Traditional Mediterranean Diet For Weight Loss

How effective is mediterranean diet weight loss program?  Which foods as a part of the program work well for weight reduction?

The Mediterranean diet is basically a balanced and nutritious diet that gives more importance to fresh and healthy foods like fruits, vegetables, whole grain, seafood, nuts and seeds, pulses, olive oil, and yogurt. This is a diet followed typically by the people of countries like France, Spain, Italy and other Mediterranean countries. This kind of diet emphasizes seasonal and locally grown food and restricts the consumption of processed food. The Mediterranean diet can be a weight watcher’s solution to weight loss as it works effectively in all aspects – shedding pounds, providing nutrition, as well as keeping your taste buds satisfied. This diet focuses on consuming small portions of high-quality food and includes healthy fats like olive oil and nuts, along with whole grain foods that are great sources of nutrients. Such a diet also makes you feel full for a longer period of time, so you don’t tend to overeat or crave unhealthy food.

Unlike a normal diet, the Mediterranean diet doesn’t forbid consumption of fats altogether but rather chooses the fats judiciously. The dieters prefer foods with monounsaturated fats (olive oil, nuts, and avocados), polyunsaturated omega-3 fatty acids (fatty fish like sardines, salmon, tuna, and trout), and fat from plants (flaxseed). Trans fats are almost eliminated from the Mediterranean diet, thus reducing the dieters’ chances of heart diseases and strokes. An integral part of Mediterranean diet is olive oil, which is used in practically everything – vegetables, salads, pastas, breads, fish, cakes and pastries. In the Mediterranean diet, olive oil replaces almost everything greasy and oily including butter.

Mediterranean Diet For Effective Weight Loss

Another reason why the Mediterranean diet is good for weight loss is that it is high on veggies (broccoli, tomatoes, peppers, spinach, lentils, mushrooms, white beans, eggplant, and chickpeas) and low on animal products, except for lots of fish, which is a much healthier food than red meat.

Finally, the Mediterranean diet, if followed strictly, doesn’t let you binge on pastries or high calorie desserts, but uses lots of fresh fruit instead. It uses the fruit’s natural sweetness and provides you taste along with fiber and nutrients. As dessert, the dieters consume apples, oranges and grapes, and end up avoiding the unnecessary chemicals, sugar, calories and unhealthy fats found in processed desserts. Since the diet is so rich in fiber and other nutrients it also ensures a good metabolic rate, which translates into more calories burnt at a faster rate.