The Mediterranean diet is a food pattern incorporated into a set of lifestyle practices typical of Greece and Southern Italy in the early 1960s, where adult life expectancy was notably high, while rates of diet-related chronic diseases were low. The Mediterranean diet was described initially by the work of LG Allbaugh, commissioned by the Rockefeller foundation and the Greek government post-WW2 on the Greek island of Crete in 1948. The Mediterranean diet was accepted as Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO in 2013. The primary advantages of the Mediterranean diet include health benefits pertinent to cardiovascular, metabolic syndrome, and cognition.