How Is The Mediterranean Diet Food Pyramid Different?

What is the Mediterranean Diet? It’s a nutritional model that was patterned after the way people eat in countries such as Italy and Greece. People started paying attention to it after it became well publicized that people living in that part of the world have a much fewer occurrences of cancer and other diseases.

First developed by an American doctor in the 40s, this way of eating has just only recently become noticed by Americans in the late 1990s. At least it’s finally well-known. There are a fair amount of differences between the average American diet and the Mediterranean diet that are worth reviewing.

It begins with the food pyramids. The US version is very different from the Mediterranean Diet food pyramid. First off, the Mediterranean Diet contains very little red meat. They do use red meat in their recipes, but not frequently, and in little portions. Taking up a big portion of the Mediterranean Diet food pyramid is fish. The US Food pyramid, on the other hand, groups all the different meats into one category.

In Mediterranean fare, whole grain foods make up the main staple. That includes rice, bread, couscous, potatoes, and similar foods. Another important part of the Mediterranean diet are fruits and vegetables. So are beans and nuts. That is one thing the two different food pyramids have in common. However, the recommended quantities are a bit different.

While the Mediterranean Diet food pyramid has these separate from one another, the traditional US food pyramid has all of the forms of protein lumped together in one, making it difficult to see what specific parts each type of food should play in one’s diet.

People in the Mediterranean areas have been discovered to have astonishingly low rates of cancer and diseases. This is why people are finally paying attention to this different way of thinking.

Red wine has been known to have some powerful antioxidants and the Mediterranean Diet includes a lot of red wine, in just about every meal and as often as possible. Mediterranean cooking also uses a lot of olive oil, which is like red wine in that it, too, has its own antioxidant properties. If you want to live a healthy life, check out the Mediterranean Diet food pyramid. It will help you not only look better, but you’ll feel better too.

Get a Mediterranean body! Visit Mediterranean Diet Recipes.net for all the Mediterranean Diet resources, recipes and diet advice you will ever need.

– Candace Right