Mediterranean Diet Food Pyramid

Mediterranean Diet Food Pyramid

How to Lose Weight With The Greek Mediterranean Diet

1. Subdivide your daily food intake into 4-5 sitting. This division helps you digest foods more efficiently and better utilize the main nutrients present in your food.

2. Eat proper amounts of pasta. This is a product capable of acting as the main ingredient of meals.

3. Accompany foods with bread. Try to choose multi-grain bread or traditional Italian bread or rolls and avoid as much as you can speciality breads, that are often prepared with the addition of oil or butter.

4. Include “all-in-one-meals” like pasta with vegetables or legumes in your daily routines. They are typical of Italian cuisine and provide you with the same nutrients as a three-course meal while being also lower in calories.

5. Use olive oil as your preferred fat. It's an extremely digestible fat capable of assisting in the digestion of other fats. Recent studies also suggest that olive oil is the key to the health benefits of the Mediterranean diet, due to its content of phenols, a family of weak acidic that repress genes which cause inflammation, so decreasing the risk of heart disease and arthritis.

6. Eat alternative meats such as chicken, rabbit, pork, turkey. They carry similar nutritional values to red meats, but are less fatty by nature.

7. Eat plenty of fish, with special attention to blue fish like sardines and anchovies. They have elevated nutritional value and low fat composition.

8. Limit the use of salt, replacing it with traditional Mediterranean herbs and spices to increase the flavor of foods.

9. Eat plenty of vegetables and fruits, which guarantee the proper consumption of fiber, minerals and vitamins (especially carotene, vitamin C, Vitamin B6 and folate).

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Chitika

SpiderMetrix

Wednesday 31 August 2011

Mediterranean diet linked to lower risk of type 2 diabetes mellitus


A new study by Imperial College London researchers suggests that following a Mediterranean diet may help reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes mellitus.
The study published in the July 25, 2011 issue of Diabetes Care found high adherence to a Mediterranean diet was associated with 12 percent reduced risk of diabetes Mellitus, compared with those who least adhered to the Diet.The association was based on data from a study population of 340,000 participants in the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition study. Of the participants, 11,994 incidence type 2 diabetes mellitus were identified.



The study also found medium adherence to the Mediterranean diet was correlated with a 7 percent reduction in the risk of type 2 diabetes mellitus compared with the low adherence.
However, the association was not significant among those aged younger than 50 years of age and obese participants.Type 2 diabetes mellitus is a condition in which a person can produce insulin but can't efficiently use it to deal with blood sugar.  The condition can lead to severe complications if not adequately controlled.  An estimated 20 million Americans live with type 2 diabetes mellitus.   There is no cure for the disease, but it can be controlled using diabetes drugs.

Saturday 13 August 2011

Mediterranean Diet May Prevent Metabolic Syndrome


Adherence to the Mediterranean diet may prevent metabolic syndrome, according to a new study.
The Mediterranean diet is based on the healthy eating habits and lifestyle of the southern Italian and Greek populations in the early 1960s. The diet is rich in fiber and nutrients, emphasizing fruits, vegetables, olive oil, fish, nuts and limited red meat.
In a new study, researchers conducted a comprehensive literature search for studies assessing the Mediterranean diet and its potential effects on metabolic syndrome. Metabolic syndrome is defined by a group of simultaneous conditions, including high blood pressure, high insulin levels, excess fat around the waist and high cholesterol. Fifty studies evaluating a total of 534,906 individuals were identified for inclusion.


The researchers found that adherence to a Mediterranean diet reduced the risk for metabolic syndrome. Furthermore, clinical studies indentified a reduced risk for the individual conditions involved in metabolic syndrome, including high blood pressure and high cholesterol.
The authors concluded that adherence to a Mediterranean diet may reduce the risk of metabolic syndrome and its associated individual conditions. Additional research is necessary to further evaluate these findings.

Thursday 4 August 2011

Mediterranean Diet can help People live longer

Here is a little secret on how one can live a longer and healthy life,The Mediterranean Diet can increase a woman's lifespan by as much as 15 years and increase a man's life by 8 years,according to a new study.
Researchers at Maastricht University tracked 120,000 men and women between the ages of 55 and 69. Each person was given a score in 1986 based upon his/her adherence to four key factors that have been shown to affect mortality: smoking, physical activity, body weight, and dietary habits.

What happened? Men who avoided smoking, exercised at least 30 minutes a day, avoided obesity, and stuck to the heart-healthy Mediterranean Diet lived about 8.5 years longer, on average, than men who didn't do any of those things, according to a written statement released by the university. 
Healthy living had an even bigger effect on women's lifespans. On average, those who met all four criteria lived 15 years longer than women who met none.
Fifteen years? Eight-and-a-half years? Those are huge numbers, especially given that life expectancy in the U.S. - where healthy living isn't exactly the norm - now stands at 77.9 years.
“I was surprised that the effect was so big. I was also surprised at the big difference between men and women”, said lead researcher Piet van den Brandt. He also went on to say  he wasn't sure why healthy living women would live so much longer than their male counterparts. One possibility, he said, was that hormonal differences explained the difference. 
so there you go people,start following The Mediterranean Diet if you want a long healthy lifestyle with your family.