As the name “Mediterranean diet” suggests, it is diet plan that is developed on the basis of traditional eating habits of people from the Mediterranean Sea area. It was being studied as to how people living in Mediterranean area were having lower heart diseases as compared to people in USA while the amount of fats consumed by people was almost similar. The lower diseases rate was highly attributed to the dietary composition of the people of the Mediterranean area despite good fat content in the diet.
In mid 1990s Dr. Walter Willett (Harvard University’s School of Public Health) presented the most common Mediterranean diet. Apart from regular physical exercises, the diet emphasizes on high consumption of vegetables, fresh fruits, and olive oil. It recommends moderate consumption of dairy products like cheese and yogurt and of fish and poultry products besides low consumption of red meat and alcohol. Typically this kind of diet includes 25% to 35% total fats and about 8% saturated fats. Being high in fiber content and healthy fats, this diet is considered to be beneficial. The main ingredients of Mediterranean diet are high intake of olive oil, legumes, unrefined cereals, fruits, and vegetables, moderate intake of dairy products and Fish, and low intake of meat products and wine.
The high usage of olive oil is usually associated with the existence of lower heart diseases among the people consuming Mediterranean diet. Olive oil is believed to keep a check on the blood sugar and cholesterol level besides lowering blood pressure. There is a research that points out to active role of olive oil in prevention and cure of peptic ulcers. A similar role of olive oil in prevention of Cancer is being researched. Apart from olive oil, the inclusion of red wine that contains flavonoids having powerful antioxidant properties also contributes to lower the heart diseases. However the other factors that may have contributed to better health could be genes of the people, their lifestyle, and the external environment.
One of the studies indicated Mediterranean diet providing immense protection against type 2 diabetes. This study was published in the British Medical Journal of May 29, 2008.
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Great work! I also have my own blog I just find it hard to write quality content like this.
I guess I really don’t have the time.
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