The Mediterranean Diet – Prescription for disease prevention – Part1

A recent Nutrition Society of Australia meeting was themed, “A new twist on health foods”. The theme confirmed the widespread and growing interest in the properties of particular foods. Where nutritionists once viewed foods as providing just macro- and micronutrients, now foods are viewed also as valuable sources of biochemically-active phytochemicals (plant chemicals).

It has been estimated that foods contain around 10,000 such phytochemicals if absorbed, have the potential to modify the function of our cells. This concept is the foundation on which the emerging discipline of Nutrigenomics is based. The word, Nutrigenomics means ‘food influencing our genes’.