Mediterranean Food Pyramid

bluebunny27 · Post by **bluebunny27** » Sat Aug 22, 2009 4:14 pm

I was watching a tv show yesterday and they were talking about the way people are eating in different parts of the world : Italy, India, Japan, USA, France (and many others)... comparing the benefits, health, weight loss, etc. They concluded that the best diet in general is the MEDITERRANEAN DIET
(They were talking about people from Italy and how healthy they are in general .. this is the way they eat over there.

I researched this later, here's the Mediterranean diet food pyramid :

Cheers !

Marc

Disclaimer : I am following a more extreme version of the 'No-S' diet.
I made my own personal modifications to the original plan (Diet & Exercise)
What I am doing should not be misinterpreted as being a typical 'No-S' diet experience.
11/01/2008 : 280.0 pounds
08/21/2009 : 196.4 pounds
( 9 months 21 days / -83.6 pounds )
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Goal : 11/01/2009 : 190.0 pounds ( 1 year / -90.0 pounds )

kccc · Post by **kccc** » Sat Aug 22, 2009 4:40 pm

How interesting! I like it.

I'm taken by how small the "red meat" area is (which I think we come close to) and how large the "olive oil" slice is (which we use, but not in the quantities suggested by the pyramid).

It also makes me feel better about the amount of cheese we eat.

And I'm always working on more fruit/veg for me and the family.

Thanks for posting, Marc.

bluebunny27 · Post by **bluebunny27** » Sat Aug 22, 2009 5:19 pm

Glad it gave you some new ideas, KCCC.

In the program they were saying there were good things in many other diets of course but the Mediterranean diet was good because you can stick with it long term, it's not too drastic or complicated either. The italian population is very healthy in general too ... and that's how they eat over there.

It's funny I was looking at the pyramid and there were a lot of things I was eating already not knowing they were included in the Mediterranean diet ... I was almost spot on with the Mediterranean lifestyle without even knowing about it.

Since I started dieting/training I eat more grains, bran cereals, whole wheat bread, legumes, vegetables, various nuts (all unsalted), yogurt and milk, more oil as well ... (I make my own mayonnaise & vinaigrette (for my salads)

Same quantities as before : Cheese, Fruits, Fish, Poultry, eggs.

I eat less meat, sweets (sugar), margarine, salt, juice, alcohol (beer, wine) ... than before.

I eat more of many things, it's not like I'm starving, I just have smaller meat portions and almost no sweets. That makes a big difference.

I suppose I could even trade some red meat dinners and make fish dishes more often, salmon, mmmm ...
I like everything anyway, I think the only thing I don't like to eat is OLIVES.

Cheers !

Marc

Disclaimer : I am following a more extreme version of the 'No-S' diet.
I made my own personal modifications to the original plan (Diet & Exercise)
What I am doing should not be misinterpreted as being a typical 'No-S' diet experience.
11/01/2008 : 280.0 pounds
08/21/2009 : 196.4 pounds
( 9 months 21 days / -83.6 pounds )
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Goal : 11/01/2009 : 190.0 pounds ( 1 year / -90.0 pounds )

Vigilant2010 · Post by **Vigilant2010** » Sat Aug 22, 2009 5:40 pm

Thanks for this, Marc. I'm printing this out and putting it on my fridge. It makes me feel better about adding some meat, poultry, and fish back into my diet at a time when my mom and two sisters are going vegetarian and making me feel kinda bad about the whole issue. (I was vegetarian for five years, before any of them got started with this, but I just genuinely feel better with some animal protein in my diet. I crave sweets and simple carbs less when I eat a wider variety of protein sources.) This serves as a good reminder that if the portions and frequency are reasonable, meat's ok. At least by me. The quality and cut of the meat make a difference too, but that's another topic altogether.

bluebunny27 · Post by **bluebunny27** » Sat Aug 22, 2009 5:52 pm

Vigil, you are so wise !!

