The Vegetarian Diet Pyramid for Children

mediterranean-diet
mediterraneandiet
mediterranean diet

The Spanish Food Safety Agency has created the NAOS pyramid, a easy understandable version of the Mediterranean Diet in which includes the exercise and the sports. It is been used at schools, restaurants, homes, etc.

The translations of the Spanish words are:

In the red part:

Ocasionalmente= occasionally

In the orange part:

Cada semana= Every week
Varias veces= Several times

In the green part:

Cada día= Daily
Varias veces= Several times

In the blue part:

Bebe + Agua= Drink more water
Estilo de Vida Saludable= Healthy Life Style

mediterraneandiet
mediterranean diet

When summertime is approaching, many people try to get a more beautiful body. Lots of persons come to Mediterranean Diet to get slimmer in a couple of weeks. I have to say that the Mediterranean Diet is not a miracle diet, as no any other one is. Miracle diets simply do not exist. They are invention of swindlers to steal the money of the desperate people who wants to lose weight overnight. And the worst of it is that they not only steal the money, but something more important: the health.

Anyway, the mediterranean diet is not a diet to lose weight. In this case, the millions and millions of persons who follow it during our whole life would become “transparent”. The Mediterranean Diet is a life style to live better, longer and happier.

The Mediterranean Diet implies exercise, activity, healthy nutrition and natural products. Mediterranean Diet means to accept any type of food except artificial ones. Not to despise exquisite delicacies in occasions and not to give the image of an eccentric person (that normally suffers social rejection and labor disbelieve) that refuses trying an exquisite and healthy meal. Most of the diets makes your life miserable. This is the reason why they are abandoned after certain time. This does not happen with Mediterranean Diet. If you follow it you will not have psychological lacks.

But Mediterranean Diet also means priorities and proportions. Normally it follows a dietary pattern in which exercise, fruits, vegetables, carbohydrates, fish and olive oil are the main ingredients. But you can adequate your Mediterranean Diet to lose (or gain) weight.

As the majority of the people would be more interested in losing weight with the Mediterranean Diet, I offer you this indications:

1) Ban all artificial food. This means banning hydrogenated and specially partially hydrogenated fats (and all the products that enclose them). They contain the dangerous “trans fats”, that increases cholesterol and is under suspicion of producing cancer. (This is a general rule of the Mediterranean Diet). You should read the labels. In USA it is compulsory that the percentage of trans fats should be explicit in them . Not in many other countries.

2) During the slimming period of the Mediterranean Diet stop drinking manufactured refreshments either with sugar or sweeteners. Drink as much water as you can and some fresh natural fruit juices as orange juice (Right from the squeezer, not from the shop in a bottle). Leave the beer and the wine for other periods. A little bit of red wine during the meals is not bad in Mediterranean Diet, even convenient, but not when you decide to reduce weight.

3) During this period do not have any type of sweets and avoid bread made out of very purified flour. You have a very good desserts in the Mediterranean Diet, but not for now.

4) Have every day a good breakfast with plenty fresh fruits as pineapple, strawberries, apples, pears, oranges, grapefruit (avoid banana and grapes). Have natural oat flakes (the same you use for porridge) but with skimmed milk and no sugar at all. Do not eat muesli as it usually has sugar, raisins and coco. In your oat you can put some nuts. Have eggs if you want (boiled or fried with a very small quantity of virgin olive oil). A trick for the Mediterranean Diet slimming program: have a whole egg and two whites of eggs. (Give the yolks to your dog). You can change the eggs for grilled fish. Or have both options if your body needs it. You can have a little of real, not fake, integral bread without fat.

5) If the Mediterranean Diet breakfast is strong you will not be hungry again in four or five hours at least. If you are then working or shopping, eat a couple of raw and peeled carrots and one or two very well washed apples (you will have them in your bag, prepared at the morning).

6) Three or four hours later, you can have another strong meal similar to breakfast with plenty of boiled vegetables (no carrots, no many potatoes, no beetroot) and grilled chicken or turkey breast (in a very little olive oil . Or grilled fish. Have salads. You can have also boiled chick peas (very good for cholesterol). In the salads and vegetables you can use small amounts of virgin olive oil. Spices can make them more tasty.

