The Mediterranean Diet is important all year long, but we pay extra attention in May, which is International Mediterranean Diet Month. In 1993, Oldways, a nonprofit that teaches about food and nutrition, worked with Harvard Medical School and the World Health Organization to make the Mediterranean diet food pyramid.
Even though the name “Mediterranean diet” has only been around for less than 30 years, people in countries around the Mediterranean Sea have always eaten a lot of plants, seafood, and olive oil. Nutrition experts are becoming increasingly sure that the best way to get our health back is to go back to the basics and eat as our ancestors did.
What is the Mediterranean Diet?
The Mediterranean diet comes from how people living in countries near the Mediterranean sea eat. The food is a mix of foods from Greece, Italy, France, Spain, Turkey, North Africa, and the Middle East. The ingredients in Mediterranean dishes make them healthy and set them apart from other types of food. The Mediterranean diet’s foods make it good for your health.
This diet suggests eating fresh and seasonal vegetables, fruits, legumes, nuts, lean poultry, seafood, eggs, dairy, olive oil, and a small amount of red wine. Fresh, tasty ingredients seasoned with herbs and olive oil ensure you get the right amount of proteins, fats, carbs, and dietary fibers. This makes it nutritionally balanced and good for everyone.
The Health Advantages of the Mediterranean Diet
Many people eat processed foods and get into bad eating habits because they are busy and work a lot. Dishes from the Mediterranean have fresh fruits, herbs, vegetables, and fats that are good for your heart. This diet plan takes less time to cook, which makes it easy to stick to, and it lowers the chance of getting chronic diseases.
Recent information from clinical trials worldwide shows that the Mediterranean diet is good for your health, can help prevent heart disease, type 2 diabetes, obesity, and cancer, and even shorten your life. At the same time, there is a strong link between the medical benefits of the Mediterranean diet and regular physical activity and managing stress.
A healthy heart
Recent studies show that replacing saturated fats with monounsaturated or polyunsaturated fats lowers the risk of high blood pressure and other heart diseases. The Mediterranean diet is high in fiber and monounsaturated fats like Oleic acid.
Red wine is good for the heart because it has antioxidant vitamins, phytochemicals, natural folate, and minerals. The European Food Safety Power Panel on Dietetic Products, Nutrition, and Allergies acknowledged statements that oleic acid helps maintain normal blood LDL-cholesterol levels and that polyphenols in olive oil have a lipid-lowering effect.
Diabetes Management
Keeping blood sugar levels steady is a big reason the Mediterranean diet is good for your health. The diet includes foods high in nutrients and hasn’t changed much. It controls the amount of sugar in the blood and keeps people from getting type 2 diabetes.
Recent studies show the Mediterranean diet can help improve Hemoglobin A1C (HbA1c) levels. HbA1c is a marker used to measure the average blood sugar level over the past three months. Also, the diet lowers the risk of insulin resistance, which makes it harder for the body to use insulin to regulate sugar levels.
A Healthy Weight
Obesity and an increased risk of long-term diseases are mostly caused by eating a lot of sugar and processed foods and not moving around much. The ingredients used in Mediterranean dishes are varied, tasty, healthy, and good for you.
Studies show that the Mediterranean diet can help you keep your weight in check, especially when combined with regular exercise. Compared to many other low-fat diets, following a Mediterranean diet low in calories makes it less likely that you will gain weight and have dangerous belly fat.
Improve cognition
It is normal for our minds to get worse as we get older. But scientists say that diet plays a big role in how the brain works. Systematic reviews of how the Mediterranean diet affects brain function have found that it improves brain function and lowers the risk of dementia, cognitive decline, and Alzheimer’s disease.
Reduce Arthritis Pain
Along with medicine, long-chain omega-3 fatty acids alleviate the symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis. The Mediterranean diet has a lot of omega-3 fatty acids, which help reduce inflammation. When data from many different studies were examined, it was found that the Mediterranean diet lowered rheumatoid arthritis pain more than other diets.
Reduce the chance of cancer.
Many analyses have shown a powerful link between diet and getting cancer. Based on these results, the Mediterranean diet is the best way to lower your cancer risk. These foods are full of vitamins and antioxidants that stop DNA damage, cell growth, inflammation, and the spread of cancer.
Boost your mental health.
Observational studies have shown that following the Mediterranean diet is linked to a lower risk of depression. It’s unclear why, but researchers are still examining how the Mediterranean diet affects mental health.
Conclusion
Even though the Mediterranean diet is good for your heart, it can also help prevent and treat other health problems. So, this is an eating pattern that nutritionists should talk to all clients about. It’s flexible, simple to follow, and tastes great, so it’s a method of eating that can help everyone get healthier.
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