Hum, this reminds me of a show I saw (I always like watching shows related to nutrition, diet, exercise, lol !)

They tested a small groups of people (12) ... they were all long term vegetarians when they started. They accepted to start including meat in their diet. Some had not eaten meat in years at that time.

They tested all of 'em at the beginning, various physical activities ... and the result was that they were performing better 2 months later when they re-tested everyone. They were stronger/faster than before when they were completely veggie.

Some were disappointed though, they were hoping they would not perform better after changing their diet to include meat but the data was clear, I forget the % now but there was an improvement, 10%, something like that.

Cheers !

Marc

Disclaimer : I am following a more extreme version of the 'No-S' diet.
I made my own personal modifications to the original plan (Diet & Exercise)
What I am doing should not be misinterpreted as being a typical 'No-S' diet experience.
11/01/2008 : 280.0 pounds
08/21/2009 : 196.4 pounds
( 9 months 21 days / -83.6 pounds )
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Goal : 11/01/2009 : 190.0 pounds ( 1 year / -90.0 pounds )

wosnes · Post by **wosnes** » Sat Aug 22, 2009 5:55 pm

I was introduced to the Mediterranean Diet when I read Andrew Weil's Eating Well for Optimum Health some years ago. They do eat a LOT of vegetables -- I'd almost say that vegetables should be at the base instead of grains. I'm currently reading Real Food by Nina Planck. She says that folks in the Mediterranean have eaten more meat than we've been told. They do eat a quite a bit of pork and lamb.

wosnes · Post by **wosnes** » Sat Aug 22, 2009 8:07 pm

Vigilant2010 wrote:Thanks for this, Marc. I'm printing this out and putting it on my fridge. It makes me feel better about adding some meat, poultry, and fish back into my diet at a time when my mom and two sisters are going vegetarian and making me feel kinda bad about the whole issue. (I was vegetarian for five years, before any of them got started with this, but I just genuinely feel better with some animal protein in my diet. I crave sweets and simple carbs less when I eat a wider variety of protein sources.) This serves as a good reminder that if the portions and frequency are reasonable, meat's ok. At least by me. The quality and cut of the meat make a difference too, but that's another topic altogether.

I've followed vegetarian or vegan diets in the past and I feel much better with meat (and eggs and dairy), too. There are no traditional societies that are vegetarian and some of them eat quite a bit of meat. Supposedly our ancestors ate a lot more meat, but few grains. What they don't eat is processed foods

As I added animal protein back to my diet (including butter) all those lab values that are supposed to be negatively affected by eating saturated fat were positively affected. My cholesterol, which was already low, dropped another 15%.

harmony · Post by **harmony** » Sat Aug 22, 2009 10:15 pm

There is a site www.Mediterrasian.com that has both meditteranean and asian recipes, as well as information on the two diet, etc. etc. I find it a good resource and a good read. I have not had an opportunity to try many of the recipes, but the ones I've tried (mostly the Asian ones) were pretty good.

Vigilant2010 · Post by **Vigilant2010** » Sat Aug 22, 2009 11:06 pm

Cool website, harmony. Thanks for sharing.

TunaFishKid · Post by **TunaFishKid** » Sat Aug 22, 2009 11:54 pm

Love the pyramids, Marc! I've been to the extremes in dieting, not because I'm attracted to fad diets, but because I'm always trying to find optimal health. The vegan people have their experts who say any animal products and any fat (even olive oil!) are bad for you. The lowcarb people say grains are poison. Personally, I've decided to get out of the food wars completely. I should change my user name to Switzerland, lol. Going purely by what looks most appealing, I would choose the Mediterranean diet, hands down!

bluebunny27 · Post by **bluebunny27** » Sun Aug 23, 2009 1:21 am

Thanks Tuna ! Thanks Kid !

I thought of posting the pyramids here since some members could benefit. Take it or leave it, it's all good.

