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The Mediterranean Diet
Arthritis And DietArthritis And Diet Arthritis can be helped by paying attention to your diet. Today lets take a look at minerals and the role they ..... The Mediterranean Diet is now recognized as one of the
healthiest in the world consisting as it does of large amounts
of fresh fruit and vegetables, salads,nuts,seeds, omega-3 rich
oily fish, olives and olive oil and being comparitively low in
dairy products and red meats.
The people of the Mediterranean region, particuarly Greece and
Spain, are very fortunate to live in an area where naturally
healthy food is readily and cheaply available. The incidence of
heart disease and cancer are lower here than anywhere else in
the western world and experts now believe this is due in great
part to what has become known as the Mediterranean diet.
Modern farming techniques and world wide transport has changed
most peoples diets dramatically in the past centuary and it is
now widely believed that such changes have had an exteremely
detrimental effect on our health. Fortunately the impact of
these developments has not had such a catastrophic effect in
Mediterranean regions where to a large extent traditional diets
Living With Your DietRecently, I was reading about a diet plan where you throw everything out of your pantry. Although this sounds like great news for ..... are still followed. Of course with the advent of Globalization
and MacDonald's! this is sadly changing. However we can all
learn alot form what has become known as the Mediterranean diet
and by adopting it,vastly improve our health and longevity.
The foods that grow natuarlly and abundantly in that region and
have always formed a part of the local diet are as follows:-
Olives, avocados, oranges, lemons, garlic, wild asparagus,
walnuts, almonds,tomatoes, artichokes, figs, pomegranates,
cherries, strawberries, grapes, plums, spinach,broad
beans,peppers along with many other of the more common fruits
and vegetables. These provide large amounts of vitamins,
minerals and fibre along with a wide variety of antioxidants and
phytochemicals, the importance of which scientists are only now
beginning to recognize as they discover more and more healthful
benefits of including these elements in our diet.
Historically alot of the milk was produced from goats and cheese
made from goats and ewes milk. Very little red meat is eaten and
a large majority of the protein is supplied by oily fish such as
sardines, mackerel, tuna, sword fish, boquerones and anchovies.
The main oil used is olive, traditionally cold pressed virgin,
and this is used not only for cooking and in salads but also for
putting on bread in place of butter.
All these foods provide a wide variety of nutriments which have
an astonishing array of claims for improving our health such as
lowering cholesterol, improving our immune system which thus not
only fights infections but also helps to prevent cancer,
increasing our metabolism, improving insulin sensitivity and
thus lessening the risk of diabetes. It really has never been so
true that you are what you eat. Certainly since moving to
Andalucia and adopting the Mediteranean diet myself I have never
been so healthy or managed to maintain my ideal weight so easily.
Of coures in addition to all the healthy components of this diet
there is the added fact that honey is often used in place of
sugar and little refined carbohydrates are eaten.
All in all most experts now agree that the Mediterranean diet is
the optimum diet
About the author:
I am the owner of http://www.costadelsol-vacationrentals.com and
specialize in holiday properties on the Costa del Sol and in
Rural Andalucia. In addition you will find lots of information
about Spain, Andalucia and the Costa del Sol on my site.
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