The Mediterranean Diet

The Mediterranean diet has become a hallmark for people wanting to eat healthy and have fun doing it. Through culture and tradition, people in countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea have developed a diet that encompasses what health experts have been telling us for years: eat a variety of foods that are low in saturated fat, eat lots of breads,  cereals, vegetables, fruits, and limit dairy products and red meat. This isn't a diet formulated by corporate marketers or even nutrition specialists. In fact, nutrition scientists study the Mediterranean diet to learn from it.

One nutritionist, Ansel Keys, was involved with the development of "K rations" for the American military. In the 1970's, Keys started a study that determined that what is now termed The Mediterranean Diet decreases heart-disease related deaths and complications. The Mediterranean diet is simply healthier for the heart.

The most common thought for someone going on a diet is that it is a difficult and boring thing. The word, diet, brings of feelings that one needs to eat from a bland, uninteresting menu. The Mediterranean diet menu is full of delicious choices such as Spaghetti Bolognese: a dish from Bologna that has a texture that will be new to those used to a hamburger-based spaghetti dish. Or try a Fagioli Pasta Salad, with pasta, vegetables, and beans.

A key element of the Mediterranean diet is its variety. Unlike the common ground-beef casserole from a box, a Mediterranean diet meal will include many different foods, and each day brings new choices. In fact, there is a Mediterranean Diet Pyramid that has been designed similar to the USDA diet Pyramid seen on cereal boxes and in nutrition books. A unique feature of the Mediterranean Diet Pyramid is that is refers to some foods in number of servings per week instead of per day. Using a pyramid to plan meals might not seem appealing, but it can really help in moving a family to a Mediterranean diet.

Another element of the Mediterranean diet is the higher volume of breads, cereals, vegetables and fruits. This doesn't mean eating dinners of nothing but bread or only fruit. To truly eat a Mediterranean diet and enjoy its benefits, a paradigm shift is needed. A family in Italy, for example, will have its biggest meal during the middle of the day rather than at night. They will spend more time eating and eat more slowly than is common in the United States.

The meal begins with a pasta dish. Every meal begins with a pasta dish. If you go to a grocery store in Italy, you will see an aisle of pasta choices to rival the breakfast cereal aisle in an American grocery store. Italian pasta companies like Barilla offer many choices to bring variety to this daily part of a meal. There are many ways to prepare pasta. A family might have Pasta Carbonara one day and a Pasta Penne recipe the next, followed by Orzo Pasta the third day. As you experience this way of  eating, you will never find it boring because of the variety in a true Mediterranean diet.

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