherlands, Nutr
Cancer 199320(1)21-9
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???? Me??t? t?? p???t?ta? t?? ?????????
pa?ad?s?a??? t??f?µ?? ?a? e?ß??µ?????s? t??
pa?a????? t??? (2003-2007) st? p?a?s??
t?? ?p??e???s?a??? ?????aµµ?t??
??ta????st???t?ta? ???? - ??13
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Source Contribution of traditional Greek foods
to the health of consumers 97-DIATRO-30 (1999
2001) implemented in the context of
Operational Programmes for Research and
Technology EPET II
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CONCLUSIONS
The investigated traditional Mediterranean menu

• meets current dietary recommendations balanced
  diet

• high flavonoid content- obtained from wide range
  of foods

• highest contributors oranges, apples, red wine,
  parlsey onions
• Significant contribution from herbs spices

Trichopoulou et al. 2005 Diet diversification and
health promotion. Forum Nutr.Basel, Karger,
Vasilopoulou et al. 2005 Curr.Med.Chem-Immun,
Endoc. Metab.Agents,
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• "Let food be thy medicine
• and
• medicine be thy food"
• Hippocrates

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Traditional Food" definition
EuroFIR Traditional means conforming to
established practice or specifications prior to
the Second World War. Traditional food is a food
of a specific feature or features, which
distinguish it clearly from other similar
products of the same category, in terms of the
use of traditional ingredients (raw materials
or primary products) or traditional
composition or traditional type of production
and/or processing method as defined below
Trichopoulou et al. 2006 Trends in Food
ScienceTechnology,
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European Parliament16-03-2006
For traditional foods, the European Parliament
suggested that only products that have been on
the market since before the Second World War
should be eligible for the appropriate label
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European Council on TSGs(regulation 509/06)
It was regulated that "traditional" means
proven usage on the Community market for a time
period showing transmission between
generations This time period should be the one
generally ascribed to one human generation, at
least 25 years
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TRADITION D0ES NOT MEAN STILLNESS Adaptability
Beans Tomatoes
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The Mediterranean basin has been for millennia a
cross road of people and civilizations
Here, for five thousand years, boats, carriages,
people, merchandise, but also creative ideas and
religions have converged
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The Mediterranean diet and healt
                    Gods did not
reveal everything to man from the
beginning but people researching
discover with time the better.
Xenophanes fragment 18
6th century B.C.        
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Thank you for your attention