7) Before going to sleep, take a piece of fruit, a glass of skimmed milk or a skimmed yoghurt (If you stomach accepts acid food at this time).

Walk instead of taking the bus. Avoid elevators. Find time to go to the gym, swim, do jogging, make love. And be patient. Allow several months for the slimming process. The Mediterranean Diet has many other delicious diet options to keep your desired weight when you reach it.

Enjoy the life with the Mediterranean Diet!

mediterranean-diet

Spanish/Español

The revolutionary Zone Diet gets its name to the fact that it tries to maintain the insulin in a stable zone, in such a way that neither allow to our glucose level descend causing to us fatigue, nor that it might raises causing, as a reaction of the hormone to turn those excess of carbohydrates fats. It was developed by the Dr Barry Sears at the beginning of the Nineties to treat cardiopathies and diabetes. In 1995 he published his first book, “The Zone Diet”. Soon the Zone Diet was followed by known Hollywood artists like Madonna, Jennifer Aniston, Brad Pitt or Cindy Crawford, which caused that it became extraordinarily popular. From this page, which we are very critical with the “miracle diets”, we do not see special danger in following the Zone Diet, mainly because it recommends to follow it under medical monitoring. It is a balanced diet, very related to the Mediterranean diet, of which it eliminates its few components of red meat, animal fats animals and refined sugars.

Anyway, the Zone Diet has a little more than fifteen years of life, reason why we do not know its indirect effect. Some people suggest that it eliminates certain products that are been associated to the human feeding during thousands of years. And that it might have long term effects like the development of some type of carcinoma. But all this is pure speculation. Nevertheless and just in case, I do not lose the special opportunities to enjoy a good Iberian cured ham, a blood sausage snack, a Madrilenian stew, a paella or a good ice cream. The absolute prohibitions annoy and scare me. Anyway, I am moderate. Indeed I have known people who, after the anxiety that “prohibited fruits” caused to them, they left the Zone Diet (and many others) and throw themselves to uncontrolled excesses. This does not happen with the Mediterranean Diet followers. It maintains yourself psychologically satisfied. In special occasions, you do not despise exquisite delicacies , although you do not buy them for habitual consumption. On top of that, you do not give an image of eccentric person (that normally undergoes social rejection and labor distrust) and nobody have to relate your good form and your good body to a hard and “cruel” life.

Anyway, when I eat more that I should have done, I try to burn it.

The Zone Diet recommends to make five meals to the day, three of them strong (breakfast, lunch and supper) and two lighter (at mid-morning and at the time of merienda (afternoon snack)). It advises not to let pass more than four hours without eating, in order that the rate of insulin does not rise. It would alter the sugar level in blood.

And a Zone Diet menu type would be:

Breakfast

Example a) Toasted integral bread with proteins (turkey or chicken breast, or white of egg and coffee or red tea or green tea (no very loaded) black or with skimmed milk.

Example b) Two skimmed yogurts’ with muesli (not sweetened) and coffee or tea.

During the morning

a) a piece of fruit (pear, apple) and five almonds or hazelnuts.
b) a dry dessert of soybean and fruits.

Supper:

A protein combination (chicken breast 120 grs; either 120 turkey breast, or hamburger chicken-turkey; or tuna 140 grs; either 180 salmon grs, or hake 180 grs). with a carbohydrate: cabbages, cauliflower, broccoli, green beans, tomato, lettuce and some fruit.

Something I miss from the Zone Diet is that it does not encourage the daily activity and the exercise, as Mediterranean Diet does.

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mediterranean diet

Total Quality and Knowledge Management of the Mediterranean Diet

Following a diet is not very different from developing another project. You need:

- Information and knowledge
- Standards
- Planning objectives
- Organization
- Motivation
- Energy and determination
- Control

mediterraneandiet
mediterranean diet

The South Beach diet was promoted by a cardiologist of Miami, Dr. Arthur Agatston who believes that a high consumption of rapidly-absorbed carbohydrates also called “bad carbohydrates” creates an “insulin resistance syndrome” not scientifically studied and proved. At the same time that he emphasizes the consumption of “good carbohydrates”, he does the same with the “good fats” (unsaturated and non trans), proved all over the world to be much more healthy and convenient for the heart.

