The history of oil is intertwined with that of our Mediterranean diet. It was the first investigations on this latter regime, considered to be the most popular in the world, that started to shed light on the benefits of olive oil. A Greek couple, the Trichopoulos, were the first researchers to reveal that the Mediterranean diet is the ideal eating pattern. This discovery was made while investigating the eating habits of the Greeks, and the results were published in 2003 in the New England Journal of Medicine. As well as reducing the risk of gaining excessive weight, with all its negative consequences, Mediet, as it is now commonly referred to, satisfies all our nutritional needs. The principles of this diet form a sort of a Decalogue of virtues, one of which is olive oil. The key factor however is balance, which does not only mean eating a little of everything. The Mediterranean diet is much more, because it consists of ingredients that are inherently good for our health, among which there are wine and olive oil.
