I thank Diego Endo and Isabella Endo for translating the article from Spanish to English.

1. Premise

1The dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) offers four different definitions for the word “myth”. These may be rendered in English as follows: 1) A marvelous narrative set outside of historical time and featuring characters of a divine or heroic nature; 2) A fictional story or literary or artistic character that embodies some universal aspect of the human condition; 3) A person or thing surrounded by extraordinary admiration and esteem; and 4) A person or thing to which qualities or excellences that it does not have are attributed.

2In this article, we will present a series of food myths, some from the past, which would correspond to the first meaning offered by the RAE, and, to a lesser extent, to the second and third, as well as other food myths, those of the present, which would correspond to the fourth meaning. We will try to explain the reason for these differences.

2. The concept of myth has changed radically over time and so have its contents

3As Simona Stano (2021; cf. Stano 2022) points out, “the concept of myth has changed radically over time. In ancient societies, it was regarded as a ‘sacred story’, and hence a ‘true story’ […], that is to say, a form of knowledge rooted in the divine world ‘revealing’ the exemplary models for all human rites and significant human activities […]” (Stano 2021). However, in modern societies, myth is rather considered a “primitive and ‘pre-logic’ form of thought contrasting science [...]”. In other terms, “in contemporary culture, […] the word ‘myth’ itself has become a synonym for ‘lie’ or ‘illusion’” (Ibid.), requiring “to be unveiled or—to use a more popular term—‘debunked’” (Ibid.). Thus, in “ancient” societies, myths were considered a form of knowledge rooted in the divine or supernatural world and passed by word of mouth, generation after generation, reproducing an identity heritage. On the other hand, the myth was a story compatible with the science, magic and religion of the time and was not subject to the contrast between the different forms of perception of nature proper to each type of society or culture. In “modern” times, at present, myth is considered, fundamentally, as a form of thought that contrasts with science, just like legends, fables, tales, and the like. Today, the word “myth” has become synonymous with “lie” or “error”, designating what needs to be disproved or corrected. In the same way, and surely for the same reasons that “myth” has completely changed its meaning, also, in terms of their contents, the myths of today are very different from the myths of yesteryear and, most particularly, so are the so-called “food myths”.

3. Food, Myths, Fictions... of the “past”. The problems never fully solved and the illusion of solving them

4The history of mankind has been to a large extent that of the search for resources or solutions to the problems of hunger, be it in quantitative (food) or qualitative (nutrients) terms: a process aimed at ensuring and increasing food availability to cope with more or less recurrent or more or less exceptional shortages. However, the knowledge developed and applied throughout history to avoid food shortages would have never been sufficiently adequate to prevent hunger and/or disease. For that reason, “ultimate solutions” to the problem of hunger would have been sought or imagined in every age. Mythology and fictional literature, especially science fiction, offer numerous examples of how, in the past, food solutions have been imagined for present and even future societies.

5As will be seen below, the myths of the “past” considered here range from a uchronic and acronymic Old Testament to materials from 1968, the year of the publication of the science fiction novel Blade Runner. Why such a long “past” that would span practically the entire history of mankind, as opposed to a concrete “present” that is only a few years old? 1968, or the late 1960s, was the time of the apogee of the so-called Green Revolution, when international agricultural research centers, in collaboration with national research programs, stimulated the intensification of food production through mechanization and the development of “modern varieties” for many crops, contributing to large increases in food production and, also, to very notable increases in productivity (Evenson & Gollina 2003). It was thought that, thanks to the achievements of this revolution, food shortages and hunger had been resolved. For this reason, the “past” we consider encompasses all history, real or fictitious, prior to the 1960s, when began a period of abundance, overabundance, or even of food waste. This does not mean that the problem of hunger has disappeared, inasmuch as, according to the World Health Organization, more than 800 million people still suffer from severe hunger. Since the end of the 1960s, however, “food problems” have shifted from concern about hunger to problems arising from “abundance” and, as we shall see, to its negative effects on health due to the spread of non-communicable diseases attributed to unhealthy diets, such as diabetes and obesity, among many others.

6We will look at just a few examples of myths from that past. This is a very small sample, more the result of my memory than of my knowledge. It would be enough to read The Golden Bough by James G. Frazer (1890) to have an idea of the vastness of ancient myths directly or indirectly related to food. The common denominator of the myths considered has to do with the mythification of the origins of basic or staple foods to ensure sufficient sustenance and/or with the solution to problems related to threats to the regularity of supply. In some cases it, also has to do with the greater comfort or convenience in tasks pertaining to food.

