Thanks to Flixflickr

While fad diets and cosmetic surgery continue to offer patchwork (and often dangerous) solutions to the growing problem of the overweight and obese Western population many are finding that an adherence to the traditional and historic Mediterranean diet presents one of the most simple, effective alternatives and solutions.

To examine the typical Mediterranean diet it is important to trace back those civilizations and societies that played a role in contributing to its make-up and by doing this we can best look at the most prevalent foods in the ancient Roman, Greek, Egyptian and Arab cultures and time.
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9 Things to do while on a diet

1. Do not start doing the “Fad” diet of the moment - The risk is to not having the desired effects. Choose a fairly healthy diet and suitable to your food habits.
2. Do not believe to miracles - Don’t expect that your food change will transform your body in a few weeks or a few days. You can consider this period as a time when you can take care of yourself and your health.
3. Do not do too much exercise - Do not stress your body unless you are a professional athlete.
4. Do not skip meals - Some people think that dieting means skipping meals and thus lose weight by eating less calories possible. But this way of thinking is wrong, you are not on a diet to lose weight, but to gain a new way of eating, healthy and balanced.
5. Do not look at the balance every day - Don’t do it because it is almost impossible that your body loses weight every day, and you might find disappointing results and discouraged even before you begin.
6. Do not be influenced by humor - The outcome of the diet follows that of your emotions. You could fall in the “sadness trap” followed by a piece of cake only with the aim to make you feel better.
7. Do not reduce too much the number of calories - Reducing too drastically the amount of food is absolutely wrong because forces the body, which is suddenly lacking, to accumulate as many calories as possible.
8. Do not hesitate to ask for advice - Often when you want to lose weight you can receive wrong advices by “so called” experts committing serious errors for our health, so the advice is to seek “trusted advice“.
9. Do not be hyper critical with yourself - To better understand your eating habits try to write down a “Weight loss journal” about what you eat during the day, so it’s easier to analyze the results and make any changes to the program.

10 Healthy habits from the Mediterranean

1. Eat legumes
2. Eat lots of dark green leafy vegetables like spinach, rocket, endive, chicory and amaranth
3. Eat a range of coloured vegetables including tomatoes and capsicum
4. Use extra virgin olive oil
5. Include some fermented foods like yoghurt or feta cheese
6. Slow cook meats with vegetables, including tomato, garlic, onion and olive oil.
7. Eat fish and seafood
8. Be generous with herbs like oregano, rosemary, dill and mint
9. Snack on nuts and seeds like pumpkin seeds, roasted chickpeas, almonds, walnuts, as well as dried and fresh fruit.
10. Use vinegar as a flavouring for other dishes.

Read more:

• Ten healthy habits from the Mediterranean (eating frozen pizza doesn’t count), Theage.com.au
• Ten things to do while on a diet, Blog Dietetico

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Thanks to 79704578@N00

According to an European research group, the consumption of olive oil rich in polyphenols (natural antioxidants) improves the lives of people suffering from oxidative stress, and is also highly beneficial for the prevention of cell aging and osteoporosis.

According to Professors Alberto Fernández and Antonio Segura:

“As preventive substances, polyphenols help to combat any oxidative disease associated with the degenerative process.”

Read more from Sciencedaily

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Thanks to Cranrob

Last day I was reading some articles on Sicilian red oranges and I’ve found a very useful article about the effects of sugars consumption and the risk of coronary heart diseases.

The study was conduced by Dr. Linus Pauling, a famous Nobel prize winner, that says:

The coronary disease, including angina pectoris seem to be typical of modern times. Their increasing impact goes hand in hand with the increased consumption of sugar. It’s not correlated with the consumption of animal fats (saturated fat) or fat in general.

From Wikipedia: “It is common to equate severity of angina with risk of fatal cardiac events.”

The citation continues with the explanation of the sugar (Sucrose) metabolism:

The sucrose metabolism in first place produces equal amounts of glucose and fructose.

Glucose enters directly into metabolic processes that provide energy to cells of the body.

The metabolism of fructose proceeds in part to a different direction as a precursor of cholesterol that we synthesize in the liver.

From a study of Dr. Milton Winitz

The ingestion of sucrose leads to an increase in the concentration of cholesterol in the blood.

