The Mediterranean diet is a diet based on eating the foods people who live in the Mediterranean basin eat.

This mild area around the Mediterranean sea includes areas of many countries including France, Italy, Spain, the Balkans and even parts of Africa.

The most known form of the Mediterranean diet was created in the mid-1990s by a Harvard health professor named Walter Willett. The diet includes wine, red meat, olive oil, eggs, fish, poultry and a healthy amount of physical activity. Not much fat is taken in – only about 8% of total calories are from fat. For this reason it's categorized as a low fat, high fiber diet. It became popular in the 1990's, but the Mediterranean diet has been around since 1945.

Whereas American diets rely on animal fats, the Mediterranean diet utilizes olive oil. Olive oil is known to lower cholesterol levels in the blood, as well as blood sugar and blood pressure. Olive oil is also good for treating ulcers and for lowering the risk of many types of cancer.

The Mediterranean diet is also abundant with red wine which is an antioxidant.

Versions of the Mediterranean diet are recommended by the American Heart Association. However, the AHA frowns on the amount of fat allowed by the Mediterranean diet. The AHA points to the growing obesity problem in the Mediterranean region. It is a positive that the fats come from olive oil, therefore they are mono saturated fats that don't raise cholesterol.

It could be that increased health in the basin comes from increased physical activity, rather than from diet.

A lot of information on various forms of the Mediterranean diet can be found on the Internet. Start with a search on Google.