The Mediterranean Diet Review – Finally A Sensible Diet Plan!

The Mediterranean Diet is more than just a simple weight loss program or new Hollywood fad diet. It’s a whole new healthy lifestyle waiting for you to adopt. Will you lose weight on the Mediterranean Diet? Yes, absolutely. Will you keep the weight off? No doubt about it, as long as you adopt and keep its ideas.

It seems like every day there’s some new fad diet or exercise gizmo promising to melt the pounds away fast, delivering nothing but frustration, disappointment and an empty wallet. The Mediterranean diet is much different than these rip-offs in countless ways…

Some key points of the Mediterranean Diet

• Not just a diet plan, but a whole lifestyle guide
• Good nutrition is the central theme
• The food does not suck. In fact it’s amazingly delicious.
• Focus on variety, balance and sensible portions
• Simple yet effective exercise
• It’s free! You can get a book as a guide, but everything you need to know is free online.

Most diets boil down to a big list of things you can’t have and compensate with larger amounts of a few things you can. The Mediterranean Diet focuses on what you CAN have and gives you an amazing variety of food that is so delicious you will be completely satisfied with smaller more sensible portions which leads to dropping those pounds for good!

It’s not only important to look good, but you want to feel good as well and in order for that to happen you need to have a well-balanced diet. One that is primarily plant based and includes good amounts of healthy FAT. The Mediterranean Diet includes everything you’re going need for this to happen.

• Fresh, healthy, locally grown fruits and vegetables, whole grains, nuts, seeds, olive oil, yogurt, seafood, legumes and moderate amounts of wine.
• Plenty of goof fats (monounsaturated) from olive oil, avocados and nuts as well as omega-3 (polyunsaturated) from fatty fish and flaxseed for a healthy heart.
• Whole grain foods such as rice, pasta and bread that are full of cancer fighting nutrients that will help you feel full for longer.
• Lots of healthy fruit to replace those sticky pastry desserts with a double whammy of added nutrition and more fiber to keep you feeling satisfied.
• The majority of what you eat will be plant based and most of the meat you consume will be fish or seafood.

If you change your eating habits this way, YOU WILL LOSE WEIGHT and do it without starving yourself. Even better though is that you can feel good knowing that what your doing is good for you and your family.

One study followed roughly 2,500 people for 12 years and found that those who were on the Mediterranean Diet lost significant amounts of weight, had lower blood pressure, blood sugar, blood fat and much better insulin levels. All of which are well known to increase the length and quality of your life. Another four year study at Columbia University found a 40% lower risk of Alzheimer’s  in those who adopted the Mediterranean Diet over a standard Western Diet. More studies on the benefits of the Mediterranean Diet

It just makes sense that this should work. Rather than being based on some new shiny object or cockamamie idea, it’s based on the best parts of the lifestyle of the populations in Southern Italy, Crete and Greece who are well known for low rates of cancer, heart disease and obesity.

There are many regions around the world that are renowned for healthy lifestyles, but most of them would seem a bit exotic to Western eaters who might have a hard time finding the ingredients of those diets in their local grocery store. The Mediterranean Diet is based on more familiar dishes that shouldn’t be too much of an adjustment.

As for exercise, there’s nothing fancy or mind blowing about it. It’s mainly just recommended that you walk a lot. Not the crazy “Go climb Mt. Everest with a refrigerator full of rocks on your back, so you can lose 50 pounds overnight” garbage, but just simple consistent walking all day.

Walk to the store, walk or bike to work or even stroll with a friend is all that it takes. I’m not against working out hard, I rather enjoy it myself, but the rest of the day can’t be spent sitting on your arse. American cities are poorly designed for this and our jobs are totally counterproductive to it, so it’s not easy to get started. Once you do, though, you will see how easy it can be to get and stay healthy.

Like I said, you can get most of what you need to know for free online. Just Google the Mediterranean Diet and you get heaps of free info. It’s can be good to have it all wrapped up in a nice bundle and organized in a book. There are a couple good ones out there…

The Mediterranean Diet by Marissa Cloutier and Eve Adamson is a good resource that describes the whole idea pretty well. It has lots of great recipes, but some of them are a bit complex and include a few ingredients that might be hard to find.

A good companion is The Complete Idiot's Guide to the Mediterranean Diet by Kimberly Tessmer and Stephanie Green. It’s not not quite as detailed, but still pretty good and has more recipes, most of which are simpler than the first book.

I would sincerely recommend this diet to anyone who wants to get in shape or maintain the good health they’re already in. The morals of the Mediterranean diet are right in line with the lifestyle we’re always preaching about around here. So pick up the books on Amazon, check them out at the library, or research what you need online. Just do whatever you can to learn and adopt these healthy new habits so you can lose that weight and feel better for the rest of your life!

It’s nice to find a diet, the Mediterranean diet that I can actually recommend for once,
Randy “This means I can eat baklava, right?” Lee