nd
# 56 • MARCH 22 , 2015
mild climate and fertile lands
with Greece, Crete, Spain and
so forth and that allows us to
benefit from a huge variety of
fresh vegetables, fruits, fish
and legumes.
In one of the latest studies by
the Harvard Medical School,
the Mediterranean diet is praised, again, for providing great
benefits for our health helping
in reducing risks for vascular
and cardio-vascular diseases,
not to mention lowering cholesterol levels and helping
the immune system. Why is
# 56 • MARCH 8
or a local dish. Think of the eggplants: we roast them, we use
them in our caponata siciliana
(tasty dish from Sicily), for the
parmigiana, we fry them with
some flour or we boil them to
make gorgeous “polpette” and
so forth. The variety must be
added to our undiscussed key
ingredient: the extra-virgin olive oil that we use for our dressings, as a main condiment, in
It is the variety of these ingre- a sauce or as a final tasty touch
dients and the huge possibili- on some dishes.
ties in cooking them that make
the difference: the same veg- In sum, the Italian way of cogie can be cooked in several oking and eating, within the
ways according to a regional, bigger picture of the Mediterthis diet so special? First of all
let’s clarify that it is not a “diet”
in the common sense of the
word: it is a life style as indicated earlier. We do not simply
eat a lot of fruit, veggies, legumes, fresh fish, lean meat and
not a lot of dairy products, not
to mention pastry only on Sundays or for special occasions
and festivities.
nd
2015
ranean-diet, is healthy because it has simple key ingredients (oil-vinegar-tomato-onion/
garlic), it is extremely diversified (local and regional variety), it is essentially respectful
to the taste and to the eyesight
(a typical Italian dish needs to
be tasty and looks real, not necessarily perfect) and mostly, it
is a healthy way of conceiving
life itself! Buon Appetito.
Images: cdn2.hubspot.net/
hub/251389/file-599806772-jpg/
Italian_food.jpg; static.panoramio.
com/photos/large/60273351.
jpg; www.affaritaliani.it/static/upl/
mam/mammaagata1.jpg; www.
dangerouslyfit.com.au/wp-content/
uploads/2013/11/628x471.jpg
12 | WE THE ITALIANS
WE THE ITALIANS | 13
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