Americans tend to like their fats in the saturated form, with all of their grains of the processed variety, their protein with legs of some kind and their sugar added anywhere their sweet tooth has a craving. As for fiber goes, they're more than happy to consume it - so long as it comes in a pill or in the form of french fries or similar.
If you talk to any nutritional expert around the world they will admit that the typical American diet scares them due to the fact that almost every single piece of food consumed is purely processed and contains almost no nutritional value. Instead, most experts recommend a whole food diet along the lines of the Mediterranean diet plan, which focuses on plant fibers and plant proteins along with whole grains and monounsaturated fats rather than saturated.
There have been thousands of studies done over the years which specifically relate to the Mediterranean diet and the food which the people of the Mediterranean region consume on a daily basis as part of their staple diet. The most commonly known aspect is the reduced mortality rates that relate to heart disease and cardiovascular issues, but the Mediterranean diet also has lower risks of cancer and other serious issues related to obesity.
Despite the fact that the Mediterranean diet is one of the most studied diet plans in existence, modern scientists still cannot explain all of the various synergistic components that make up the overall complexity of the diet plan. For example, is red meat consumption really more important than olive oil, and why is it that proteins from plants are so superior in comparison to others? Not to mention, what is it that makes probiotics so important on a molecular level?
At the end of the day one of the most important things to understand about the Mediterranean diet is that it is effective simply because it is. It is nature working at its finest, and it doesn't need a modern scientist to dictate or define how it works. Mother Nature is Mother Nature, and if the ancient gods and Olympians were able to use it to their advantage without an explanation, modern man should be able to do the same.
If you talk to any nutritional expert around the world they will admit that the typical American diet scares them due to the fact that almost every single piece of food consumed is purely processed and contains almost no nutritional value. Instead, most experts recommend a whole food diet along the lines of the Mediterranean diet plan, which focuses on plant fibers and plant proteins along with whole grains and monounsaturated fats rather than saturated.
There have been thousands of studies done over the years which specifically relate to the Mediterranean diet and the food which the people of the Mediterranean region consume on a daily basis as part of their staple diet. The most commonly known aspect is the reduced mortality rates that relate to heart disease and cardiovascular issues, but the Mediterranean diet also has lower risks of cancer and other serious issues related to obesity.
Despite the fact that the Mediterranean diet is one of the most studied diet plans in existence, modern scientists still cannot explain all of the various synergistic components that make up the overall complexity of the diet plan. For example, is red meat consumption really more important than olive oil, and why is it that proteins from plants are so superior in comparison to others? Not to mention, what is it that makes probiotics so important on a molecular level?
At the end of the day one of the most important things to understand about the Mediterranean diet is that it is effective simply because it is. It is nature working at its finest, and it doesn't need a modern scientist to dictate or define how it works. Mother Nature is Mother Nature, and if the ancient gods and Olympians were able to use it to their advantage without an explanation, modern man should be able to do the same.
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Organic whole foods is the only way to go if you want to live by the Mediterranean Diet.