7Manna or the need to solve the hunger of a needy population: Manna was the food that God sent to the people of Israel to nourish and comfort them in their journey through the desert until they reached the Promised Land (Exodus 16:35). It would have been a food similar to white frost, miraculously provided by God in the wilderness on a daily basis (Numbers 11:9; Exodus 16:14-31). It is also called “bread from heaven” (Exodus 16:4) or “the bread the Lord has given you to eat” (Exodus 16:15). It had the appearance of frost that fell like dew; a fine white substance resembling coriander seeds and tasting like cake made with honey (Exodus 16:14-31; Numbers 11:7-9).

8Myths concerning the origin of rice as a gift from the gods to stave off famine: According to a myth (https://koketo.es/​leyendas-del-arroz), Shiva’s love for a beautiful lady to whom he gave life and of whom he became enamored was such that he asked her to marry him. The maiden agreed on the sole condition that Shiva would give her a food that, despite her eating it all her life, would never cause her boredom. The mission was unsuccessful and the girl passed away grief-stricken. She was buried in a beautiful silver pantheon. After 40 days, a plant called parí (rice) began to germinate around her grave. Shiva believed that this new life was the soul of his wooed one, the breath of his beloved, and with great care, he collected it to distribute it among the mortals so that they would be happy. He fulfilled his wish because it was the delicacy he could never ever get enough of. According to another myth (Ibid.), the Indian goddess Banbaranzon, saddened by the famine of her people, went to the fields and pressed her breasts from which milk flowed, and in her effort to nurse the land fell a last drop of blood, with seeds of white and red rice born from this blessed rain.

9The Aztec myth that narrates the arrival of corn: Before the arrival of corn, the people only ate roots and hunted animals. However, there were suspicions about the existence of a golden plant, which was hidden behind the high mountains that framed the city. The Indians asked the gods to separate the mountains, so that the passage could be opened and the harvesters could go to collect the corn grains. The Aztecs chose to pray to Quetzalcoatl. The god listened to the prayers of his people, and promised to bring them the precious food. He did not even try to separate the mountains, but rather used his wisdom to get the corn. He took a good look at the hills, and saw a red ant descending with a kernel of corn on its back. He approached the insect to question it and find out where it had gotten the coveted grain. After conversing with it, the ant agreed to tell him everything. Then, Quetzalcoatl turned into a black ant so that his new friend could guide him to the place where the golden food that the Aztecs were asking for so much was hidden. Legend has it that the journey was full of difficulties and lasted several days, but the god, always thinking of his people, managed to overcome every challenge. Finally, the ants reached the place where the corn plants were erected, and he took a ripe grain with his mouth and returned to his people. When he arrived, the Aztecs rejoiced and sowed that treasure. And when it bore fruit, civilization began to proliferate. They became stronger and began to build a city. From that moment on, the Aztecs unhesitatingly venerated the generous god Quetzalcoatl, the friend of men who gave them corn (https://www.inside-mexico.com/​the-legend-of-maize/​).

10One of the myths about the origin of the potato: In remote times, Inkarri (orig. Inkarriy, cf. Valderrama & Escalante 2008) had walked from village to village. During his wanderings, in the Punkuranra pass, he had become hungry. In that, Inkarri had much wisdom, and as he did not have food, he made clay buns and placed them very superficially under the earth. Then, under his sight, the àtoq sawasiray (i.e. wild potato) sprouted with its fruits. Since then, the k`ita atoq grows in all the rocky areas, even today, and in times of rain, this potato blooms blue. Then, later on, Taytacha gathered all the potatoes of Inkarri, classified them by stacking them by variety, and planted them, making the rain fall only onto the place of the planted potato. He then chose the many varieties of seeds. If Taytacha had not cultivated, gathering the potato of Inkarri, what would we have eaten? Would we have on chewed stones? (Ibid.).

