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.

Though this diet was developed in the 1940s by an American doctor, Americans didn’t start paying attention to it until well into the 1990s. Better late than never. There are key differences between the traditional American diet and the Mediterranean diet that are worth noting.

The Mediterranean Diet food pyramid is very different from the US Food Pyramid. In the first place, you won’t find a lot of red meat in a Mediterranean Diet. Although they use red meat in their meals, it’s in very small portions, and not often. Fish also takes up a large portion of the Mediterranean Diet food pyramid, whereas the US Food Pyramid groups all types of meat together into one category.

In Mediterranean fare, whole grain foods make up the main staple. That includes rice, bread, couscous, potatoes, and similar foods. Nuts and beans are another important part of the Mediterranean diet. So are fruits and vegetables in particular. This is something both food pyramids share in common, though the recommended quantities are fairly different.

The traditional US food pyramid groups all the forms of protein into one category, which makes it hard to see what specific role each type of food ought to play in your diet. The Mediterranean Diet food pyramid keeps them separate.

This Mediterranean way of thinking and eating has finally been getting attention, because people have discovered that those who follow this diet experience incredibly low rates of diseases and cancer.

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. The same goes for olive oil, which is used in Mediterranean cooking and is also known to have some antioxidant properties. If you want to look better and feel better too, it’s worth looking into the Mediterranean Diet food pyramid. It can show you how to live a healthier life.

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

Originally posted 2008-01-27 07:01:18.

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