The Mediterranean Diet and Me

I felt like Winnie the Pooh this morning. We had doctor's appointments for our annual checkups. Our doctor is about 45 min. away in the most remote part of Rockford that you can imagine. It is out by a state park, up on a hill and is a new building with no large trees to block the wind. I had dressed in a lighter weight coat, as Joe and I were going grocery shopping afterward. I hate to lug a big coat around the store. By the time I was sitting in the waiting room, I was frozen to the core, and I dreaded the walk to the car to leave. Everything went well at the Doctor's. I can rest easy until 6 months from now. We have decided to change our way of eating after Sunday (the day we have Joe's kids over for dinner). At our age we need to eat lighter meals and do a bit of exercise too. After talking to our Doctor I learned that he lived near the Mediterranean for 10 years and saw very little obesity in that area. I went to the internet to investigate this way of eating, when I got home, and this is what I found.The Mediterranean Diet is more than a diet. It is a lifelong living style. You have to adopt it, as a religion. Decades ago, it was the natural way of life of many people around the Mediterranean Basin, especially in Spain, Italy and Greece (our Doctor is Greek by the way). High activity, Mediterranean nutrition, anti stress attitudes is how life is lived in that part of the world. Nowadays, these circumstances have changed in the mentioned countries, but many responsible people are still keeping or returning to what is considered to be the healthiest diet in the world.The Mediterranean Diet is also the best way to prevent many diseases. The most important are the “brain ictus” or stroke (first cause of death in women and second in men) and the “myocardial infarction” or heart attack (the main cause in men), but are many more. It has been proved the important role of the Mediterranean Diet in the prevention of the metabolic syndrome (some health disorders of which the most important are: too much fat around the waist, high blood pressure and/or insulin levels and unbalanced levels of cholesterol. So it has been in the prevention of lung diseases, asthma, many allergies, Parkinson, Alzheimer, and also for keeping the bone mass in elderly people. Recently, it has been related the Mediterranean Diet with low incidences of many types of cancer.
This way of eating entails these things.....

High consumption of virgin olive oil.
High intake of vegetables and fruits and legumes.
Use of non refined carbohydrates
Consumption of fish, specially oily three o for times a week
Consumption of milk, cheese and yogurt (the original cheese was fresh goat cheese). Keep an eye on the saturated fats of the dairy products. Not too much!
Three or four eggs per week.
Moderate consumption of meat and saturated fats.
One or two small glasses of wine a day, preferably red and at the main meals. White wine and beer are alternatives.
Nuts as snacks

People bound to Mediterranean Diet have a 70% more of expectancy of life and a 80% of better quality life.

I am really going to try to follow these ideas for the next 6 months. I am the cook at our house and I must learn to control the amount of fats and sugar in both our diets. I'll let you know how this is working out from time to time. I think that it will be easy to follow, because it is a diet where you can eat meat in small portions. Joe will be happy with that. I have already cut down our desserts and now on to adding more vegetables and fruits to our diets. We hear about fruit and veggies being good for us all the time...it's never to late to make some changes. When I wanted to start a journal...I started this blog and it has helped me keep on with writing each day, because I got in a habit and others were reading what I put down here. Maybe by saying on my blog..that I am going to stick to this way of cooking and feeding us...will be just the thing to make me more conscious of what I put in my mouth.
Balisha