11The myth of the Baganda of Australia on the origin of food taboos and totems as a measure to ensure food availability and sustainability: Spencer & Gillen (1904) report a myth that refers to the establishment of food taboos on certain animal species among the Baganda of central Australia. According to it, in the time of King Kinton, the Baganda lived solely by hunting and fed indiscriminately on all types of prey. As hunting declined, King Kinton decreed that certain species of animals could no longer be consumed by such and such families. These were the animals which then became his totems. As we can see, the myth establishes an origin of food taboos, in this case by what we would today call an “ecologist” measure of nature conservation to prevent “bread for today from becoming hunger for tomorrow” (Ibid., translation by Endo and Endo). This relates to the ideas of totem and taboo, in the service of social, economic and ecological “sustainability”. Each totemic group is responsible for maintaining the supply of animals and plants that give a name and identity to the group and the only reason to increase the number of totemic plants or animals is simply to increase the overall food supply.

12The myth of the breadfruit tree, a complete and inexhaustible food to definitively eradicate hunger: In a time of famine, caused by the occurrence of devastating hurricanes in the Pacific Ocean, an inhabitant of the island takes his children to the outskirts of the village, and in a remote place, tells them to bury him there and return. When they return the next day, they find their father transformed into a beautiful tree: his feet had become the roots, his torso the trunk of the tree, and his head, a succulent fruit from which the community would be fed and would never be hungry again (https://tucuentofavorito.com/​el-arbol-del-pan-una-leyenda-de-la-india-con-valores/​).

13Thomas More’s food utopia and his techniques for increasing animal production and productivity:

[The] husbandmen plough and till the ground, and breed up cattle, and make ready wood, which they carry to the city, either by land or by water, as they may most conveniently. They bring up a great multitude of pullen and that by a marvellous policy. For the hens do not sit upon the eggs, but by keeping them in a certain equal heat they bring life into them and hatch them. The chickens, as soon as they be come out of the shell, follow men and women instead of the hens” (More 1516, Engl. Trans. 1925, p. 83).

14The lembas in The Lord of the Rings, a complete food to stave off hunger and fatigue in emergency situations:

In the morning […] Elves […] came to them and brought them many gifts of food and clothing for the journey. The food was mostly in the form of very thin cakes, made of meal that was baked a light brown on the outside, and inside was the colour of cream. Gimli took up one of the cakes and looked at it with a doubtful eye.
“Cram”, he said under his breath, as he broke off a crisp corner and nibbled at it. His expression quickly changed, and he ate all the rest of the cake with relish.
“No more, no more!” cried the Elves laughing. “You have eaten enough already for a long day’s march”.
“I thought it was only a kind of cram, such as the Dale-men made for journeys into the wild”, said the Dwarf.
“So it is”, they answered, “But we call it lembas or waybread, and it is more strengthening than any food made by Men, and it is more pleasant than cram, by all accounts”.
“Indeed it is”, said Gimli. “Why, it is better than the honey-cakes of the Beornings, and that is great praise, for the Beornings are the best bakers that I know of; but they are none too willing to deal out their cakes to travellers in these days. You are kindly hosts!”
“All the same, we bid you spare the food”, they said. “Eat a little at a time, and only at need. For these things are given to serve you when all else fails. The cakes will keep sweet for many many days, if they are unbroken and left in their leaf-wrappings, as we have brought them. One will keep a traveller on his feet for a day of long labour, even if it be one of the tall Men of Minas Tirith” (Tolkien 1954, new ed. 1993, pp. 385-386).

15From the earth to the moon and the techniques for making food available in extreme situations:

The important question of provisions still remained; it being necessary to provide against the possibility of their finding the moon absolutely barren. Barbicane managed so successfully, that he supplied them with sufficient rations for a year. These consisted of preserved meats and vegetables, reduced by strong hydraulic pressure to the smallest possible dimensions. They were also supplied with brandy, and took water enough for two months” (Verne 1865, Engl. Trans. 1874, pp. 122-123).

16A Brave New World and its many scientific and technological resources to feed and enable a new humanity and world: “[...] begging them to sit down and take a carotene sandwich, a slice of vitamin A pâté, a glass of champagne-surrogate” (Huxley 1932, new ed. 1946, p. 208); “[…] it takes longer to get food out of the land than out of a factory” (Ibid., p. 269); “[…] synthetic starch and cotton-waste flour substitute, […] pan-glandular biscuits and vitaminized beef-surrogate” (Ibid., p. 295); “[…] magnesium-salted almonds” (Ibid., p. 307).

