Mediterranean Diet for Staying Young

In the last few years the Mediterranean region has been the focus of much study; not just for its connections with money and high fashion, but because researchers observed that the region has lesser incidents of heart and chronic diseases. More people there seem to maintain a healthy weight and have a longer lifespan. It’s a known fact that obesity is approaching epidemic proportions in the US now, with all its attendant problems and complications.

Perhaps the Mediterranean Diet" target="_self" title="staying young">Mediterranean Diet is what allows people from this region to stay young longer, maintain a healthy weight, a healthy heart and reduce the risk of cancer, hypertension, diabetes, hypercholesterolemia and obesity.

What is the Mediterranean Diet?

It is difficult to come up with an exacting definition of a Mediterranean Diet as the countries in the Mediterranean region consume a diverse set of foods, for example the Spanish consume a healthy amount of fish, olive oil and wine, while the traditional Greek diet consists of 60% fruit and vegetables, 20% meats, 10% carbohydrates and 10% fats.

Prime constituents Mediterranean diet predominantly consists of fibers such as grains, fruit, beans and vegetables. Fibers in pasta, rice, bread, bulgur (dried cracked wheat), polenta, potatoes and couscous, are natural fillers and so prevent a person from periodically reaching out for snacks. Researchers also feel that the liberal consumption of yogurt and garlic have beneficial effects.

The Mediterranean diet also involves limited consumption of red meat. This avoidance of high calorie foods clearly helps, not just with maintaining healthy weight but with weight loss as well. Some researchers argue that the large amount of fish, fruit and nuts consumed in the diet provide anti-oxidants that delay the appearance of wrinkles and helps as an anti-aging method.

Not a new-fangled technique. It is interesting to note that the ‘Mediterranean Diet’ is less a new-fangled technique to maintain healthy weight and more a result of health-conscious people re-looking at eating habits that have been followed in the Mediterranean region for thousands of years. Thus the Mediterranean Diet promotes a radically different perspective on ‘food’ and ‘consumption’ and is less of a ‘diet’ to be tried for a short duration of time, and more a way of life that one can choose to adopt permanently.

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