Mediterranean Diet
The people who live in the Mediterranean basin are healthy, so it was only natural to create a Mediterranean diet for others to follow. 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. It’s considered a low-fat high dietary 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 has many benefits such as lowering cholesterol and blood sugar. 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 American Heart Association recommends diets like the Mediterranean diet . The association is concerned about the high amount of fat in the Mediterranean diet. They say obesity is a growing health concern in the Mediterranean basin. It is a positive that the fats come from olive oil, therefore they are mono saturated fats that don’t raise cholesterol. It could be that increased health in the basin comes from increased physical activity, rather than from diet.
A Google search is a great source of information on the Mediterranean diet.