17The Sleeper (Allen 1973), or the solution to food availability by increasing production and productivity: Miles, the protagonist, having been defrosted after 200 years of cryopreservation, in one of the scenes of the film, crosses a field of crops in which fruits and vegetables are of enormous, gigantic sizes, and whose weight could surpass 1 ton per unit.

18Fahrenheit 451, a technology that raises comfort to unsuspected heights: “Toast popped out of the silver toaster, was seized by a spidery metal hand that drenched it with melted butter. Mildred watched the toast delivered to her plate” (Bradbury 1953, new ed. 2003, p. 48).

192001: A Space Odyssey, or how technology can provide sufficient, quality food and with the utmost convenience: “Their menus had been planned with as much care as any part of the mission. The food, most of it freeze-dried, was uniformly excellent, and had been chosen for the minimum of trouble. Packets had merely to be opened and popped into the tiny auto-galley, which beeped for attention when the job was done. They could enjoy what tasted like—and, equally important, looked like—orange juice, eggs (any style), steaks, chops, roasts, fresh vegetables, assorted fruits, ice cream, and even freshly baked bread” (Clarke 1968, new ed. 2000, p. 95).

20Blade Runner, a technologized and “synthetic” world in which luxury is represented by “real” food: “He had already stopped off at a blackmarket grocery store. On the seat beside him a bag of such delicacies as bean curd, ripe peaches, good soft evil-smelling cheese […]” (Dick 1968, new ed. 2002, p. 124); “‘Let’s open the bourbon.’ […] ‘Can you get this open?’ […] ‘It’s worth a fortune, you realize. It’s not synthetic; it’s from before the war, made from genuine mash’” (Ibid., p. 159); “[…] they enjoyed a great luxury: Rick had room service bring up coffee” (Ibid., p. 167).

4. Great abundance and variety of today’s food “myths”: the myths that need to be disproved

21Introducing “contemporary food myths” (in Spanish) into the Google search engine (2023-04-22) yields the figure of 267,000 results. The same search engine defines “food myths” as “truths for those who believe in them, but in reality […] are unfounded” or as “a belief about a food that lacks scientific evidence but that many people tend to consider true”. It is also said that “the invention of food myths grows day by day, constituting a challenge for professionals, who try to provide their patients with logical explanations” (all translations by Endo & Endo). In short, according to the results of Google, the meaning of “myth” refers to non-truths since they lack foundation and logic, or to “beliefs” without scientific evidence or, simply, to falsehoods. For this reason, what must be done with these myths is to “dismantle” them, “banish them”, combat the “disinformation” they imply, etc.

22From the Google search engine, we could extract a vast and highly diversified sample of dozens, even hundreds of examples. Regardless of its abundance and diversity, we could try to simplify and systematize the sample, pointing out the recurring elements of the myths considered, as follows.

23The properties, positive or negative, are presented in terms of “healthiness” of the intake of a certain food or of a way of preparing or cooking it. Those negative or positive properties can refer to a particular nutrient characteristic of the food.

• Avoid wheat, it is bad for health

• Orange juice loses vitamins if not drunk quickly

• Saccharin is poison

• Cow’s milk is unhealthy and causes allergies

• Sunflower oil is a health hazard

• Coffee is unhealthy and must be eliminated

• Gluten-free foods are healthier

• Sugar is necessary for the brain

• Carbohydrates are bad

• Vitamin C prevents colds

• Eating too much protein is bad for the kidneys

• Bananas are the best source of potassium

• Etc., etc., etc.

24The goodness or prejudice of this intake can be general, for the entire population, or particularized, for an age group or gender. For example:

• Sugar causes ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) in children

• Adults should not drink milk or other dairy products

• Pregnant women have to eat for two

• Sugar-free products are good for diabetics

• Etc., etc., etc.

25More or less general recommendations are considered in relation to people’s health and more or less specific ones in relation to a particular disease:

• Organic products are healthier than those produced conventionally

• Raw food is the healthiest, because many nutrients are lost when cooking

• Salads are healthy

• Eating carrots improves eyesight

• Soy milk causes breast cancer

• Cooking with aluminum foil favors Alzheimer’s

• Daily consumption of eggs poses a cardiovascular risk

• Cow’s milk produces mucus

• Etc., etc., etc.

