Mediterranean Diet 101

You’ve more than likely heard of the Mediterranean diet by now. After all, it’s one of the most popular diets in the world.

But what is it exactly?

Like, how do you follow it? What are its benefits? Does it work?

Well, continue reading to learn that and more!

Background:

The Mediterranean diet is a nutritional model based on the eating habits and traditional foods of the people living in countries that border the Mediterranean Sea. It was created by Ancel Keys, a physiologist, and his wife, Margaret, a biochemist, after they discovered that people in the Mediterranean Sea basin that ate a “poor man’s” diet enjoyed better health and greater longevity than those elsewhere in wealthier parts of the Western world, primarily the United States. As is often the case, the diet was originally shared in 1959 in a book, Eat Well and Stay Well, before its rerelease as How to Eat Well and Stay Well the Mediterranean Way in 1975.

Overview:

The Mediterranean diet is less of a structured diet and more of a lifestyle pattern. As such, there aren’t any concrete rules about how to follow it. Instead, there are only general guidelines, some of which involve the consumption of a mostly plant-based diet, dining in the company of others, regular physical activity, and minimization of stress. By incorporating these principles, the belief is that greater life expectancy and lower incidence of heart disease, cancer, and other chronic disease will be enjoyed by those outside of the Mediterranean coast like it is by those inhabiting it and whom the dietary model is based on for that reason.

What To Eat:

As a largely plant-based nutritional approach, the Mediterranean diet favors the consumption of large amounts of fruits, vegetables, beans, nuts, seeds, and whole grains. What’s restricted is the intake of animal-based products, with meat making up a moderate amount of daily calories and the sources limited to poultry and fish, with the latter preferred over the former. Red meat is limited to only small amounts on occasion. As for dairy, cheese and yogurt are the main sources, though fat-free or 1% milk, cottage cheese, and eggs are allowed. Lastly, fat should comprise up to one-third of calories, that of which olive oil should satisfy most of. Oh, and for the lushes out there, you’ll be happy to learn that low to moderate amounts of wine are also recommended.¹

What Not To Eat:

The foods to avoid on the Mediterranean diet are mostly processed food creations. These include refined grains, such as white bread, white pasta, and items made of white flour, like pizza dough; pastries, candy, soda, and foods with added sugar; hot dogs, sausages, bacon, ham, cold cuts, and other processed meats; and refined oils, such as margarine, canola oil, vegetable oil, and soybean oil. Also on the list of items to avoid are those high in trans fat, like butter.

Results:

The Mediterranean diet has the distinction of being the most studied diet on the market. That means its benefits are well-documented and supported by reliable research. True to the intent of the diet’s creation, one such benefit is the improvement of heart health. To that point, a five-year study pitting two forms of the Mediterranean diet against a control diet found that the respective Mediterranean diets that favored olive oil and nuts were about 30 percent more effective than the control diet at lowering the risk of major cardiovascular events, such as heart attack, stroke, and death.² Other benefits provided by the diet also include prevention and control of diabetes, better sleep quality in older adults, and protection against dementia and other degenerative brain diseases, as well as that with the development of depressive symptoms.³⁴⁵⁶

Beyond the aforementioned quality of life benefits, there’s also a large body of evidence that suggests the Mediterranean diet is top-tier for weight management. Though the diet isn’t primarily for the purposes of it, research has found that long-term adherence to the diet is associated with lower risk of weight gain and abdominal obesity, as were the results of a 12-year study consisting of over 32,000 people.⁷ But wait, there’s more! Not only does the Mediterranean diet show signs of curbing the dreaded weight and fat creep that occurs as the numbers on the scale and tape measure gradually increase over years, but many studies support that it may also be helpful for those who are trying to slim down.⁸ The impact the Mediterranean diet has on weight is, of course, owed to its avoidance of high-calorie processed foods in favor of nutrient-rich, low-calorie whole foods. Considering the selection of foods that have a filling effect and limit total calorie intake, plus the advocation of an active lifestyle, which helps burn excess calories, it’s not a hard proposition to understand why the Mediterranean diet can yield the weight management results it does.

Safety:

The risks associated with the Mediterranean diet are few. Those are low levels of iron and calcium loss if the respective intake of meat and dairy isn’t adequate enough. And with a high percentage of calories in the Mediterranean diet coming from fat, albeit the monounsaturated variety from olive oil, for example, people who need to limit their fat intake may not be a good fit for the diet. Apart from those warnings, the Mediterranean diet is relatively safe.

Other:

Morocco, Tunisia, and Egypt are Mediterranean countries, as are several other North African states. Lebanon, Turkey, and Syria are also Mediterranean countries, as are several others in the Middle East. Despite this bit of geography, the all-encompassing term “Mediterranean diet” is usually only used to encapsulate the food traditions of southern European countries, notably Italy and Greece but the term also extends to southern France and Spain. Fuck, the term even applies to Portugal, which doesn’t even touch the Mediterranean Sea. So yeah, if you’re into ethnocentrism, then this diet is for you!

Glossary: active lifestyle, calories, diet, dietary fat, fat