The Mediterranean Diet
What Is The Mediterranean Diet?
March 4th, 2009
by Slim Slater
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. In addition to physical activity the diet proposes eating a lot of dairy, fish, and meats along with a healthy dose of olive oil and plant food. 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 has been around since 1945 when the version of the Mediterranean diet was first published Ancel Keyes who lived in Italy. But it did not become popular until the 1990s.
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. Red wine also adds to the mix in that it contains elements with antioxidant properties.
The American Heart Association recommends diets like the Mediterranean diet . The one part of the Mediterranean diet that the American Heart Association doesn’t like is a high percentage of calories from fat. The heart association points to the growing problem of obesity in countries around the Mediterranean basin, which is a serious health concern. The AHA does take solace in the fact that mono saturated fats such as those found in olive oil don’t raise cholesterol levels. 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.
About the Author:
Slim Slater is a fat loss expert. For more great information on ways to lose fat be sure to visit http://thefatlossreview.com/successful-ways-to-lose-fat.html.
