Ancel Keys, the American who created the Mediterranean diet.

Bread, pasta, fruit, vegetables, many legumes, extra virgin olive oil, fish, and very little meat: these are the basic ingredients of the Mediterranean Diet, declared by Unesco as "Intangible cultural heritage of humanity." The reason for this honor is that it offers extremely high benefits for our health. Who was the first to demonstrate the effectiveness of our diet? Not an Italian, but rather an American: Ancel Keys.

The famous physiologist from Colorado Springs was a consultant for the American War Department during World War II and became famous for inventing the K Ration for survival, later adopted by many other armies. At the end of the war, after accompanying soldiers in numerous battles, he remembered a small paradise in Italy: Cilento, Pollica, Pioppi, and its little port. He decided to return to live there, in a beautiful villa by the sea. In Pioppi, everyone still remembers Ancel and Margaret Keys today.

Ancel realized that the local population had a significantly higher age compared to the life expectancy he was familiar with, which is why he studied their traditions, focusing especially on dietetics. He, who was known primarily for his studies on the epidemiology of cardiovascular diseases, was very aware of the problems of American food that negatively affected the health and longevity of his fellow countrymen.

In Pioppi, in the post-war period, poverty was widespread everywhere and the cuisine was essential. In particular, people in Cilento were tied to local productions of tomatoes, extra virgin olive oil, and the famous pasta from the lands of Gragnano. Pasta with tomato sauce was the simplest everyday dish, accompanied by fish from the sea and bread from the ancient stone ovens.

Ancel and his wife Margaret dedicated their entire lives and experience to affirming the thesis that this type of Mediterranean diet was a determining factor for longevity and, above all, for the lack of cardiovascular diseases among people.

In 1975, they published the popular scientific treatise Eat well and stay well, the Mediterranean way (Doubleday publisher): it was an incredible success that drew attention back to a land forgotten by everyone due to poverty and the ailments caused by war. Thus, communities were born all over the world of men and women who began to use Mediterranean products, and the dietary pyramid proposed by Ancel became a must.

Coincidentally, Ancel lived to be 100 years old in Pioppi and was the living example of the validity of his studies. Thanks to Ancel and Margaret, Unesco included the Mediterranean Diet in 2010 on the List of intangible cultural heritage of humanity from Italy, Morocco, Spain, and Greece. Since 2013, this recognition has also been extended to Cyprus, Croatia, and Portugal.

Bernardo Pasquali

S&M

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