What Is The Mediterranean Diet?

The Mediterranean diet refers to a pattern of eating healthy, delicious foods traditional to the regions of the southern Mediterranean. The concept involves much more than choosing specific foods, however. It incorporates an active lifestyle with the enjoyment of healthy foods - plus wine in moderation - with family and friends and a focus on fresh, unprocessed foods rather than pre-packaged convenience items. Following a Mediterranean diet lifestyle should result in healthy weight, improved cholesterol numbers and a return to the enjoyment of meals rather than a clinical focus on "healthy eating".

Staple foods of the Mediterranean diet

The Mediterranean diet is based on enjoying fresh fruits and vegetables, fish, whole grains, olive oil, beans and legumes, nuts and seeds, honey and moderate consumption of wine. A beautifully illustrated website, http://www.oldwayspt.org/mediterranean-diet-pyramid, details many of the key foods that are acceptable as part of a Mediterranean diet. The traditional food pyramid is updated to reflect the specific food choices for each category. Once familiar with the basic food choices, it is easy to create beautiful, delicious meals using fresh, healthy, flavorful ingredients.

What makes the Mediterranean diet healthy?

By avoiding overly processed foods, trans-fats and excessive meat and dairy consumption, the Mediterranean diet ranks as very healthy without feeling like a diet at all. Fish is high in omega-3 fatty acids, olive oil is high in unsaturated "good" fat and beans, fruits and vegetables are high in fiber. Any modern American concerned with diabetes, high cholesterol or weight management knows these are always recommendations for a healthy diet. The key benefit of the Mediterranean diet is that these healthy attributes are secondary to the beauty and taste of delicious meals prepared with fresh ingredients and enjoyed with family and friends. This is not a diet to follow for a while and then abandon; it is an enjoyable lifestyle that is coincidentally healthy.

The Mediterranean diet is a way of life incorporating fresh, delicious, unprocessed foods and the enjoyment of sharing that food with loved ones. Add some fine wine, shared activities and a general appreciation for the good things in life, and the Mediterranean diet is very likely the answer many Americans seek.

This is not a diet to follow for a while and then abandon