This could be reasonable, independently of the insulin theories. The problem is that the South Beach diet considers bad carbohydrates not only the candies or sweets, but also the pasta, cus-cus, bread, etc. These nutrients are the main and “cleaner” combustible for our body.

As all “low carb diets”, South Beach Diet is unbalanced and dangerous. It cannot be followed for a long time without placing in high risk our organs. High protein diets deteriorates our liver and intoxicate our body with urea compounds.

Before following the South Beach diet get medical advice!

mediterraneandiet
mediterranean diet

The Spanish authorities are worried about the progressive abandon of the Mediterranean Diet by the youth . Children has been found in a recent survey as the third more obese in the World, after USA and UK ones. New food habits as junk food, TV massive advertised candies, sweets and refreshments, and a lack of exercise and sports are ruining the millenarian Mediterranean Diet.

To fight against this problem and preserve the Mediterranean Diet, several measures are been taken:

1) Parents information campaign about the advantages of the Mediterranean Diet
2) Parents information about nutrition and food label understanding.
3) Teachers instructions to teach children how to follow the mediterranean diet
4) Intensify the sports
5) Control the schools menus to make them follow a well balance Mediterranean Diet
6) Teach the children to eat more vegetables, salads and fruits. Five pieces or servings of fruits a day is recommended by the Mediterranean Diet.
7) Make the children forget candies and sweets desserts except in special occasions (birthdays, etc)
Ban all trans fat (hydrogenated and partially hydrogenated fats). They are Mediterranean Diet “terrorist”
9) Use virgin olive oil as much as possible. It is the base of the mediterranean diet
10) Do not reuse the oil to fry more than two or three times. Trans fats are created in this process.
11) Control of the publicity to ban harmful products for children
12) Stop to the artifitial drinks and not natural fruit juices. Better have the fruit piece instead that the juice.
13) Reduce the meat and meat products consumption and increase the fish intake, specially the fat ones (sardines, anchovies, mackerel, tuna, salmon, etc). They are rich in omega 3 and 6 fatty acids.
14) Try to make the Spanish population conscious of the importance of the Mediterranean Diet. If the Unesco considers it Patrimony of Mankind, many people will become aware of a Diet tested during thousands of years.

Explanation of the picture in the-naos-pyramid

Dont forget:

mediterranean diet

helps people live longer, healthier and without any doubt, happier lives.

mediterranean-diet

This is a picture of our Mediterranean Diet Pyramid made with fresh products. You can see a larger copy clicking on it.

mediterraneandiet
mediterranean diet

The Hay Diet is a dissociated diet introduced by Dr. William Howard Hay in 1911. It is based in the premise that food combining is one important cause for health problems.

The Hay Diet says that the combination of food affects the body because of the acidity caused by the digestion and metabolism of those mixed foods.

This acid condition produces a lowering of the body’s alkaline reserve, the depletion of which is cause of intoxication.

The Hay Diet divides foods into three types. They are:

• “Alkali forming foods” such as fruits and vegetables. Even acid fruits as lemons leave alkaline salts in our body.

• Proteins such as meat, fish, eggs or cheese. These type of food yields acid sub products in the body.

• Carbohydrates are also acid forming. Grains, potatoes, all foods containing flour, and all foods containing sugars (sucrose), but not the natural ones that can be found in fruit.

Diet Hay’s theory is that protein and starch foods, even both being acid forming in their end products, they require different conditions for digestion. Therefore, they should never be combined.

Another version of the Hay Diet says that protein food are acid producing and carbohydrates, alkaline. And this is the reason why they cannot be eaten together.

The Hay Diet has no scientific backing. Most of the food that cannot be combined are naturally mixed and cannot be separated. Beans and other legumes, for example, contain proteins and starch. Some people lose weight following the Hay Diet, but it is the result of an unbalance diet and a dangerous lack of the calories intake that can harm our health. Luckily, not much people can follow the Hay Diet for a long period of time.

