Is A Mediterranean Diet For You?

If you've been depriving yourself of fat in your diet because you think that is good for your health, you may want to reconsider. A recently published study In The New England Journal of Medicine, that was conducted in Spain has concluded that among people at high cardiovascular risk, a Mediterranean diet supplemented with extra-virgin olive oil or nuts reduced the incidence of major cardiovascular events. The traditional Mediterranean diet is characterized by a high intake of olive oil, fruit, nuts, vegetables, and cereals; a moderate intake of fish and poultry; a low intake of dairy products, red meat, processed meats, and sweets; and wine in moderation, consumed with meals.

The participants in this study who were at high cardiovascular risk, but with no cardiovascular disease at enrollment, were randomly assigned to one of three diets: a Mediterranean diet supplemented with extra-virgin olive oil, a Mediterranean diet supplemented with mixed nuts, or a control diet (advice to reduce dietary fat).

The control group, which had a harder time sticking to the program, consumed  low-fat fare. That diet included more starch and grains, but fewer nuts and oils. Participants assigned to a Mediterranean diet with extra-virgin olive oil and those assigned to a Mediterranean diet with nuts not only changed their diets, as part of the dietary changes, they significantly increased their consumption of extra-virgin olive oil (to 50 and 32 g per day, respectively) and nuts (to 0.9 and 6 servings per week, respectively). They did not find any significant difference in changes in physical activity among the three groups.

The study looked at the rate of major cardiovascular events (myocardial infarction, stroke, or death from cardiovascular causes) amongst participants. On the basis of the results of an interim analysis, the trial was stopped after 4.8 years because those on the low--fat diet were doing significantly worse than the other two groups.

From what I have read, I can't subscribe to the exact conclusion yet. I have some questions. It appears that the two groups on the Mediterranean diet ate real food complete with satisfying fats while the control group did not.  How much refined food remained in each diet? How much produce were they eating? What if the control group instead of being given a low-fat, higher carb diet was given a more traditional diet also based in real food but one that was not so low-fat or carb heavy but contained things like grass-fed meat, grass-fed butter, coconut oil and lots of vegetables and fruits? How would their results compare to the Mediterranean groups?

To me the study shows that the Mediterranean diet is better than the diet given to the control group and that is still good news. Many people in the health/diet world still demonize fat and this study shows that depriving yourself of fat is not healthy. A Mediterranean diet is delicious and fat helps your food to taste great and satisfies you. And one more thing, they were able to drink wine.

From what I have read, my basic dietary guidelines remain the same and they are simple.

1. Food should give us pleasure, nourish us and be easy to prepare.

2. Eat real food, as close to the way nature created as possible with all of its edible parts. This means usually avoiding (not completely eliminating) overly-refined and chemically processed foods.

3. Eat foods that have nourished people for generations. 

4. Use the best quality ingredients available to you.

After that, each individual needs to determine which foods work best for them and which don't work so well. And remember...when your food tastes delicious, nobody will ever give you a hard time about it being healthy and it's easy to stick to healthy eating.

For more information about creating the diet that works for you, for recipes and other info on eating healthy and living consciously visit  www.TheConsciousPlate.com.