It seemed like a pretty reasonable way to eat. I wouldn't have to change too many things from the way I am eating now, just cut down on the meat a lil' bit and replace that with fish/poultry dishes. I should eat more fish/poultry anyway instead of beef/pork

In the program I saw a young man weighing around 230 pounds lost 16 pounds within 2 months changing his regular diet for the Mediterranean diet ... he was working out before but not able to lose weight. I guess he wasn't eating too well before the switch so a few simple changes kickstarted things for him in the right direction.

He seemed quite pleased and wanting to keep on eating that way in the future.

Cheers !

Marc

Disclaimer : I am following a more extreme version of the 'No-S' diet.
I made my own personal modifications to the original plan (Diet & Exercise)
What I am doing should not be misinterpreted as being a typical 'No-S' diet experience.
11/01/2008 : 280.0 pounds
08/21/2009 : 196.4 pounds
( 9 months 21 days / -83.6 pounds )
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Goal : 11/01/2009 : 190.0 pounds ( 1 year / -90.0 pounds )

flightisleavin · Post by **flightisleavin** » Sun Aug 23, 2009 2:04 am

TunaFishKid wrote:Love the pyramids, Marc! I've been to the extremes in dieting, not because I'm attracted to fad diets, but because I'm always trying to find optimal health. The vegan people have their experts who say any animal products and any fat (even olive oil!) are bad for you. The lowcarb people say grains are poison. Personally, I've decided to get out of the food wars completely. I should change my user name to Switzerland, lol. Going purely by what looks most appealing, I would choose the Mediterranean diet, hands down!

Tunafishkid

You are a person after my own heart. I feel exhausted by the food wars and have been very good about staying out of them lately. Right now everyone I know is demonizing every form of grain as the world's most evil food. I have been eating the Mediterranean diet for the last 2 months and am steadily losing and I feel wonderful. I even eat the white stuff (gasp!!!) on occasion. And I don't throw out the egg yolk when I make scrambled eggs or reach for the skim milk. That's good enough for me and I don't need any fighting scientists and their flocks telling me I will never lose weight if I don't analyze everything I eat down to belly lint. The chatter has gone away and I just shrug my shoulders when I hear the sad stories about how they have gallantly given up favorite but forbidden foods and they are stuck in a plateau or they fell off the wagon and how hard it is.

~reneew · Post by **~reneew** » Sun Aug 23, 2009 3:37 am

More good visuals from Marc... I printed them too. Thanks!

getoka · Post by **getoka** » Sun Aug 23, 2009 1:38 pm

The Oldways website has recently updated their Mediterranean Diet Pyramid http://www.oldwayspt.org/med_pyramid.html

bluebunny27 · Post by **bluebunny27** » Sun Aug 23, 2009 2:31 pm

Thanks Getoka, here's the version on the site you mentioned.

Look at that fish there in the pyramid ... it's HUGE !!!
Big fish !!

Cheers !

Marc

Disclaimer : I am following a more extreme version of the 'No-S' diet.
I made my own personal modifications to the original plan (Diet & Exercise)
What I am doing should not be misinterpreted as being a typical 'No-S' diet experience.
11/01/2008 : 280.0 pounds
08/21/2009 : 196.4 pounds
( 9 months 21 days / -83.6 pounds )
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Goal : 11/01/2009 : 190.0 pounds ( 1 year / -90.0 pounds )

wosnes · Post by **wosnes** » Mon Aug 24, 2009 12:17 pm

I think it's great that in the new pyramid fruits and vegetables take up a much larger portion of the base than do grains. Since the Mediterranean has a longer growing season than most areas do, vegetables and fruits probably make up a larger portion of the diet for much of the year and grains when the vegetables and fruits aren't so available.

TunaFishKid · Post by **TunaFishKid** » Mon Aug 24, 2009 2:30 pm

flightisleavin wrote:...The chatter has gone away...

I haven't reached that point yet. I still get a twinge of guilt over certain foods, and occasionally worry if I'm killing myself by not eating enough of this or too much of that. I'm glad to hear it is possible, though. I have hope!