The Mediterranean Diet, on the contrary than the Hay Diet, is a balanced and flexible diet that you can accommodate for all the occasions and follow all your life. Is has been proof during thousands of years by millions of people.

mediterraneandiet
mediterranean diet

There are many diets but all of them would be a waste of time and money if you do not follow them. Or even worse. You can lose your health or your life trying to lose weight in an inadequate way or too fast.

If you obesity is severe, go to the doctor. Period.

If you want to reduce a few pounds, change your eating habits. You don’t have to eat less. You have to eat different. It is very important that you never feel hungry.

Steps:

1) Information about the risks of obesity
2) Information about the nutrients
3) Determination. You decide firmly to get slimmer
4) Action

Have a good breakfast . Tea or coffee. Skimmed milk. No sugar, no sweeteners. Very soon you will hate the sweetness in the drink. Do you put sugar in the water? If you don’t, why do you need it in the tea?. Avoid all type of manufactured refreshments. 99,99% are full of sugar or artificial sweeteners. Drink natural orange juice. I drink the juice of two lemons just getting up in the morning. Immediately I wash my mouth in order not to harm the teeth. My stomach complained at the beginning buy two or three days later it was stronger.

Start the day with fresh fruit. Pineapple, oranges, pears, strawberries, etc.

If you like eggs, have eggs. But use a trick. Make them in specials pans with only a drop of olive oil. Eat three or four white of eggs and one yolk. Or make an omelet with them. If you like bread, two ounces will do. More? Have grilled fresh fish. I assure you that after that you will work all the morning trough without feeling hungry. Drink as much water as you can.

Take a few apples in your bag. When your stomach has been relieved from all the morning stuff, eat as many apples as you want. If you wash them in the morning, you can eat them unpeeled.

At work, avoid elevators. Walk up and down. Don’t phone you colleges. Visit them in their offices. Keep moving. If you are a bricklayer, a carpenter, a plumber or a peasant, you probably won’t have obesity problems.

After work, do some exercise. Go to the gym, jog, walk instead of taking the car, the bus or the tube.

In the afternoon, at six or seven, eat boiled vegetables, salads, more grilled fish or grilled chicken breast. The quantity… as you like..

Make love. As much as possible. Or order your things. Or look after the garden. Or go dancing… but drink water. Don’t seat to watch television and all the food rubbish that they advert. It will go to your subconscious.

Before going to bed, a glass of skimmed milk or a piece of fruit. Love again? Why not?

Be patient. Control you weight once a week, NOT EVERYDAY. Keep a log. Be prepared to be like that a few months. When you feel happy, follow the normal Mediterranean Diet but keeps the good habits that you have acquired. From time to time you will be able to enjoy a delicious dessert . It will be even more delicious with “dry”(not sweet) coffee or milk.

Cropped and resized picture of one of the most famous photographers in the world, Philip Greenspun.

mediterraneandiet
mediterranean diet

A recent survey made in the National Center of Tourism, Hospitality and Gastronomy of Marbella (Spain) has shown that the USA citizens are the most interested in the Mediterranean Diet of the whole world. And a high percentage of them consider this diet to be the best .

Everybody knows that was Dr. Ancel Keys the person who made possible discovering the secrets of the longevity of the Mediterranean people, in special the Cretans . The reasons were - of course - the olive oil, the vegetables, the carbohydrates, the fish and the balance of the food intake. But it was also the frugality, the activity, the daily exercise and the lack of stress what made the Mediterranean Diet the icon of the anti-aging fight. Many other diets try to imitate the original Mediterranean Diet and a few of them are practically equal.

In this blog you can get into the Mediterranean Diet culture and get used to it informally, that it is the best way to acquire cultures. You have to take pleasure in a diet and not to suffer a diet. Most people know that the Mediterranean Diet is the best in world, but not many are aware that it is also the most amusing one.

Don’t follow the Mediterranean Diet. Enjoy it!

Mediterranean Diet helps people live longer, healthier and without any doubt, happier lives.

mediterranean-diet

If you are a very busy person and have no much time to prepare your food, you can plan your own Mediterranean Diet, combining food intakes at homes with meals outside.

You know that the Mediterranean Diet includes almost any natural food. The only thing that counts are the portions and the proportions.

