Look online for a mediterranean food pyramid. May give some idea of how it works in a way that's familiar/in comparison to something you already know. Basically it breaks down as: meat a couple of times a month; sweets/eggs/poultry a couple of times a week; Fish/cheese+yogurt/beans+legumes+nuts/olive oil daily, but in a limited portion; fruits/vegetables/grains daily. As far the mediterranean diet being for weight loss, I don't know if it's really great for that. You may lose some weight because the food, imho, doesn't stick with you very long, but it's not really a 'diet' in the weight-loss sense. Regardless of whether or not the pounds start melting off, I can't see you gaining any more, and you'll have a healthier diet. When it comes to what to actually cook, you have to be careful, of course. A lot of the dishes that have transfered from the mediterranean to the states are the most fatty, unhealthy ones. Plus newer recipe's may not subscribe to the same tradition of limited fats. I read that currently, Greece has a childhood obesity rate that's astonishingly high, in part because no one really follows their traditional diet. I agree, though, at the end of the day, the diet's not magic, the exercise is equally important, if not more so.
post #16 of 19
4/3/09 at 10:37am






