tarts with cinnamon. The country produces red wines such as Alentejo. Anise spirits Anise is used around the Mediterranean to flavour various traditional spirits, including: French pastis and absinthe Greek ouzo Italian sambuca Spanish anísado Balkan rakı Levantine arak Algerian anisette cristal Mediterranean diet and cuisine The Mediterranean diet, popularised in the 1970s, is inspired by the cuisine of parts of Greece and Italy in the early 1960s. The American Diabetes Association writes about "Mediterranean-Style Eating", mentioning "the traditional Mediterranean lifestyle ... of ... eating healthfully ... together among family and friends", and asserting that "Mediterranean cuisine is plant-based", citing the ingredients "whole grains, fruits, vegetables, herbs and spices, beans, nuts, seeds, and olive oil", and stating that most foods "in a Mediterranean diet come from plants". The 1984 Guida all'Italia gastronomica states that "around 1975, under the impulse of one of those new nutritional directives by which good cooking is too often influenced, the Americans discovered the so-called Mediterranean diet. The name even pleased Italian government officials, who made one modification: changing from diet—a word which has always seemed punitive and therefore unpleasant—to Mediterranean cuisine." A changing cuisine Since David wrote about Mediterranean food in 1950, and indeed since dietary researchers showed in the 1950s that people around the Mediterranean had less coronary heart disease than the peoples of northern Europe, the traditional Mediterranean ways of life and of eating have changed. Increased wealth and busy lives have led people to eat more meat and less vegetables: their diet is becoming more northern European, with more convenience foods and with less of a preventive effect on cardiovascular disease. Notes References Additional reading Mediterranean