Eat Like A Greek For Good Health!

Ukmedix News has come across some more interesting info and facts about the much-lauded Mediterranean diet. An expert nutritionist and diet researcher Dr Kafathos from the University of Crete who has spent years studying the Mediterranean diet along with Dr Kennedy from Tufts University recently gave a series of lectures and unveiled their research on the characteristics of a Mediterranean diet. People who live in the Mediterranean area right from Gibraltar to Cairo and who follow a diet that uses the areas natural produce tend to have very good hearts and health. The diet underlines the importance of fish as a rich supply of protein and also of Omega 3 fatty acids that are said to strengthen the heart.

The diet is also rich in Olive Oil and this is sometimes frowned on by nutritionist but being a natural oil it is thought to be one of the most healthy and the least artery clogging of all fats. Mediterranean diets are also full of fruit and vegetables and rely on this fresh produce as a source of sugar (fructose) and carbohydrates. In many Mediterranean countries like Greece, Cyprus and Malta where the pace of change has replaced many of the traditional foods with fast food and processed food the obesity rises have been very dramatic.

Greece and Malta now have among the highest rates of obesity in Europe and this has all happened in the last 20 or 30 years. Older people who are set in their ways and continue to eat a healthy Mediterranean diet are not having weight problems but the younger people especially children who crave the tastes of fast food are becoming increasingly overweight and fat. Evidence shows that the Greeks used to have the lowest rates of heart problems and the longest life expectancy until the onset of modern western diet in Greece.

Eating fruit and vegetables on a regular basis means that you will get most of your vitamin requirements with the need to buy multi vitamins or supplements. Fish has all the protein you need and olive oil (in moderation) can give you just the right amount of the right fat for your body to produce hormones and other essential items.