Cilento

Last weekend, my study abroad group and I travelled to Cilento to learn more about the Mediterranean Diet and its benefits to one's health. I was looking forward to this trip for a while as I've grown to love a number of key ingredients to the diet since coming to Italy- some of those being olive oil, red wine, and vegetable types of antipasti.

To me, the most interesting part of the trip is when we went to the museum of the Mediterranean Diet, because this particular triangle seems to have the right balance of foods for someone trying to practice these habits:

It's tricky how they add the exercise in there. Of course that helps people to maintain healthy weight, but I have never seen it as a part of a health triangle before, so that was interesting. Also, I agree with how the red meat is at the top of the pyramid. Lean meats like chicken are the best sources of protein if you want to avoid too much fat. The most surprising part, to me, is that so much pasta can be consumed. It's obviously a lot of carbohydrates, but, I suppose, if you exercise enough, the carbs can't do too much damage.

The weekend was a great combination of delicious food (pasta alla melagizione, calamari, mozzarella di bufala, I could go on), beautiful weather, and fun times with my friends. It was great to have the opportunity to go to a region of Italy that is not touristy and to get a look at the "behind-the-scenes" methods of food growth when we visited the kiwi farm.

Cilento is a great place to go for some healthy food and relaxation.

-Sarah