The Mediterranean Diet and Weight Loss Part 2

The diet is not complex at all, is fairly affordable, nutritious and varied. The basics of the diet include the following:

- Eat fruit with every meal. The type of fruit is not
important
- Have a variety of green vegetables in the daily diet
- Eat lots of whole cereal grains like flaxseed
- Limit red meat in the diet
- Avoid processed foods
- Use olive oil in all cooking. Do not use butter or
margarine
- Limit the total daily content of fat to < 20% of the
daily diet
- When cooking, select low fat products
- Cook all foods in olive oil
- While fish is recommended, do not indulge in too
many eggs and bacon
- Drink a glass of red wine on a daily basis

So this is it. There is no magic bullet in the Mediterranean diet except a lot of common sense. The Mediterranean diet is all about eating in moderation, cutting down on fats, meat and eating lots of veggies. So does this diet help one lose weight? Absolutely not. There is not one ingredient in the Mediterranean diet that has anything special. We have the same foods all over America but unfortunately, we prefer pizza and super sized burgers. One only has to visit countries around the Mediterranean and obesity is rampant.

The Mediterranean diet has been exported to the USA by immigrants and widely consumed in the homes of many Italians, Greeks and so on. Moreover, these folks appear to be putting on weight just like the rest of us.

The diet has nothing to do with losing weight. If you eat more and do not exercise, you will get fat even on the Mediterranean diet. So in the end, it all comes down to eating less, walking more and avoiding Baskin Robbins and Cadbury Chocolates.