The concept of a Mediterranean diet was developed to reflect "food patterns typical of Crete, much of the rest of Greece, and Italy in the early 1960s". Although it was first publicized in 1975 by the American biologist Ancel Keys and chemist Margaret Keys (a husband and wife team), the Mediterranean diet failed to gain widespread recognition until the 1990s. Objective data showing that the Mediterranean diet is healthy originated from results of epidemiological studies in Calabria, Naples and Madrid, confirmed later by the Seven Countries Study first published in 1970, and a book-length report in 1980.
The most commonly understood version of the Mediterranean diet was presented, among others, by Walter Willett and colleagues of Harvard University's School of Public Health since the mid-1990s. The Mediterranean diet is based on a paradox: although the people living in Mediterranean countries tend to consume relatively high amounts of fat, they have far lower rates of cardiovascular disease than in countries like the United States where similar levels of fat consumption are found. A parallel phenomenon is known as the French paradox. By 2011, the Mediterranean diet was included by some authors as a fad diet promoted for losing weight. As of 2018, the value of the traditional Mediterranean diet was questioned due to homogenization of dietary choices and food products in the global economy, yet clinical research activity remained high, with favorable outcomes reported for various disease conditions, such as metabolic syndrome.
