Mediterranean diet is a type of diet that was common in the 1960s around the Mediterranean Sea, especially Greece and the southern Italy, which are the olive tree-growing countries. The fundamental of all variations of the Mediterranean diet is the usage of olive oil as the main source of fat, with mainly monounsaturated fatty acids. The major olive oil phenolic compounds in olive oil had demonstrated a broad spectrum of their biological effects on physiological processes related to health and disease, such as anti-atherogenic, cardio-protective, anti-cancer, neuro-protective, anti-diabetic, anti-obesity, as well as their metabolism and bioavailability.