26The “myths” related to those foods and/or practices that contribute to “weight loss” or “weight gain” are highly recurrent:

• Whoever wants to lose weight should not consume carbohydrates

• Skipping meals helps you lose weight

• The fruit after the meal could be guilty of a few extra kilos

• Avocado is fattening

• White spirit has fewer calories

• Eating gluten-free promotes weight loss

• Bread, pasta, rice and potatoes are fattening

• Carbonated drinks are a cause of childhood obesity

• Chocolate is bad and fattening

• Whole foods promote weight loss

• To lose weight, it is best to not eat dinner

• Drinking water during meals makes you fat

• Etc., etc., etc.

27There are also many “myths” related to better or worse conditions (preparation, time of day for consumption, etc.) in both organoleptic and health terms:

• Do not eat foods rich in hydrates at night

• Raw fruit and vegetables are healthier than cooked

• Drinking something after milk is bad

• Fruit at the end of the meal is more fattening than at the beginning

• Fruit should be taken outside of meals

• Melon and watermelon feel bad at night

• Etc., etc., etc.

28All these examples and the etcetera that accompany them have a common denominator. They all have to do with the effects, positive or negative, that the intake of a certain product or food has on the human body in terms of health, regardless of the more or less specific ways of defining such health. In any case, ultimately and in summary, the so-called food myths today reflect a shift from mythology itself to what is considered science or empirically proven. It is also true that at one moment, a certain causal relationship can be contrasted empirically and, at another moment and with another contrast, yield a different result.

29The considered food myths of the present, compared to those of the past, lack a story, a historical sequence and identity within a given society or culture. Likewise, food, for its part, is no longer seen as the way to satisfy a physiological, organoleptic and identity-based need, but is to be considered in strictly “nutritional” terms, that is, by its composition in terms of “nutrients” and their effects on the body. Moreover, given what are now considered “food myths”, it is worth considering that the concern of yesteryear about scarcity has been supplanted by a concern for health, based on a “balanced” diet, and by being thin.

5. What has happened?

30As we have already said, the history of human nutrition has been the history of a process aimed at overcoming scarcity by always increasing food availability and also at acquiring better knowledge of the specificities of foods and their different effects on the body, as well as knowing the specificities of human organisms or, in other words, knowing and foreseeing the precise and differential effects of each type of food and its different forms of consumption by particular individuals, in order to enable its best possible use.

32Contemporary society is characterized, compared to the scarcity of traditional societies, by an economy of abundance, so that diseases caused by food excess have gradually replaced those of insufficiency. The abundance of food poses new problems that are difficult to solve in a culture marked by the fear of hunger. Opulence has turned out to have its own unforeseen limitations in the form of eating habits whose dangers derive not from scarcity but from the excessive abundance of food, because the mechanisms that ignite human appetite are much more sensitive than those that extinguish it. With abundance, health problems have shifted from those related to undernutrition, such as rickets, to those related to overnutrition, such as excessive weight, considered a risk factor that needs to be reduced to prevent numerous diseases. This is why, since the 1980s, the term most often used to characterize good nutrition is that of balance.

33We can therefore consider that all the myths and fictions mentioned in paragraph 2 of this article have become a reality. Food is produced much faster and in much greater quantities than just a few decades ago.

35We are facing what we could call a New Food Order: a context dominated by globalization and advances in genetics, biotechnology and nutrition, which allows us to imagine completely new and concordant scenarios about human nutrition and its effects on health and disease, security and insecurity, pleasure and satisfaction, and general well-being or discomfort, and, also, in the way we think about our diet and its foods.

