How can food be used as preventative medicine? At Harvard University, Dr. Walter Willet has been tracking the diets of 300,000 people for 40 years. “We found that what you eat is incredibly important and that the Mediterranean Diet lowers the risk of heart disease, cancer, cognitive dysfunction, diabetes, obesity, infertility and even improves sexual function,” explains Willet. “In fact, there is growing evidence that the Mediterranean diet influences our bodies in many ways by reducing lipid levels, protecting against oxidative and inflammatory processes of cells and modifying hormones connected with cancer”.

Leading cancer scientists in Paris and Milan offer a new take on the role of vegetables in our diet, from a scientific and a gastronomical perspective. They discover how certain families of vegetables containing flavonoids and carotenoids have a strong anti-inflammatory and antioxidant effects, protecting us against the chemicals we are exposed to in our everyday life. We learn why eating more of these vegetables reduces the risk of developing various forms of cancer, such as colon, breast and skin cancer. At the end of the episode, we travel to Crete with London-based chef Marianna Leivaditaki to discover a grandmother who continues to uphold an age-old culinary tradition.

Series Description

Food has a great influence on our well being and our body. Everybody knows that the Mediterranean Diet, consisting of plant based foods like vegetables, grains, nuts, legumes and fruits, with few or no animal products - is good for our health. Only few of us know, however, how particular plants affect different parts of our body, our heart and mind or how the food we eat can act as medicine, if used correctly. The Perfect Meal series follows five leading international scientists who gradually uncover the secret mechanisms of the Mediterranean Diet and reveal how certain ingredients and combinations of plant based foods can protect us from obesity, cardiovascular diseases, cancers and brain- ageing.