How to Start a Mediterranean Diet in 5 Steps

How To Start the Mediterranean Diet In 5 Steps

April 7, 2020

The Mediterranean diet has been studied for over 60-70 years now. Starting with the Seven Countries study and continuing from there with several large observational studies, research repeatedly has shown that compliance to the Mediterranean diet appears to lower the risk of cardiovascular disease and other chronic conditions.

1. Switch to olive oil and do not skimp on it.

Trying to follow a Mediterranean diet using very little olive oil defeats the purpose. Olive oil is the basis of the diet and many of the benefits appear to come from the good monounsaturated fats but also the polyphenols in the olive oil.

However to get the benefits, you must replace other fats with olive oil, making it your type of fat in the diet. In addition olive oil is what helps with such a high consumption of vegetables.

Greeks consume many vegetables and one of reasons for this is because they cook them with olive oil which makes it easier to eat large amounts

2. Eat vegetables as a main course

The high consumption of vegetables is a main characteristic of the Mediterranean diet. Greeks consume almost a pound of vegetables a day.

In order for this to be accomplished vegetables such as green beans, peas, eggplant, artichoke, and okra are cooked in olive oil, tomato and herbs and accompanied with bread and feta cheese.

A dish of these vegetables can provide 3 servings of vegetables.

3. Learn how to cook a few basic Mediterranean meals

The Mediterranean diet is about real food. That does not mean one has to cook from scratch everyday but learning 2-3 basic dishes will greatly improve your diet.

4. Go vegan one or two days a week

When we look at the traditional Greek diet, the Greeks abstained from animal products about 200 days a year for religious reasons. This most likely played an important role in the health benefits that were seen in that population.

5. Stop adding meat to everything

I often see in recommendations for healthy eating plenty of vegetable dishes but also quite a bit of meat. We do not need that much meat (even if it is lean), and studies have shown that reducing meat is correlated with better health.

Try the following guidelines: red meat once a week, chicken once a week and fish once a week.

Want to know more about how the Mediterranean Diet can help you?

click here to find out more >>