36On the other hand, never before have we had so much knowledge about food, disease, and human biology and physiology. Scientific advances today allow extraordinarily detailed analyses, so that we can know, down to the smallest detail, the qualitative and quantitative composition of any food. Thus, if we take into account scientific advertising, its echo in the media and food advertising, our contemporary society no longer seems to “eat” apples, chicken or pork, tuna, cauliflower, yogurt or wine, but rather to “ingest” calcium, iron, polyphenols, flavonoids, vitamins, carotene, glucose, fiber, fats, saturated, monounsaturated or polyunsaturated, oleic acid, phosphorus, ethyl alcohol, proteins, antioxidants, tannins, bifida, omega-3s, phytosterols, probiotics, prebiotics, postbiotics, etc. Or also, in a more intelligible way for the layman in biochemistry: low-calorie bars, products with “less”, “without”, with “more”, or “enriched”, etc. The categories by which foods are perceived and classified today seem, therefore, to have changed considerably in relation to the categories used in the past in the sense of a greater chemical decomposition driven by science. On the other hand, at the same time that we can know more and more about the composition of foods, we also know more and more about the effects of the different nutrients on our organism. As a result, scientists, public health officials and agri-food industries are recommending with more precision and conviction what we should eat to be healthy and prevent various diseases. The media, for their part, disseminate this knowledge and these new approaches to nutrition. Moreover, with the development of biological knowledge, the era of food preservation and processing has given way to that of food creation, either by extraction of constituents from different sources and subsequent recomposition or by genetic manipulation. Of these new products, the population knows only the terminal elements of their production process. It could be said that, while scientists know more and more about food, the public knows less and less. Food would have become an object with no known history and modern consumers would no longer know what they are really eating: U.C.O.s, or Unidentified Comestible Objects (see Fischler 1990).

38Moreover, in the developed world, a “dietary gibberish” has become a constant and practical reality. There is a proliferation of messages, recommendations, prohibitions, “miracle products”, “light”, “energy” foods, “offers” to save money, “non-fattening” foods, “healing” foods, “superfoods”…. People are bombarded by more or less pressing and more or less contradictory messages and claims. Contributing to this, in a more or less confusing and contradictory way, are governments, consumer organizations, doctors of various specialties, industrialists, advertising, the media, multiple and diverse social movements and even antagonistic ones: environmentalists, anti-meat, anti-transgenic, anti-milk, anti-soy, nutritionists, beauticians, foundations of all kinds (salt, sugar, beer, eggs, wine, cocoa, of companies, and the increasingly numerous and diverse “food experts”, bloggers, influencers…) contribute to it permanently, in a more or less confusing and contradictory way. This dietary gibberish is based on a planetary food cacophony: “dietary discourses mix, confront or confuse with culinary and gastronomic discourses, diet books with recipe books, nutrition manuals with gastronomic guides. Everywhere, prescriptions and prohibitions, consumption models and warnings grow: in this cacophony, the disoriented eater, in search of choice criteria, manages above all to nourish his or her uncertainty” (Fischler 1990; English translation from the 1995 Spanish trans., p. 195, by Endo & Endo).

6. A food myth of the 21^st century? The Mediterranean Diet: science or myth?

39If Braudel (1949) “discovered” the Mediterranean for historians, the “dietary” Mediterranean—the “Mediterranean diet”—was “discovered” in 1959 by Ancel Keys with his famous Seven Countries Study (https://www.sevencountriesstudy.com), carried out in Italy, Greece, the former Yugoslavia, Holland, Finland, the United States and Japan (Serra 2005). This study determined the association between a diet low in animal products and saturated fats and a low incidence of mortality from ischemic heart disease. And also, for the first time, it determined the inverse relationship between the intake of monounsaturated fatty acids (the main source of fats in olive oil) and total and specific mortality due to ischemic heart disease and cancer. Since then, nutrition has insisted on the benefits of the so-called Mediterranean diet, in general, and of some of “its” ingredients, in particular. The Mediterranean diet has gained worldwide acceptance. On the other hand, the consideration of the Mediterranean diet pattern as healthy has motivated the analysis of its components separately (olive oil, fruits, vegetables, nuts, wine, …) with the intention of establishing their possible health benefits. Thus, in the face of the health threats posed by ultra-processed foods, the Mediterranean diet and cuisine have become increasingly widespread models, and the adjective Mediterranean appears as a claim in cafés, restaurant menus and in the cataloguing of foods.

40What is the Mediterranean diet? According to the Mediterranean Diet Foundation (www.dietamediterranea.com):

The Mediterranean Diet is a lifestyle […] that modern science invites us to adopt for the benefit of our health, making it an excellent model of healthy living. The Mediterranean Diet is a valuable cultural heritage, which from simplicity and variety has given rise to a balanced and complete combination of foods, based on fresh, local and seasonal products whenever possible. It embraces all the peoples of the Mediterranean basin […] It has been handed down from generation to generation for many centuries, and is intimately linked to the lifestyle of Mediterranean peoples throughout their history. […] The Mediterranean Diet is characterized by an abundance of plant foods, such as bread, pasta, rice, vegetables, fruits and nuts; the use of olive oil as the main source of fat; a moderate consumption of fish, seafood, poultry, dairy products (yogurt, cheese) and eggs; the consumption of small amounts of red meat and daily amounts of wine generally consumed during meals [translation by Endo & Endo, my emphasis].

