A healthy Mediterranean diet - Key Ingredients

Let’s start by looking at its key ingredients. An abundance and variety of seasonal fresh fruit and vegetables are one of the basics. Grains and grain products include rice, oats, barley, pasta and couscous. Legumes are a rich source of vegetable protein. Indeed, one of the key characteristics of the Mediterranean diet is that it mostly consists of plant-based food. Red meat is limited to only a few times a month, whilst fish and poultry is eaten a couple of times a week. Healthy fats such as olive oil and nuts are favoured, and considered to make a difference in lowering the risk of heart disease. Other favoured components include using herbs and spices to flavour food instead of salt, and limiting higher-fat dairy foods such as cheese, butter and cream. 

The dietary and lifestyle patterns certainly differ in countries such as Italy, Lebanon, Greece and Syria, to name just a few of the shores touches by Mediterranean waters. Historically, each culture has made its contribution to what is now generally identified as typically Mediterranean. 

One thing you’ll certainly have already noticed about Spanish cuisine is an abundance of olives, as an aperitif before a meal, an ingredient in the main dish, or among a selection of tapas. Food is often fried in olive oil, from seafood and shellfish to local seasonal specialties such as fried artichoke and aubergine. The best way to experience the variety of flavours in the Spanish cuisine is with a selection of "tapas" in a traditional restaurant. 

And of course, the secret ingredient of a healthy Mediterranean diet? To take your time and relax whilst savouring each meal in good company! 

This diet is more than a nutritional guideline it is a lifestyle, a cultural heritage. In fact, the Mediterranean diet has been recognized by UNESCO as one of the elements of the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

The Evolution team hope you enjoy your stay in Spanish waters to the fullest, and that would include relishing as many elements as possible of the renowned and highly reputed repertoire of the Spanish diet.

Allow our team to deliver “The Mediterranean Diet lifestyle” to you. Evolution is a Spanish company with a Mediterranean essence at our core, and we work with different local and international suppliers in order to provide our clients with a full range of ingredients, whether local or from further afield, always ensuring the freshet and highest quality products available.