What Is The MediterraneanDiet?

Since the people who live in the Mediterranean basin are healthy, someone came up with the idea of creating the Mediterranean diet. The Mediterranean basin includes portions of Italy, France, and even the Sahara Desert – a generally mild winters with long, hot summers.

The most known form of the Mediterranean diet was created in the mid-1990s by a Harvard health professor named Walter Willett. The diet calls for regular physical activity, along with abundant plant food, fresh fruit as a dessert, olive oil, dairy products, fish and poultry, up to four eggs each week, red meat in small amounts, and wine. The diet strictly control fat so that only a total of about 35% of calories come from fat. For this reason it's categorized as a low fat, high fiber diet. It became popular in the 1990's, but the Mediterranean diet has been around since 1945.

Whereas American diets rely on animal fats, the Mediterranean diet utilizes olive oil. Olive oil is known to lower cholesterol levels in the blood, as well as blood sugar and blood pressure. Studies have shown that olive oil helps reduce the risk of many types of cancer as well as of ulcers. Antioxidant elements in red wine, an important part of the Mediterranean diet, are also beneficial.

The Mediterranean diet is really a series of diets partially recommended by the American Heart Association. The association is concerned about the high amount of fat in the Mediterranean diet. The AHA points to the growing obesity problem in the Mediterranean region. It is a positive that the fats come from olive oil, therefore they are mono saturated fats that don't raise cholesterol. That's a good thing for heart health, but healthier hearts in the Mediterranean areas may be more due to increased physical activity rather than strictly to diet.

Look around the Internet for more information on the Mediterranean diet.

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