The Mediterranean Diet is a diet that is highly popular for its ability to improve heart health and extend the lifespan.
The diet first came to be popular when national statistics revealed that people in Mediterranean countries actually lived longer and experienced less heart disease! This caused researchers to examine it further, where they found that fat actually benefited heart health and that eating lots of nutrients could have profoundly beneficial results for your health.
While this is all true, it’s also true that the Mediterranean Diet is able to do a lot of other things. If you’re considering giving it a try, then you probably want to know what you can expect from it. Read on then and we’ll find out what the Mediterranean Diet really does for you!
Health
The Mediterranean Diet will improve nearly every aspect of your general health and it does this in numerous ways. We’ve seen that fats and resveratrol improve your heart health – but so too does the garlic and the fiber which are excellent for your blood pressure.
Meanwhile, those nutrients – such as omega 3 fatty acids and vitamin D & E – are also excellent for helping you look healthier. Your skin will glow, your hair and nails will look stronger and the whites of your eyes will look whiter!
If you spend some time out in the sun to develop a tan, then the look will be complete! Our bodies look much better when we’re healthy.
Energy
What’s more is that eating proper food also fills us with energy. You’ll be improving the function of your mitochondria as well as providing your body with lots of usable energy, so it should come as no surprise that you’ll feel supercharged and ready to go!
Lifestyle
One of the real hidden benefits of the Mediterranean Diet though is the way it can improve your lifestyle as a whole. This is all about learning respect for food again. It’s about taking time to cook real meals. It’s about actually enjoying what you eat and eating properly.
When you do that, you’ll find that you spend more time with your family and that you enjoy more romantic meals with your family.
Your food isn’t just about eating whatever you need to keep working! What is important is that the Mediterranean lifestyle encourages you to stop and smell your food while you feel the warm sun on the back of your neck…
Weight Loss
And finally, the Mediterranean Diet will contribute to weight loss in a way that is healthy, sustainable and long-lasting. That’s because you’ll want to snack less and you’ll be satiated on smaller portions. It’s because you’ll stop eating those empty calories and it’s because you’ll be making more body more efficient at burning fats!
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The Mediterranean Diet is a diet that involves eating large amounts of fruits and vegetables while at the same time piling on olive oil and cheese and eating lots of fish. It also contains red wine, nuts, seeds and salads.
And to the uninitiated, this can seem something of a confusing diet.
Sure, the salad and the fruits and vegetables make a lot of sense. But something that’s less obvious is how adding fats to your diet can help you lose weight. Or wine? And why is there no obvious restriction in terms of the quantities you’re allowed to eat?
Let’s take a closer look and try to discover exactly what’s going on and how this diet works…
A Brief History
The Mediterranean Diet wasn’t invented to sell an ebook but is rather just the natural diet that people eat in Mediterranean countries. Right, away, this makes it a lot more practical and more appealing than some of the fad diets that are a little extreme in their recommendations.
For a long time, no one suspected this diet of being healthy. The olive oil and the wine contents were things that most experts at the time thought were bad for us.
But then they started to study statistics regarding the lifespans and health of people who lived in those regions. What they found was that eating this diet actually increased the lifespan and at the same time made diseases like heart disease, diabetes and cancer less likely!
The Science
So what is going on here?
Well, it makes a lot of sense when you think about it. People who eat a Mediterranean Diet simply enjoy their food more than we do.
Many of us in the US and UK are guilty of viewing our diet as pretty much an inconvenience. We eat because we have to and we only really eat for fuel when we do.
We snack on junk food which includes Mars Bars and Coca-Cola. We gobble the food down, give it no thought and then wonder why we feel unhealthy!
On the other hand, the Mediterranean Diet involves creating delicious dishes using fresh fruits and vegetables, lots of fish and delicious cheese.
And as it turns out, fat actually isn’t bad for us! The right kind of fat is rather very good for us and when eaten alongside fruits and vegetables it actually helps us to absorb the nutrients for use around our body!
When you eat this diet, you learn to eat properly again and you learn to appreciate your food. This has huge impacts on your health and well-being and is something everyone should be encouraged to try!
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The Mediterranean Diet is one of the safest, healthiest and most practical diets in the world. Unlike diets that involve cutting things out of your eating habits entirely, or starving yourself for long periods of time; this method doesn’t involve any drastic lifestyle changes.
