What exactly do doctors mean by a “healthy diet”?

Many of us consider the Mediterranean diet to be the closest thing known to an ideal meal plan, rich in vegetables, fruits, legumes, cereals, fish, olive oil and, yes, a bit of red wine with meals. Compared to traditional American menu — high in red meat and in butter and other dairy products — the Mediterranean diet is lower in saturated fat, more varied and often more satisfying.

Decades worth of research also suggests that this way of eating is healthier. Many studies have documented reduced rates of heart disease and cancer among those adhering to a Mediterranean diet, compared to those eating more red meat and dairy-based regimens. Most of these studies have involved observations rather than actual intervention trials, however, and they have varied in size.

Now the British Medical Journal has published a systematic compilation of a dozen of the most methodologically sound of these observational studies, which included over 1.5 million people followed for up to eighteen years, analyzing cardiovascular consequences and some other important health outcomes. This large meta-analysis found decreased cardiovascular death as well as cancer mortality, as well as a lowered incidence of Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s disease, in those following the Mediterranean diet versus those on other diets.

While such meta-analyses have limitations and cannot be considered as persuasive as large, randomized intervention trials, the new study further supports the idea that the Mediterranean diet can confer important health benefits.

Different diets abound, many even promoted by physicians. But it’s a mistake to think of a diet as a temporary measure; instead, it is a lifetime commitment to healthy choices. Need to lose weight now? Don’t rush. Take comfort in knowing that even a modest incremental reduction can confer significant health benefits, lowering your risk of heart disease or diabetes. Crash diets only set us up “yo-yo” weight loss and regain.

Whatever eating habits you adopt must be sustainable over the long term. Many researchers regard this as the Mediterranean diet’s greatest strength. You can stick to it, and like it, year after year.

How sad, then, to learn that a diet that whose adherents were among the longest-lived in the world is now fading from view. The governments of Greece, Italy, Spain and Morocco have asked that UNESCO designate the Mediterranean diet an “intangible piece of cultural heritage.” But as The Times recently reported, fast food is proliferating across the Mediterranean region, threatening to propagate a U.S.-style obesity epidemic.

In Greece, three-quarters of the adult population is now overweight or obese, and at increasing risk for diabetes, heart disease and arthritis, among other maladies. “Much of the highly praised diet didn’t exist any more,” said a senior economist at the United Nations. ”It has become just a notion.” Rather than turning our backs on this traditional diet, the new data suggest we could all derive substantial health benefits from it.

醫生們所說的“健康飲食”到底指的是什么呢？

我們身邊的大多數人都認為地中海居民的日常飲食最接近合理的飲食搭配。包括豐富的蔬菜，水果，豆類，谷物，魚類，橄欖油等，還有一點配餐的紅酒。和傳統的美國人的菜單相比—包括大量的紅肉和黃油，奶制品—地中海居民的日常飲食含有較低的飽和脂肪，種類更豐富并且更令人滿意。

.數十年的研究表明這種飲食方式更健康。許多研究已經證明了和那些經常吃紅肉和奶制品的生活習慣相比，堅持這種地中海飲食方式可以減少心臟疾病和癌癥的發病率。這些研究中的大多數都是經過觀察的，而不是進行實際干涉的實驗，當然，他們之間有很大的區別。

目前英國藥物雜志已經出版了一個關于方法上最合理的一些觀察研究結果的系統編輯物，其中有150萬人在長達18年的時間內參與了這項研究,分析出了一些有關心血管疾病的結果和一些其他重要的有關健康的結果.大量的薈萃分析發現與那些用其他飲食方式的人們相比,堅持地中海飲食方式可以降低心血管疾病和癌癥的死亡率,同時也能降低帕金森病和阿爾茲罕默氏病的患病率.

然而這樣的匯總分析是有限制的,不能被認為像那些大規模的隨機性的干預實驗那樣有一樣的誘導性,新的研究進一步支持了地中海飲食方式能帶來重要的健康益處的說法.

不同的飲食習慣到處存在著，有些甚至是醫師們提倡的。但是認為飲食習慣只是暫時的一種手段的想法是錯誤的。相反，它是一種貫穿終身的健康選擇。現在就需要減肥嗎？不要著急。靜下心來想一想既使一種適度增加的減重也能帶來巨大的健康益處，減少你患心臟病和糖尿病的風險。急速的飲食習慣只能讓我們的體重像溜溜球一樣減了又增，來回反復。

你所采取的任何一種飲食習慣都必須是長期持之以恒的。許多研究者認為這一點就是地中海飲食方式的長處。你要堅持它，喜歡它，年復一年。

令人悲傷的是從觀察中得知那些世界上最長壽的人們中的一些健康飲食方式的追隨者們，正面臨著消亡。希臘，意大利，西班牙和摩洛哥的政府正要求聯合國教科文組織將地中海飲食方式認定為一種“無形的文化遺產。”但是根據時代的最近報道指出，快餐已經在地中海地區蔓延開來，一種美國式的肥胖傳染病正快速傳播開來構成威脅。

在希臘,有四分之三的成年人正處于超重或肥胖的狀態,并且在各項疾病中糖尿病,心臟病,關節炎有增漲的風險.“大部分被高度推崇的飲食習慣已不再存在，”聯合國的一位資深的經濟學家說。“這已經變成了一種概念。”新的數據建議我們都能從傳統的飲食方式上獲得實質上的健康益處，而不是棄之不用了。