Europeans dropping Mediterranean diet

LONDON, April 11 (UPI) -- While the evidence mounts that the Mediterranean diet is the key to long life, some in Europe are abandoning it and as a result are growing fat.

From Greece to Spain, young people and adults are putting on weight faster than those in the north and acquiring the same risk factors for heart disease that afflict the fastfood cultures of the United States, Britain and parts of Europe, the Times of London reported Monday.

In France obesity jumped by 45 percent over six years to 2003, with similar increases in Spain and Portugal and to a lesser extent, Italy. Greek obesity rates are at a level with those of Britain and Belgium, which are among the highest in Europe.

"Cooking with olive oil is not enough. The Mediterranean diet is a combination of things -- fish, cereals that are not highly refined, dry vegetables that are rarely eaten any more and oil sources like walnuts and almonds," said Denis Lairon, director of the nutrition unit at the national medical research institute in Marseilles, France.