41The Departament de Salut de la Generalitat de Catalunya, in its Guía de salut per a joves (2005), adds:

It is the food that we have always consumed in our country and that constitutes one of our great cultural values. It consists of a varied and balanced dietary pattern characterized by a high consumption of fruits, fresh vegetables, cereals, legumes, fish, vegetable oils (especially olive oil), a moderate intake of meat and dairy products, eggs and sweets, and a relatively low use of solid fats such as butter and margarine. A characteristic of this dietary pattern is also the moderate consumption of wine at meals [translation by Endo & Endo; my emphasis].

42As you can see: “cultural heritage”, “transmitted from generation to generation for many centuries”, “great cultural values”, … It is not surprising that, at the Eighth Session of the Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of UNESCO (2013), the Mediterranean diet was inscribed on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity (cf. https://ich.unesco.org/​en/​RL/​mediterranean-diet-00884):

• The unique characteristics of the products of the Basin, together with the way they are combined, processed, and consumed have shaped a unique dietary pattern over the centuries […].

• The Mediterranean diet as a unique lifestyle, determined by the Mediterranean climate and territory, is shown, created and transmitted among the Mediterranean Peoples […].

• The Mediterranean diet represents a cultural heritage shared by all the peoples of the Mediterranean, with which all can identify and in which all can be reflected […].

• The “intangible cultural heritage” […] is manifested in the following domains: oral traditions and expressions, including language as a vehicle of intangible cultural heritage, the performing arts, social practices, rituals and festive events, knowledge and practices related to nature and the universe, and traditional craftsmanship.

• The wide vital scope, from the landscape to the table, of the Mediterranean diet

[my emphasis].

43The Mediterranean Diet. Why a myth? We will not go into the dietary virtues attributed to it by epidemiologists and nutritionists, i.e. the possible health virtues considered by “scientists”. But a unique dietary pattern over the centuries? A unique lifestyle, recreated and transmitted among the Mediterranean peoples? A cultural heritage shared by all the peoples of the Mediterranean, with which all can identify and in which they can see themselves reflected? The historical considerations and cultural values that accompany the characterization of the Mediterranean diet answers more to a modern “idea” than to an empirical and historically contrasted “tradition”.

45It is true that the spread of the olive tree marks, as Braudel affirmed, the limits of the Mediterranean ecosystem. It is also undeniable that its consumption has been widespread since ancient times and that the classical world spread many of its uses. What is not so clear (González Turmo 2005; Pitte 2005) is that it has been or is the most consumed fat. It is true that the cultivation of the olive tree has been spreading since the classical world and that during the Roman domination, it was extended to almost all the Mediterranean. The oil was used in cooking for preserving, stewing, marinating and frying, procedures that have marked a culinary tradition that continues to this day. But even though the olive tree and its fruits are so ancient and its expansion was so early, this oil has been a minority fat in many Mediterranean regions and periods. Its role was to accompany cereals, to bind vegetables, legumes and meats; a fundamental role, if one considers to what extent fats give character to cooking, but, in any case, they could be substituted and, in the worst case, ignored. With respect to the unequal acceptance of olive oil, the extension, among Catholics, of the days of fasting and abstinence to one hundred and eighty, after the Council of Trent, supposed the practical delimitation of the calendar into lean days, in which only oil was authorized, and fatty days, in which lard and bacon reigned (González Turmo 1995, pp. 190-196). The consumption of oil and lard in the Mediterranean has not been marked exclusively by religious criteria. The specialization of each region’s production has also played a fundamental role in the taste of its inhabitants and in the conformation of the different popular cuisines. The reality has been complex: in the north of the Mediterranean, cooking was done with butter, lard or oil, according to the ecclesiastical precepts of each epoch and locality, and to what the land and the market had to offer. In the Islamic world, different fats have also alternated, and this is still evident today in the eastern Mediterranean, such as in Lebanon, where peasant women cook with both olive oil and clarified butter.

