Entries Tagged 'Current news' ↓

History of the Mediterranean Diet

April 5th, 2008 — Current news, Diet pyramid, Italian Cuisine, Med Diet Info, Nutrition facts, healthy diets

Ancient mediterranean foods
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+10 Eating tips to follow for an healthy living and weight maintenance

February 9th, 2008 — Current news, Health benefits, List of fad diets, Nutrition facts, Weight loss diet plans, healthy diets

9 Things to do while on a diet

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.
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.
Do not do too much exercise - Do not stress your body unless you are a professional athlete.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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“.
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

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

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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Foods have 50% less nutritious in respect to the past…5 tips to improve our health

February 2nd, 2008 — Current news, Foods Menu, Italian Cuisine, Nutrition facts

Nutrition and agro-food technologies experts denounce a reduction by more than 50% of the nutritional properties of foods so called “friends of health” caused by:

Loss of seasonality
Pollution
Agricultural policies of some countries

Have been accused especially fruit and vegetables and other “ingredients” of the Mediterranean diet. They are no longer those of the past.

The reasons?

The procedures for the production and storage of products that come from all parts of the world
The demand for products beyond their natural season
Pollution

So at equal calories intake, foods have far fewer vitamins, salts and fibers.

“Surely products have something better than what happened just 20 years ago but them have lost more than 50% in terms of nutritional principles” , confirms Dr. Andrea Strata, professor of clinical nutrition at the University of Parma, Italy.

Today, the industrial social model requires a variation of food proportions.

Here 5 simple rules to review and update the Mediterranean diet to adapt it to new needs and modern lifestyles:

The first rule: regular intake of carbohydrates on the basis of your actual physical activity and lifestyle.
The second rule: increase consumption of fruit and vegetables
The third rule: help your body through the integration of nutrients. Especially at certain times of the year, in winter take vitamins, as well as minerals during the hottest periods.
The fourth rule: choose, as far as possible, food where the use of pesticides has been minimal.
The fifth rule: be informed on the meal and food ingredients and preparation.

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And the real cause of coronaric heart diseases is…sugar!

January 26th, 2008 — Current news, Health benefits, Italian Cuisine, Nutrition facts, healthy diets

Sicilian red oranges
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

How to Live Longer And Feel Better

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

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How to help prevent allergies in children & babies during pregnancy

January 15th, 2008 — Current news, Health benefits

pregnant woman
Thanks to Mestreech

Pregnant women who eat a Mediterranean diet may be protecting their baby from eczema and allergies in childhood, new research suggests another benefit of this diet.

Consumption of vegetables more than eight times a week, fish more than three times a week, and beans or peas more than once a week seemed to be especially protective in preventing eczema and allergies.

A study by Greek doctors found that children of mothers who closely follow the oil and fish-rich diet while pregnant have a 45% lower risk of developing an allergic disease before the age of seven.

Based on this analysis, eating a high-quality Mediterranean diet during pregnancy was associated with an 88% reduction in persistent wheeze risk among offspring and a 45% reduction in allergic disease risk.

Their children also had a 45 per cent lower risk of allergic disease than women on a low quality diet.

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