12 Reasons To Love The Mediterranean Diet
Your only eating fresh food. The focus is on fresh, seasonal food prepared in simple ways. For instance make a salad with fresh spinach, cucumbers, tomatoes, then add black olives, feta cheese and Garbanzo Beans, olive oil and lemon juice or wine vinegar. That’s a salad, of course there are several little things you can add to make it the way you like, peppers come to mind, but you can see my point, everything healthy and fresh.
And surprise, when you eat the way Mediterranean people eat, no calorie counting. You can eat from all the food groups. You’ll be swapping out bad fats for heart healthy ones like using olive oil instead of butter; eating poultry and fish instead of red meat. You’ll meat fresh fruits instead of sugary desserts. You’ll eat more veggies and beans. Nuts will become the snack of choice. No candy, except for chocolate, but only real chocolate and pure chocolate not a box of chocolates. You’ll also be eating whole grain bread and drinking wine in moderation.
You’ll be eating breads and pasta, just choose whole grain. Try to avoid breads made with processed flour. For a snack try whole grain pita bread dipped in olive oil or hummus.
You are going to eat fat, but it’s heart healthy fat like olive oil, nuts like walnuts and almonds and green or black olives. All of those have good fats. Man-made products have bad fats that your body can’t process and will end-up clouting your arteries.
The menu to pick from is huge, your not limited to Greek and Italian. Morocco, France, Spain and Turkey are only a few others. All these countries cook in a similar manner. Easy on the red meat and whole fat diary, with lots of fresh fruit, veggies and whole grains.
Mediterranean people like to cook with herbs and spices to give their food the flavor they like. You might not think about herbs and spices as being healthy but this type of menu has been around for thousands of years and people added things to their food for a reason, not just for the flavor. For example, Coriander and rosemary have disease fighting antioxidents. East Indian and Moroccan people are big believers in using spices for their health benefits. Peppers are well known world wide for their health benefits.
Greek meals are often easy to make. For a serve-it-cold casual meal called Mezzes you cpuld put out plates of slices tomatoes, nuts, sliced red peppers, cheese, olives and small pieces of whole grain bread with a Hummus Dip.
You can have wine with meals, that’s commonly done in Mediterranean countries. One glass a day for a women and two glasses for a man. Women metabolize alcohol differently then men. For people than don’t drink alcohol, unsweetened grape juice is O.K.
You won’t be hungry when you eat filling foods like roasted sweet potatoes, hummus and different bean spreads and you can snack on nuts, low-fat cheese like feta or Halloumi. These are lower fat then cheddar. Stay away from processed cheese. If it’s all natural cheese, it’s on the label, if it’s processed cheese it will also tell you on the label.
You might think it takes a miracle to lose weight but eating fresh and eating a Mediterranean diet will leave you feeling full and satisfied. That helps you stick to your diet and you will probably get more nutrition then you did before. Along with an increase in activity and you’ll see the pounds fall off and you’ll start to feel better. Your heart will thank you. In a few months your blood pressure will improve, and your cholesterol will get lower. The Mediterranean diet has a lot of good brain food, you’ll stay sharper longer. This food pyramid tells you what to eat and how often to eat each type food. Watch the pyramid closely, and don’t forget the water.
And surprise, when you eat the way Mediterranean people eat, no calorie counting. You can eat from all the food groups. You’ll be swapping out bad fats for heart healthy ones like using olive oil instead of butter; eating poultry and fish instead of red meat. You’ll meat fresh fruits instead of sugary desserts. You’ll eat more veggies and beans. Nuts will become the snack of choice. No candy, except for chocolate, but only real chocolate and pure chocolate not a box of chocolates. You’ll also be eating whole grain bread and drinking wine in moderation.
You’ll be eating breads and pasta, just choose whole grain. Try to avoid breads made with processed flour. For a snack try whole grain pita bread dipped in olive oil or hummus.
You are going to eat fat, but it’s heart healthy fat like olive oil, nuts like walnuts and almonds and green or black olives. All of those have good fats. Man-made products have bad fats that your body can’t process and will end-up clouting your arteries.
The menu to pick from is huge, your not limited to Greek and Italian. Morocco, France, Spain and Turkey are only a few others. All these countries cook in a similar manner. Easy on the red meat and whole fat diary, with lots of fresh fruit, veggies and whole grains.
Mediterranean people like to cook with herbs and spices to give their food the flavor they like. You might not think about herbs and spices as being healthy but this type of menu has been around for thousands of years and people added things to their food for a reason, not just for the flavor. For example, Coriander and rosemary have disease fighting antioxidents. East Indian and Moroccan people are big believers in using spices for their health benefits. Peppers are well known world wide for their health benefits.
Greek meals are often easy to make. For a serve-it-cold casual meal called Mezzes you cpuld put out plates of slices tomatoes, nuts, sliced red peppers, cheese, olives and small pieces of whole grain bread with a Hummus Dip.
You can have wine with meals, that’s commonly done in Mediterranean countries. One glass a day for a women and two glasses for a man. Women metabolize alcohol differently then men. For people than don’t drink alcohol, unsweetened grape juice is O.K.
You won’t be hungry when you eat filling foods like roasted sweet potatoes, hummus and different bean spreads and you can snack on nuts, low-fat cheese like feta or Halloumi. These are lower fat then cheddar. Stay away from processed cheese. If it’s all natural cheese, it’s on the label, if it’s processed cheese it will also tell you on the label.
You might think it takes a miracle to lose weight but eating fresh and eating a Mediterranean diet will leave you feeling full and satisfied. That helps you stick to your diet and you will probably get more nutrition then you did before. Along with an increase in activity and you’ll see the pounds fall off and you’ll start to feel better. Your heart will thank you. In a few months your blood pressure will improve, and your cholesterol will get lower. The Mediterranean diet has a lot of good brain food, you’ll stay sharper longer. This food pyramid tells you what to eat and how often to eat each type food. Watch the pyramid closely, and don’t forget the water.
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