Diet Plan - Mediterranean Diet
Facts About the Mediterranean Diet
Posted Wednesday, October 25, 2006
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If you have heard about the Mediterranean diet but is not really familiar to how it works, here's some helpful information from the American Heart.org, the official website of the American Heart Association.
To tell you, there is not one standard Mediterranean diet. "Mediterranean" diet, as the name suggests comes from at least 16 countries that border the Mediterranean Sea. The diets between these countries are many and various - their differences are characterized by each country's own culture, ethnic background, religion, economy and agricultural production.
However, the common Mediterranean dietary pattern possess five characteristics. First, it has high consumption of fruits, vegetables, bread and other cereals, potatoes, beans, nuts and seeds. These foods are flavorized with the delicious olive oil, a monounsaturated fat source. Other fat sources are taken in low to moderate amounts like dairy products, fish and poultry (eggs are consumed zero to four times a week) and little red meat. Some wine is consumed in low to moderate amounts.
Now that we know how the diet works, you may be wondering if a Mediterranean-style diet follow the American Heart Association dietary guidelines. Mediterranean-style diets are often close to our dietary guidelines, but they don't follow them exactly. In general, the diets of Mediterranean peoples contain a relatively high percentage of calories from fat. This is thought to contribute to the increasing obesity in these countries, which is becoming a concern.
People who follow the average Mediterranean diet eat less saturated fat than those who eat the average American diet. In fact, saturated fat consumption is well within our dietary guidelines.
More than half the fat calories in a Mediterranean diet come from monounsaturated fats (mainly from olive oil). Monounsaturated fat doesn't raise blood cholesterol levels the way saturated fat does.
The incidence of heart disease in Mediterranean countries is lower than in the United States. Death rates are lower, too. But this may not be entirely due to the diet. Lifestyle factors (such as more physical activity and extended social support systems) may also play a part.
Before advising people to follow a Mediterranean diet, we need more studies to find out whether the diet itself or other lifestyle factors account for the lower deaths from heart disease.
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