Learn everything you need to know before embarking on a Mediterranean diet plan, including its history, recommendations and components, as well as the scientific evidence behind it
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The Mediterranean Diet is based on epidemiological evidence that people in Greece, Italy, and Spain who consume traditional diets for their culture have better health outcomes than the rest of the world.
Key features of this diet are a high intake of olive oil, legumes, fish, vegetables, whole-grain cereals, and moderate consumption of cheese and yogurt.
To quote the Mayo Clinic, “The Mediterranean diet emphasizes: Eating predominantly plant foods such as fruits and vegetables, whole grains, legumes and nuts. Replacing butter with healthful fat which includes olive oil and canola oil. Using herbs and spices in place of salt to taste foods.
By all accounts, the Mediterranean diet was originally motivated by medical research in an effort to reduce and prevent heart disease.
In addition, this diet, while it has weight loss and wellness properties, has not become the primary dietary choice for much of the health and fitness industry.
Despite this, many people who follow other diets borrow many of the basic principles of the Mediterranean diet into their diets.
History of the Mediterranean Diet:
The Mediterranean diet is one of the most well-documented diets in recent history, and much is known about its history. The original pyramid of the Mediterranean diet was created from the most up-to-date nutritional research to present a healthy traditional Mediterranean diet.
It become primarily based totally at the nutritional traditions of Crete, Greece, and southern Italy round 1960, while the fee of continual ailment among the lowest in the world and adult life expectancy was among the highest, despite limited medical services.1
Then in 1993, the Harvard School of Public Health, the World Health Organization, and Old Ways Dietetic Organization presented the classic Mediterranean diet along with a chart of the Mediterranean diet pyramid to visualize it.1
The Mediterranean weight loss program pyramid became up to date in 2008. In this update, herbs and spices were included, and shellfish (and other fish) were placed higher in the food pyramid.
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An overview of the components and basic principles of the Mediterranean diet:
The Mediterranean diet is based on adopting the eating patterns of traditional Mediterranean culture. The diet emphasizes the consumption of predominantly plant foods such as fruits, vegetables, nuts, legumes, and whole grains.
It also recommends replacing butter and animal fats with olive oil and using herbs and spices to flavor foods instead of salt. Red meat should be eaten only a few times a month, and fish and poultry should make up the bulk of the protein intake. Red wine in moderation is an optional element of this diet.
Meal times/frequencies:
The Mediterranean diet has no clear requirements for the number of meals per day, nor for meal times. The principle of the diet can be integrated into any meal time or frequency schedule.
Restrictions/limitations:
The Mediterranean diet does not have strict restrictions or bans, but it does set relatively clear guidelines for what to eat. Limiting certain foods, such as red meat and butter, is a requirement of the diet, but eliminating them completely is not required.
Does it include phases:
The Mediterranean diet, as described in the scientific literature, does not include any phases.
Who is it best for:
The Mediterranean diet is best for people who do not want to complicate their diet, as it is a relatively easy to follow, straightforward diet without severe dietary restrictions.
This diet may also be suitable for people who do not want to strictly track the amount of food they eat and rely more on the quality of foods than on strict adherence to calories and macronutrients.
In addition, because there is significant evidence that the Mediterranean diet is a lifestyle intervention that promotes fat loss and improved cardiovascular health, people with higher health priorities can follow this diet to reduce their risk of chronic disease.
How easy is it to follow:
The Mediterranean diet is relatively easy to follow because it does not set strict calorie and macronutrient requirements, nor does it exclude foods from the diet. Rather, it is a dietary system in which people consume certain types of foods most of the time.
This approach is likely to lead to greater adherence than stricter approaches; however, this flexibility may be difficult for people who prefer stricter, black-and-white guidelines.
Scientific Research and Interpretation of Data:
The Mediterranean diet is the most well-studied of all dietary interventions to date. In fact, there are nearly 4,500 references in the U.S. National Library of Medicine and the National Institutes of Health.
It would be impractical to review every study, but we will highlight a few areas in which the Mediterranean diet has shown significant benefits.
Benefits for fat loss:
1-A large clinical study published in the New England Journal of Medicine showed that the Mediterranean diet helped participants lose weight (about 9 pounds), had high adherence (~85% after 2 years), and improved glucose sensitivity .
2-In a systematic review of 5 randomized controlled trials, the Mediterranean diet resulted in greater weight loss (~8 to 22 pounds lost) than the low-fat diet (~6 pounds gain to 10 pounds loss) after ≥12 months .
Another study using a slightly modified version of the Mediterranean diet showed an average weight loss of about 10 pounds after 12 weeks of following the dietary protocol in overweight people 4.
Benefits for building muscle mass:
In the field of sports science, there have not yet been rigorous, intervention-based studies of the effects of the Mediterranean diet on muscle building. However, there is some evidence to suggest that it may have some benefits.
For example, one study found that in a Northern European population, there was a positive correlation between women who ate a diet reflective of the Mediterranean diet and free fat mass and leg strength.5
Overall health benefits:
The best-known study of the Mediterranean diet, known as the PREDIMED study, showed that among individuals at high cardiovascular risk, a Mediterranean diet supplemented with extra virgin olive oil or nuts reduced the incidence of major cardiovascular events by about 30%6.
Further analysis of this study showed that the Mediterranean diet may be able to reverse metabolic syndrome and that a “free-range” Mediterranean diet may be useful in reducing the risk of central obesity and hyperglycemia in people at high risk for cardiovascular disease7.
Conclusion:
The Mediterranean diet is based on epidemiological evidence that people in Greece, Italy, and Spain who consume traditional diets for their culture have better health outcomes than the rest of the world.
The basic principles of this diet are: eating mostly plant foods such as fruits and vegetables, whole grains, legumes, and nuts; replacing butter with healthy fats such as olive oil and canola oil; and using herbs and spices instead of salt to flavor food.
For all its intensity, the Mediterranean diet was originally motivated by medical research in an effort to reduce and prevent cardiovascular disease and has been documented to help with weight loss and reduce the risk of chronic diseases such as heart disease and metabolic syndrome.
In addition, the relatively flexible nature of this diet makes it relatively easy to follow and implement as a long-term nutrition strategy.
