The Pros and Cons of the Mediterranean Diet

Mediterranean Diet

You’ve heard the phrase, “Eat like the French,” but you’ve hardly heard someone say, “Eat Mediterranean.” But there must be something in the lifestyle of the people residing near the Mediterranean sea. These folks live longer and are not as prone to cardiovascular ailments as the rest of the world. Their secret? Aside from an active lifestyle, they eat very little red meat, barely have sugar and saturated fats, and they love to consume their own crops, nuts, and other produce.

The Mediterranean Diet Pyramid

Mediterranean Diet Pyramid

The Mediterranean diet revolves around eating a lot, and we really mean a lot, of vegetables (peas, beans, legumes), fruits and whole grains. Olive oil, the mono-unsaturated type, or grapeseed oil is used to replace any other oils or butter. Olives are also a staple of this diet and can be used whenever you prefer.

If you love red meat then you might need to have discipline when taking on this diet because you need to severely cut back on your red meat consumption as this is only allowed twice or thrice a month. If Rachel Ray, the infamous chef, and Brooke Burke of Dancing with the Stars can do it, so can you. Fish and poultry are recommended to take the place of red meat and should be eaten a couple of times in a week.

Arrivederci, dolci!

Say goodbye to all those sweets and candies for the Mediterranean diet will only allow you to eat those on very limited special occasions. Like, once a month.

Red wine is fine

You’d be surprised that the Mediterranean diet allows red wine daily. We’ve talked about the other fad diets in the past few weeks and almost all of these diets doesn’t allow alcohol. You’d be surprised that the Mediterranean diet allows at most three glasses of red wine for males and at most two for females, daily.  Europeans love their wine and we can’t blame them, we already know the benefits of drinking red wine. [Benefits of Drinking Red Wine]

Takes care of your Heart

Nutritionists love the Mediterranean diet because of the unlimited intake of vegetables and whole grains and the removal of red meat, dairy products, and sweets. Minimal carbs and dairy in addition to the healthy greens and white meat will help you lose weight. And not only will it help you lose weight, it also promotes a great cardiovascular makeup because it lowers the bad cholesterol and the blood pressure. This might also be because the Mediterranean diet doesn’t allow the use of table salt or any additional salt for that matter.

Price is the limit

Unlike other diets, you might have to spend more for this because of the consistent use of olive oil (which can be expensive) and even whole grain products are generally more expensive than their non-whole grain counterparts. Unless you have a backyard garden, fresh produce is also generally expensive. Even having red wine every night might cut you back a good $30 a week.

 

There are a lot of fans of the Mediterranean diet. Here are the experts talking about the health benefits of it:

Do you think you can, “Eat Mediterranean?” 🙂

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