It’s that time again, the holidays have just ended and now it’s time to start thinking about those New Year’s resolutions. It seems like inevitability that those resolutions always involve losing an extra 20 pounds or so. There also seem to be about a million different fad diets that start to come out of the woodworks about this time every year. So, before you commit yourself to do something crazy like only eat grapefruit or only eat red meat, let’s talk about another fad diet that seems to be taking the weight loss world by storm over the last few months. The Mediterranean Diet was developed in 1993 by the Harvard School of Public Health; the diet consists of eating foods typical of a diet in Mediterranean countries such as France and Italy. The idea came to the scientists when they observed that those living in Mediterranean had less disease and longer life expectancy than any other region in the world, so they modernized the foods from that diet to American tastes to create another diet fad sensation. The diet consists of eating food s from mostly plant sources like potatoes, beans, and grains as your primary source of energy. It also involves replacing typical oils and fats from an American diet with olive oil to maximize the health benefits. Also, instead of eating beef, you focus on poultry and fish for your meats. The biggest key to success is to avoid processed foods by eating fresh foods, thereby getting rid of unneeded carbohydrates.
The question now has to be asked, does this diet actually work and is it worth changing my entire diet to follow this plan? The fact of the matter is that if you are the typical American, your diet is probably terrible at the current moment, there’s a reason that 35% of the country is obese. The obesity rates in Italy and France are under 10%, and so there could be some real health benefits for you. However there is no way to prove that you will actually lose weight on this diet. You will be eating healthier and so you’ll probably be healthier but if you continue to eat huge American sized portions then you are not going to lose weight. Another problem with this diet is that since you are using olive oil instead of traditional vegetable oil, you think that you are going to lose weight, but the truth is that olive oil is still fat, so be cautious, because there is no way to guarantee that you won’t respond to the olive oil the same way you would to vegetable oil. Olive oil, however, is a great antioxidant and doesn’t contain saturated fats like many American products so that is a benefit. All in all the diet should help you to avoid future health problems and might help you lose weight, however if you aren’t willing to put forth the effort to monitor your diet then this might not be the diet for you, especially if you are looking to lose weight fast.
Now you know, if your new year’s resolution is to feel more southern European or just more culturally diverse, you might want to give the Mediterranean diet a try, it might just help you achieve those goals pretty easily and maybe lose weight and get healthier in the process. So when considering your weight loss options for your new year’s resolution, now you know what you need to about the Mediterranean diet, one down, only hundreds of more fad diets to go!
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