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The Mediterranean Diet is a diet that promotes the healthy way of eating of a region that is known for its longevity. Though this is known as a diet, unlike all other diets, this is promoted as a way of living rather than something to adopt for a short term. It promotes eating smaller, healthy meals and learning the role food plays in your life.
There are some primary goals or rules for a Mediterranean diet. All your protein is plant-based protein. You need to substitute all fat in your diet with olive oil.
There is a Mediterranean diet food pyramid you can use as a visual reference. The bottom of the pyramid is whole grains and starches which include couscous, bulgur and potatoes. The top of pyramid has animal protein and sweets, both of which should be eaten in smaller quantities. In between these two extreme choices lie all the vegetables and fruits, beans, legumes, cheese, olive oil, eggs and poultry.
Familiarization with the Mediterranean food pyramid is very important. This pyramid apportions plant-based proteins, dairy, fruits and vegetables and therefore helps making menus. Once you learn to substitute plant-based proteins with animal proteins, you will realize that with proteins, you are also getting lots of vitamins and minerals. Plant-based proteins are sourced from nuts and seeds. Getting familiar with the Mediterranean diet food list is also very important so it becomes easy to make substitutions when you do not find any one particular item.
In a Mediterranean diet plan, the recipes are easy to make. First step while planning the menus or looking for recipes is looking for foods that are low in fat or recipes where you can substitute the fats with healthy monounsaturated ones like olive oil or sesame oil. You cannot go overboard with this substitution either. As fats are high in calories, you can only use a little. This diet even emphasizes the use of herbs and spices instead of salt and insistence of fish and poultry in animal-based protein at least twice a week. It is also one of the few diets that allows up to two glasses of red wine in a week and insists on exercise every day. Nuts are a big part of this diet though nuts are high in fat. Usually a handful of nuts are advocated in a week and definitely not the candied or honey roasted nuts.
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