Mediterranean cuisine The Mediterranean diet can help fight heart disease, certain cancers, diabetes and dementia. Here's how to make the switch. Bowella part of paella with a tablecloth with colorful, Mediterranean-shaped stripes, a handmade plate and an iced tea room nearby What is “Mediterranean food?” When you think of Mediterranean cuisine, your mind may go for pizza and pasta from Italy, or from chops in Greece, but these spices do not fit into healthy eating programs advertised as "Mediterranean." True Mediterranean cuisine is based on traditional regional fruits, vegetables, beans, nuts, seafood, olive oil and milk - and maybe a glass or two of red wine. This is how the inhabitants of Crete, Greece, and southern Italy ate in 1960, when their rates of chronic disease were among the lowest in the world and their highest life expectancy, despite having limited health services. True Mediterranean diet is all about eating fresh, healthy food. Daily exercise an...