Mediterranean diet
Diet inspired by the Mediterranean region
The Mediterranean diet is a dietary concept that was first proposed in 1975 by American biologist Ancel Keys and chemist Margaret Keys. It is inspired by the eating habits and traditional foods of Greece, Italy and the Mediterranean coasts of France and Spain, as observed in the late 1950s to early 1960s. It is distinct from both Mediterranean cuisine, which encompasses the diverse culinary traditions of Mediterranean countries, and from the Atlantic diet of northwestern Spain and Portugal, albeit with some shared characteristics. The Mediterranean diet is the most well-known and researched dietary pattern in the world.
The public source identifies “Mediterranean diet” as diet inspired by the Mediterranean region. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Mediterranean, diet and Diet.
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Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 12, 2026. The first chronological checks are 1975.
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This entry incorporates text from “Mediterranean diet” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.