Eating natural food means avoid unnatural ones. These are hydrogenated and partially hydrogenated fats (margarines, and margarine compounds, etc), as well as food that have been fried in unknown oils or fats (both with possibilities of plenty trans fats). Sometimes you think it is better a portion of fried chicken in a fast food restaurant than a hamburger, and it may be potentially more dangerous. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) committee declared in 2004 that trans fats are even more harmful than saturated fat. As the same time, Harvard School of Public Health estimates that trans fat has been causing about 50,000 premature heart attack deaths annually only in USA, making partially hydrogenated oil one of the most dangerous products in the food intake.

Moreover, to follow the Mediterranean Diet you have to take into account the food additives. Some of the are good and others are very unsafe, specially at the long term. You have to control them and the only way to do that is getting information. In this blog’s links you will find a excellent site to learn more (Cspinet). You have to learn how to avoid harmful ones and to learn how to interpreter food labels. This is one of the points of the Mediterranean Diet. In origin, this Diet had no artificial additives at all. And we have to fight to maintain the Mediterranean Diet like it was.
If you want to follow the Mediterranean Diet Plan (not for getting slimmer but for living more and better), you have to perform the following actions:

First of all, you have to prepare your pantry and fridge, buying many types of fruits as pineapple, melon, pears, apples, oranges, etc. Buy vegetables as tomatoes, cucumber , celery, garlic, onions (be careful avoiding the last two before dates), frozen fish as unsalted cod, tuna or any other dark meat fish (all of them are very rich in omega-3 fatty acids) or if you prefer, hake and other type of whiter fish (less rich in omega or any other fatty acid). Buy cereals and muesli without sugar, canned sardines and tuna in olive or at least in sunflower oil, pasta, olives, normal bread (Why not?). Beware sliced soft bread. Read the label before buying it. Don’t forget chick peas, eggs, milk (if you are a grown up try to get used to the skimmed one). Get nuts. They are very good for your heart. You may have butter if you cannot get used to the olive oil at breakfast. And of course, take home a couple of Extra Virgin olive oil, the king of the Mediterranean Diet. I have read in many places that the olive oil should be of a certain color (sometimes people say yellow; others, green). Olive oil can be from light yellow to dark green. In both cases, if it extra virgin, it is equally healthy. The type of olive oil is a very personal choice and normally is associated with habits.

With all this products, you can prepare easy dishes of the Mediteranean Diet. Salads, grilled fish with garlic, parsley and olive oil, pasta with canned tuna and a good napolitana sauce. See it is made with olive oil and has no “bad” additives… Or the same combination with boiled rice. Also rice, fried eggs and fried bananas is a delicious meal. Sometimes you can open a can of sardines, an omelet with four or five whites of eggs and a couple of yolks (You can give the others to your dog or throw them away, as the whites are always much cheaper than any other protein food and of better and healthier quality). You can have in your fridge some chicken breast and prepare it grilled with olive oil.

If you have to pack something light to eat at work, take two or three pieces of easy-eating pieces of fruits . Pears and apples can be eaten unpeeled if they are properly washed. From time to time you can have a roll with cured ham or “lomo ibérico” (See picture). This is Mediterranean Diet as well.

When you have your meals in good restaurants, if it is not very often, you can allow order anything you fancy. This will give you a deserved prize and will extinguish you psychological need of eating freely. Choose establishments fond of Mediterranean Diet because they will use proper ingredients.

To complete the Mediterranean Diet, or the Mediterranean Way of Life, do not forget your moderate daily exercise.

mediterranean-diet

A very important product in Mediterranean Diet is Garbanzo beans, also known as chickpeas. With independence of their delicious nutlike taste and buttery texture, they provide a good source of protein that can be enjoyed year-round.

Used in some countries for an unique dish as “potajes” or “cocido”, in others are the main ingredients of many others Mediterranean Diet dishes such as hummus and falafels. The most important characteristic of this legume is its soluble fiber, an excellent cholesterol-lowering agent. This fiber has the propriety of capture the cholesterol in the intestines and drag it away. But chickpeas have another type of fiber as well, the insoluble dietary one. It is important not confuse them, as the soluble fiber is a gelatin-like product, a great part of which remains in the water if you boil the beans, or in the liquid part of the cooking. The insoluble fiber plays another different role. It supports bowel regularity and retard the assimilation of the starch, making the chickpeas very appropriate for diabetics and slimming diets. Cheak peas are indicated for constipation, hemorrhoids, high blood sugar and cholesterol levels.

