Slow Down and Taste the Cabernet

Diets come and diets go. Their success or failure is related more to the packaging than to the content. The ones with the snappy names and attractive spokesmen do well; sound nutritional thinking does not seem to be an advantage. In the last few years the Scarsdale, Hollywood, Atkins, South Beach, and the Beverly Hills diets all had their moments, but all have been found to be disappointing to most of their participants.

One dietary approach that a great many people have found to be effective is the so-called Mediterranean diet. Its advantages have been well researched and documented. This diet is different from most of the others in that it is more of a philosophy, an attitude, a general set of principles than are the others.

Attention was first directed at this approach by a professor from Minnesota who noticed that the people from the countries that surround the Mediterranean Sea: Italy, Greece, Spain, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, and the North African countries were full of slim, healthy-looking people. Their incidence of heart disease and other diseases was less than in other parts of the world. The diet in these countries was not designed by some thoughtful nutritionist, but was comprised of those foods that were available locally and which could be obtained at a low cost. The land around the Mediterranean lacks the lush flat meadows that are suitable for grazing cows; but sheep and goats thrive. Locals eat the meat and also make cheese from the milk of these animals, cheeses that are not as fatty as those made from cow milk. For geographic and cultural reasons, there are differences from one country to another, more pasta in Italy, more couscous in the north African countries, and it is the diets of the countries on the northern shore of the Mediterranean – particularly Spain, Italy, and Greece – that have been most widely studied.

The Mediterranean diet is a series of recommendations that follows these dietary habits. It is not a series of menus that have to be followed. It also differs from other diets in that it emphasizes what you should eat, rather than telling you what is forbidden. In other diets there are the great NO-NOs: Dr Atkins tells us that carbohydrates are our enemy, the anti-fat diets tell us that butter is poison, and you need a degree in nutrition or biochemistry to order from a menu. Where are the carbohydrates? Where are the fats? Are they mono or poly-saturated? It's all too much work!

One of the problems is that all of these fad diets have a huge dropout rate. They may be easy to follow for short periods of time, perhaps for several months while you shed unwanted weight, but after this the participants usually slip back into old habits and the weight returns. The Mediterranean approach is one with so much flexibility and is so forgiving, that you consider that you have chosen to change the way that you eat rather than being "on a diet." It is a positive change rather than a negative one.

Here are the main characteristics of the Mediterranean diet

A study published in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine in 2003 followed 22,000 people living in Greece and investigated their eating habits. During the four years of the study, researchers found that the closer people followed this diet the less likely they were to die from cancer or heart disease. On analysis, the diet is compatible with the recommendations of most cardiac authorities' recommendations. There is more fat consumption than they usually recommend due to the liberal use of olive oil, but this is a mono-saturated fat, which is generally heart-friendly. Does this mean that the people from these countries all eat this type of diet? Unfortunately that is not always the case; the supermarkets of Barcelona, Marseilles, Palermo, and Athens look like these in any other country and the consumption of beef and other meats is increasing.

I have also been impressed with how the people of the Mediterranean countries are relaxed and at ease with their lives; meal times are an unrushed social events, full of conversation and laughter not a pit-stop to fill up with fuel.

Slow down and taste the Cabernet.

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