Sağlıklı Beslenmede Türk Mutfak Kültürünün Yeri

Turkish cuisine is one of the well-known three cuisines in the world with Chinese and French cuisine. The combination of meat and fermented products from Central Asia, cereals from Mesopotamia, vegetables and fruits from Mediterranean and spices from South Asia has created a rich food culture. With Islam, meats of some animals such as pig, donkey and frog are prohibited in Turkish cuisine. Today in Turkey, consumption of grains and grain products comes first place and consumption of vegetables comes second place. The habitude of consuming olive oil is common in the Marmara, Aegean and Mediterranean regions. The highest fruit consumption is in the Aegean region, the highest consumption of fish is in the Black Sea region, the highest consumption of cola is in the Mediterranean region. In the Southeastern Anatolia region the consumption of yogurt is higher than the consumption of milk and in the Central Anatolian region the consumption of poultry meat is equal with the consumption of fish meat. There are some unhealthy practices in Turkish cuisine, which has many useful practices in terms of health, such as cooking meat with keeping close to the grill, frying vegetables and pouring of legumes boiled water. In this review, general characteristics of Turkish cuisine, evaluation of Turkish cuisine in terms of health and some specific examples of traditional foods are given.