Macro- and micronutrients in a traditional Greek menu.

Background/aims: The traditional Mediterranean diet is frequently being considered as a prototype for dietary recommendations. We have investigated a weekly menu typical of the Greek variant of the Mediterranean diet to examine the compatibility with the nutritional recommendations of the Scientific Committee for Food of the European Commission, concerning macronutrients and certain micronutrients.

Methods: A typical weekly traditional Greek Mediterranean menu was chemically analyzed and certain food constituents, like flavonoids were theoretically estimated.

Results: The evaluated typical menu meets all the dietary recommendations for macronutrients. The daily energy intake is derived from dietary lipids (40.3%) and carbohydrates (41.4%). The ratio of alpha-tocopherol per gram of polyunsaturated fatty acids in the Mediterranean diet under investigation is around 0.4 mg, indicating a well-balanced diet. With respect to microcomponents, with existing recommendations of the Scientific Committee for Food of the European Commission, such as inorganic constituents, the investigated menu meets all the requirements.

Conclusion: The diet that the Mediterranean populations developed many years ago, without any scientific input, appears to meet current dietary recommendations.