46It is therefore necessary to speak of diets in the plural and to affirm, from the outset, that plurality and diversity are constituent features of a hypothetical Mediterranean identity – culinary, food-based or nutritional. However, as pointed out by Poulain (2005), the tradition referred to in the characterization of the Mediterranean diet is a timeless “tradition”, versus modern junk food. In fact, the concept, so successful and fashionable, of a “Mediterranean diet”, in the singular, has been presented by means of a generalizing, uniformizing, abstract, and utopian characterization (despite its allusion to the Mediterranean and to the even more localized island of Crete), and which comes to be expressed, even graphically, by means of a pyramid whose contents are a reduced number of foods, “selected” for their beneficial effects in the prevention of certain diseases. Nutritionists, as Aubaile-Sallenave (2005) says, present their “Mediterranean diet” disembodied, that is, without taking into account either the environments in which they live, the energy expenditure of their inhabitants, the beliefs and cultures that govern their food consumption, their economies and social relations, or the variety of their food systems. Mediterranean diets, for their part, in the plural, are impossible to identify and characterize except on the basis of the diversity and multiplicity of ingredients (especially herbs, vegetables, legumes and fruits), of preparations and combinations of these and others, as well as of the particular and more or less localized ecological, ritual and religious calendars, all more the result of an accumulation over time than of a selection determined by more or less specific health objectives. It is obvious that the populations that have inhabited and still inhabit the Mediterranean countries have been and continue to be very diverse in terms of social structure, ethnicity, occupation and religious creed: small or medium-sized agricultural and industrial landowners, artisans, merchants, day laborers, sailors, fishermen, shepherds, miners, industrial workers, and a long etcetera that is lost in history and that, in each time and place, must be specified, objectified and contextualized.

48In short, how is it possible to speak of a Mediterranean diet if historical studies have found a variety of them? In any case, as Capatti (2005) pointed out, although the Mediterranean evokes a mixture of cultures and cuisines, Ancel and Margareth Keys showed that this mixture could be “exported”, especially because, from a dietary point of view, it is much easier since the nutritional composition is sufficient. Thus, dishes using similar ingredients can be reproduced anywhere. Why is the “Mediterranean diet” chosen as a parameter that can be opposed to fast food? Hubert (1998) and Fischler (1994, 1996) agree that we are faced with the construction of a scientific food model of Anglo-Saxon origin, which idealizes certain moral qualities such as frugality while mythologizing other aspects, such as “tradition”. In conclusion, we can affirm that the considerations that the Mediterranean diet constitutes a “cultural heritage […] transmitted from generation to generation for many centuries and that it embraces all the peoples of the Mediterranean basin” (Reguant & Sensat 2012, p. 472) more of a mythical construction than science. And the question is why should a “scientific construction” resort to a “mythical construction” to increase its value or importance?

Conclusion

49As Barthes (1961) has already said, the diffusion of a new value—dietetics—would have contributed to produce a new and very important phenomenon: food awareness and the nutritionalization of food practices. And, in this way, it could also be said that science, by placing itself at the service of health and the body, has banished the gods and cultural heroes. However, modern dietetics is not linked, as in the past, to moral values of asceticism, wisdom or purity. If, in the past, diet was a sacrifice to achieve the salvation of the soul, today, it seems to constitute an “inversion”: the price to pay for the preservation of the body, to achieve health, slimness, longevity, pleasure, etc. After a millenary era of puritanism, the body is “rediscovered” under the sign of physical and sexual liberation. Its omnipresence in advertising, fashion, mass culture (the cult of hygiene, dietetics, therapeutics, the obsession with youth, elegance, virility, femininity, care, diets, all the sacrifices offered to it, the myth of pleasure that surrounds it) all prove that today, it is the body, and not the soul, that has become the object of salvation (Baudrillard 1974).

50Health is, today, a very important motivation in food production and consumption decisions. Health has become a cultural value of the first order and constitutes a sounding board for modern society in which not only medical, but also social, political, economic, cultural, and other factors and interests converge. Since the end of the 20^th century, numerous studies have shown that diet is one of the factors that significantly influences the risk and severity of numerous diseases, and the positive impact of certain food components on people’s health and general well-being has been emphasized. The extraordinary development of biochemistry since the beginning of the 20^th century has led to food being studied primarily from a nutritional perspective. Foods that offer health benefits take on new dimensions and, on the basis of these same studies, based on probabilistic correlations between food and health, there is a proliferation of both dietary recommendations and new food myths that we have collected and which, it is said in the name of science, must be combated.