WHAT IS THE MEDITERRANEAN DIET?

Unlike many diets, the Mediterranean diet isn’t actually a diet at all, at least not in the traditional you-can’t-eat-that sense. It’s more of a guideline for living a long, healthy, happy life. You may have to make some modifications to your lifestyle and your way of thinking, but you’re not going to need to give up a single thing—except for bad health and unsightly body fat. In exchange, you’ll need to eat plenty of foods that taste delicious, find some vigorous activities that you enjoy, and spend more time with your friends and family. Sound good? If so, then this may just be the “diet” that you’ve been searching for!

What Makes the Mediterranean Diet Different From Other Diets?

Excellent question. For the last several decades, the prevailing opinion among health experts has been that the key to maintaining a healthful weight and avoiding disease is eating a diet low in carbohydrates and fat. Unfortunately, this theory isn’t backed by science. Your body needs healthful fats and good carbs to produce energy and fight disease, and your brain needs them to function optimally, too.

The Foods

The Mediterranean diet has a food pyramid that allows any kind of food but places them in a hierarchical order. Here, fattier meats and sweets are at the top of the pyramid, to be consumed in moderation. Foods high in nutrients, healthful carbs, and essential fats are at the bottom of the pyramid, as main components of every meal. These healthful foods include fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grains, legumes, olive oil, herbs, and spices.

The second-largest layer of the pyramid consists of fish and seafood, which you should eat at least twice weekly. The third layer is beneath meats and sweets and is composed of poultry, eggs, cheese, and yogurt, which should be eaten moderately on a daily or weekly basis. In addition to the following the food pyramid, you should consume a healthful supply of water and a moderate amount of wine.

The Lifestyle

Perhaps what really sets the Mediterranean diet apart is the fact that their pyramid is built atop a base that has nothing to do with nutrition. Instead, the basis for a healthy life includes being physically active and sharing meals based upon the food pyramid with other people whom you care about and enjoy spending time with. It’s a holistic approach that teaches that to be truly healthy and happy, you need to feed your mind and your spirit as well as your body.

Eat Your Way to Better Health and Happiness

The Mediterranean diet concept and illustrative pyramid were introduced in 1993, based on the eating habits of Greeks and Italians who lived along the Mediterranean Sea in the early 1960s. These people enjoyed extraordinarily good physical and mental health in comparison to Western eaters, and they lived longer, too. So what are the benefits of the Mediterranean diet? Here are just a few.

Avoid Illness and Disease

Fresh fruits and veggies have an enormous amount of vitamins, nutrients, phytonutrients, and antioxidants that help your body fight disease. Because the Mediterranean diet encourages you to eat a wide variety of produce as part of every meal and snack, your body will get the full spectrum of nutrients that it needs to function properly.

Antioxidants in produce fight off free radicals that cause all kinds of damage, including wrinkles and other signs of aging, dull hair, poor skin, heart disease, eye disease, and even cancer. Free radicals are the result of respiration, environmental pollutants, and some are even created by your body in order to carry out toxic cells, but too many are disastrous. Antioxidants neutralize free radicals before they can cause further damage.

Consume Plenty of Fiber

There are two basic types of fiber: soluble and insoluble. The insoluble fiber in fresh produce, legumes, and nuts acts like a broom and sweeps all of the accumulated food and toxins from your digestive tract so that it may function optimally. Soluble fiber binds with fatty acids and helps slow down sugar (glucose) absorption so that you have a steady supply of energy. It also helps lower bad cholesterol, therefore promoting heart health, which moves us right along to the next benefit of the Mediterranean diet.

Keep Your Heart and Veins Healthy

The Mediterranean diet promotes cardiovascular health in a variety of ways. The soluble fiber that we’ve already discussed helps lower bad cholesterol, and the abundance of antioxidants helps prevent plaque buildup caused free radicals. The American Heart Association promotes consumption of foods rich in omega-3s as a great way to promote cardiovascular health. These essential fatty acids help lower triglycerides and bad cholesterol and are even linked to healthful blood pressure. If you’ve already experienced a heart attack, research shows that increasing your omega-3 intake can reduce the risk of a repeat episode.

Improve Mood and Cognitive Function

Studies have recently linked Alzheimer’s disease to insulin resistance so surely that the disease is now being referred to as type 3 diabetes. A diet that promotes a steady supply of foods with a low glycemic load is a great way to prevent diet-related insulin resistance and is the epitome of what the Mediterranean diet teaches.

Your brain also requires a significant amount of essential omega-3 fatty acids found in fatty fish, olive oil, and many plants in order to function properly. Since your body can’t make these, it’s imperative that you get them from your diet. In addition to all of their other health benefits, omega-3s have been shown to help you think clearly and avoid depression and other anxiety-related conditions.

Support Weight Loss

Weight loss is more of a side effect of healthful eating than a goal of following the Mediterranean diet, though that’s what may attract you to it initially. Because one of the primary characteristics of the lifestyle is decreased stress via the pursuit of personal happiness, drastically reducing caloric intake isn’t a concept that’s promoted. However, changing your eating style to conform to the Mediterranean lifestyle will automatically put you on the path to a leaner, happier you because you’re not eating a ton of fatty, calorie-dense junk.

Now that you’re familiar with the Mediterranean diet, let’s get on to the recipes. You’re truly not going to believe how scrumptious these are, and when you taste them, you’re going to wonder what took you so long to try them. Mangia bene!