The Dr. Pauling solution is the Vitamin C

He was very interested in the possible role of vitamin C in preventing atherosclerosis and published three case reports on the use of lysine and vitamin C to relieve angina pectoris.

You can find more of his works in the Linus Pauling Institute and read:

“Higher Plasma Vitamin C Concentration Predicts Lower Risk of Stroke”

In Summary:

1) Avoid foods high in Sucrose:

• Biscuits
• Cookies
• Cakes
• Pies
• Candy canes
• Ice cream
• Sorbets
• Sucrose-containing drinks

2) Choose fructose or corn syrup to sweet foods or drinks

3) Increase the consumption of foods high in Vitamin C

• Broccoli
• Tomato
• Red peppers
• Potatoes
• Oranges and Lemons
• Melons
• Spinachs
• Cauliflower
• Grapefruit
• Raspberry
• Strawberry
• Carrot
• Peach
• Apple

Read More:

You can read the book of Dr. Pauling: “How to Live Longer And Feel Better“

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After reading some forums on weight loss I’ve decided to write a guide to live healthy.

People don’t want to stay healthy…they want only lose weight to appear nice to the others!

So…if you search for quick ways to lose weight…then skip this website.

If you want a lifetime guide to live healthy the read this guide that will help you learning:

• How to eat during the day
• What foods to eat
• How to calculate calories intake needs
• How to calculate calories burned during exercise

The guide is formed by 5 simple rules to live and eat healthy:

1. Evaluate the best combinations of foods
2. Eat as much as possible raw foods
3. Eat little but numerous daily meals
4. Choose to eat the healthy Mediterranean foods
5. Follow the general rules to lose weight

Read the complete guide here

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Monks do it better…

It’s not a joke, last day the independent published a new on how the Monks who live on Mount Athos (Greece) shown to cut their cancer risk.

A research demonstrates that only a tiny number of brothers have suffered from the disease in the past decade.

There are several reasons why this can be explained:

• Stress-free existence
• Away from world
• Eating the old-fashioned way

The main factor in their low uptake of cancers is their diet.

They eat fruit, vegetables, pasta, rice, soya and bread…the typical cancer prevention diet.

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Everybody of us know that the Mediterranean diet help sin preventing Alzheimer disease. Now we know that this diet help also to prevent the main causes of dementia.

In fact people who eat:

• Fish at least once a week have a 40% lower risk of dementia
• Fruit and vegetables once a day reduced the risk by 35%

A diet rich in oily fish and vegetables can reduce the chances of dementia because both contain anti-oxidants, which could protect the brain from damage.

The Alzheimer’s Society said that most people could cut their risk by eating a healthy diet.

More…

• How the Mediterranean diet leads to longer life for elderly people
• Top 10 meal ideas for Mediterranean diet to live longer - How you should eat to arrive at 100 years
• How the traditional healthy Mediterranean diet pyramid help a 90 years old man to climb a 3.000 meters Mountain

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If you were a caveman you could lower diabetes risks…but You live in a City and eat like a Mediterranean I’ve wrote some times ago, there are a lot of similarities with the Paleo diet and the Mediterranean diet.

They have the basis to eat:

• Fruits
• Vegetables
• Nuts
• Little meats
• Fish

A research proved that the simple diet of the caveman is the “best choice to control diabetes 2”.

The study was conduced on 2 groups of participants who followed the Paleo diet and the Med diet for 3 months had these results. The Med diet group had a much higher intake of grains and dairy products.

The blood sugar rise in response to carbohydrate intake was markedly lower after 12 weeks in the Paleolithic group (–26%), while it barely changed in the-Mediterranean group (–7%).  At the end of the study, all patients in the Paleolithic group had normal blood glucose.

Substances in grains and dairy products have been shown to interfere with the metabolism of carbohydrates and fat in various studies.

Ok Maybe the paleo diet is more indicated for people with Diabetes 2 but…could you eat lean meat, sushi everyday and drink crude milk?

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Red wine is good for your heart

After realizing my first food chart, I’ve decided to write something more about the most important foods of the Mediterranean diet and their effects on health.

Wine is one of the main foods of the Mediterranean diet. Everybody know its effects and benefits on health.

Today I’ve read an interesting news about the healthy effects of red wine reducing heart diseases.

After a little explanation of why red wine helps your heart, you can read a list of resources about preventing heart diseases with examples of recipes, meals and links to find out more info.

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