The Mediterranean Diet
Lose Weight With Great Taste: The Mediterranean
Diet
There’s a popular book out right now which studies
why ‘French women don’t get fat’. It’s
certainly not for sacrificing delicious food! The same might
be said for the Mediterranean diet, which are the traditional
foods prepared and eaten around the Mediterranean region of
Europe. Although the residents might not be model-skinny,
but there are few seriously overweight people who live the
traditional lifestyle and eat traditional Mediterranean foods.
From here, we can see that it all comes down to great tasting,
natural food. Forget what you think you know about Italian
cuisine, such as, yes, pizza and pasta do figure heavily in
some regions of Italy, but not in the Mediterranean region.
Living by the sea, people survive on what they can catch from
the sea and grow in their gardens. All the foods that they
consume is natural, delicious food that is a pleasure to prepare
and an even greater pleasure to eat.
Naturally, we think of tomatoes, it is a fact that tomatoes
grown in the Mediterranean sun are far superior to any tomatoes
grown elsewhere in the world. The Mediterranean basin is the
home of the tomato, and it is where it grows best. Besides,
there are also other vegetables that the Mediterranean kitchen
abounds with, and most of them are dark green, red or orange
in color. The studies have shown that dark green, red and
orange vegetables are usually better off as anti-oxidants,
making them powerful cancer fighters. Also, these tend to
be more flavorful and satisfying than many other vegetables,
especially when they are prepared based on the Mediterranean
recipes, it means that the people tend to eat more on vegetables.
And that, of course, is one of the best things you can possibly
do for maximum weight loss.
Meat is part of the diet, but it’s served rather sparingly.
Fish is the common food in Mediterranean diet given the fact
that the Mediterranean life is oriented around the sea. Fish
are grilled, or prepared as part of various cooked dishes
that also contain vegetables. Forget the batter-covered English
style fish and chips. Fish is usually quite low in fat, and
also an excellent source of protein. Even when the fat content
is a little higher, but they are all good fats.
Talking about ‘good’ fat, olive oil is definitely
the best choice you can have for cooking, drizzling on salads,
or as a condiment of sorts. Olive oil has none of the harmful
effects that some oils have when they are heated, it is a
good type of clean oil that adds flavor, and if you’re
using good quality olive oil, a little goes a long way! If
you can, try to buy cold pressed extra virgin olive oil from
Italy, Greece or Spain, or maybe from a less popular olive
oil producer such as Croatia or Albania. In all of these countries,
olive groves which are sometimes up to a thousand years old
continue to produce olives for eating and oil production.
Olives and olive oil do play a role in the the Mediterranean
cuisine.
From the above, we can see that the Mediterranean diet is
not necessarily a low calorie one, though it certainly can
be since you can adjust the calorie content without sacrificing
taste, because natural ingredients make up so much of the
diet. if you just want to eat healthy, then you can add in
some of the ‘extras’ such as red wine, some cheese
and home baked bread, or the occasional dessert. But, you
can just do fine without those extras, though, the Mediterranean
diet is easy to follow and stick to because it simply tastes
great.
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