Instead, all it involves is eating a much more healthy and natural diet. And at the same time, it’s about really enjoying your food and making sure that you actually get to appreciate the food you’re eating. It means slowing down and developing a healthier relationship with what you eat.
And guess what? People all over the world have been eating this diet for centuries.
But despite this, there are still some controversies surrounding this eating plan. Let’s take a look at what those are…
The Fat Thing…
The Mediterranean Diet is quite unusual in that it doesn’t shy away from fats. In fact, a lot of the recipes involve dolloping large amounts of olive oil or feta cheese on top of what you’ve made!
How can this possibly be healthy? For years, experts believed that fat caused bad cholesterol and heart disease and that it would lead to weight gain.
The latter part can be true. Fat contains nine calories per gram, while carbs or protein only contain four. But at the same time, it releases its energy much slower helping you to feel fuller for longer and avoiding any of the damage that sugar causes. This is one of the reasons that incidence of diabetes is lower in these regions!
Likewise, fat doesn’t actually cause high cholesterol or heart disease. More recent research has examined this theory and found that in fact the opposite happens – fat lowers the bad kind of cholesterol (LDL) and improves the good kind (HDL).
What’s more, is that fat also has lots of direct health benefits. Not only does it increase testosterone (leading to more strength and weight loss) but it also enhances nutrient absorption and improves brain power.
Wine and Carbs
Likewise, wine and carbs are still a part of the Mediterranean Diet. Carbs provide a sudden sugar hit and some people think that this can be very bad for you.
But actually, the Mediterranean Diet contains fewer simple carbs than a regular Western Diet. That’s because you’re ruling out processed foods like ready-made meals, things like chocolate bars and things like fizzy drinks. When you stop seeing food as an inconvenience and actually start to eat properly your health improves drastically!
And as for the wine? Well, it seems that alcohol in small quantities can actually increase the lifespan – especially red wine which contains the all-important ‘resveratrol’ for strengthening the mitochondria.
Click Here to Discover The Mediterranean Diet eBook
The Mediterranean Diet is of course a diet that involves emulating the way that people eat on the continent. The diet became popular ever since it was found that people who ate a Mediterranean Diet actually lived longer and experienced a lower incidence of heart disease and other issues.
And at first this surprised researchers – after all, the Mediterranean Diet mainly consists of eating fats (olive oil and cheese) and wine! These are things that are traditionally thought to be bad for us.
Upon further inspection it happens that in moderation – and when combined with a nutrient rich diet – they can actually be beneficial.
So what exactly is this nutrient rich diet? How do you eat like a Mediterranean? What foods are on the menu? Let’s take a look…
Salads
One of the mainstays of a Mediterranean Diet is salad. Salad is highly nutritious and provides the body with lots of iron, calcium and other minerals. At the same time, it also helps to bulk up a meal without adding many calories.
One of the very best salads out there for the Mediterranean Diet is Greek salad. This meal consists purely of chopped tomato, cucumber, pepper and feta cheese with a little oil drizzled on top!
Fish
Being near the warm Mediterranean means being near tons of fish. And as it happens, fish is actually incredibly good for you.
The biggest benefit of eating lots of fish is that it will provide lots of essential fatty acids and amino acids without adding too many calories. Fish is lean. Fish is great for the brain, it keeps you full and is all round an excellent option.
Try some calamari to enjoy sea food at its finest!
Seeds and Nuts
On the Mediterranean Diet, a lot of dishes include seeds and nuts for flavouring (alongside lots of herbs). This is a great addition to any diet for numerous reasons once again.
For starters, seeds and nuts keep us full and make a brilliant snack that won’t pack on calories. At the same time, they also provide us with nutrients (zinc, potassium, magnesium) and really make any salad a lot more delicious!
Fruits and Vegetables
Living in a sunny climate also facilitates lots of berries, grapes, tomatoes and root vegetables being ripe for the picking and for adding to the diet. This is a big cornerstone of a Mediterranean Diet and is one of the biggest ‘secrets’ when it comes to making sure that you enjoy a long, healthy lifespan without getting ill!
Fats
Finally, the Mediterranean Diet contains all of the healthy kinds of fats. That means saturated fats (not trans fats!) which aid in testosterone production while also enhancing nutrient absorption and improving cholesterol!
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