You can eat them also in salads with garnish you like, olive oil and vinegar or lemon juice. (Do not forget to drink the water where you boiled the chick peas).

This characteristics of the Garbanzo beans allow preparing dishes with a certain amount of natural saturated fats maintaining the Mediterranean Diet so healthy. This is the case of the “cocido madrileño” or Madrid stew.

COCIDO MADRILEÑO, AN IMPORTANT MEDITERRANEAN DIET RECIPE

INGREDIENTS FOR 4 PORTIONS

400 gr. Chick peas
500 gr. Potatoes
300 gr. Beef
150 gr. Carrots
400 gr. Chicken
150 gr. Leeks
150 gr. Salt pork
1 gr Saffron
175 gr. Ham
3 cloves Garlic
150 gr Spicy sausage
60 gr Noodles
150 gr. Black sausage
2 dl. Tomato sauce
1 units Onions
a/p Salt
400 gr. Cabbage
0,6 dl. Oil

HOW TO PREPARE THE MADRILEÑO STEW

- Select the chick peas and put them into soak in warm water and salt for around 8 hours. Remove the giblets, pluck and prepare the chicken.
- Dress the beef.
- Clean the salt pork and the ham bone.
- Peel and clean the onions, leeks, potatoes and carrots.
- Place the pot on the stove with a lot of water, add salt, remembering that the stock will be used to prepare the soup.
- Add the beef, chicken, salt pork and the ham as soon as the water starts to boil.
- Skim.
- Add the chick peas, onions, carrots and leeks as soon as the broth starts boiling.
- Stew very gently in a covered pot trying not to let it come to the boil.
- Skim from time to time and if necessary, add more boiling water to avoid the chickpeas from getting hard. Keep checking on the boiling.
- Some minutes before finishing cooking, add the whole potatoes.
- Remove the ingredients from the pot when cooked, and separate the meat and the vegetables, keeping them warm with a bit of broth.
- Cut the beef, chicken, ham and pork, into 4 pieces.
- Cut the spicy sausage, the black sausage and the carrots into slices.

How to prepare the cabbage
- Clean and cut the cabbage into four pieces and cook in boiling water with salt, remove the inner part of the cabbage and cut it into pieces.
- Boil it with water and salt.
- Put it through a strainer when cooked.
- Warm the oil in a frying pan. Brown the garlic which has already been peeled and sliced and then add the cabbage.
- Sauté and remove when ready.

How to prepare the soup
- Sieve the necessary bouillon into another pot and put it onto the stove.
- Add the saffron which must have been chopped and dried.
- Add the noodles when it starts to boil and cook until ready.
- Add seasoning to taste and modify if necessary.

Presentation
- Serve the soup as a starter
- Serve a portion of chickpeas, cabbage, a potato, a piece of meat, a piece of chicken, salt pork and a piece of ham on each plate.
- Add the black sausage, spicy sausage and carrots.
- Dress with tomato sauce.
If the ingredients are served in different dishes they should be set in “bouquets” shape.

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Another important cheakpeas dish of the Mediterranean Diet is hummus, that in Arab means precisely, chickpeas. It is a puree made out of chichpeas, sesame, olive oil, lemon juice and salt. It can have also raw garlic what makes it healthier.

mediterranean-diet

The Mediterranean Diet is not for fifteen days or for fast slimming. It is a kind of philosophy, a culture, a way of life. But not everybody that lives near the Mediterranean Sea follows this diet. Unfortunately every day more and more people are getting another customs. The principal reasons for this is lack of time and knowledge. You can see whole families in which all members are overweighed. It is due more to nutrition habits than to genes. Anyway, people that believes in this type of religion is healthy, have less coronaries diseases and are happier.

The Sonoma diet is a slimming diet inspired in the Mediterranean Diet. It has three phases. The first one, of ten days of duration is very strict. The second one, it is a little more permissive and the last one is very similar to average Mediterranean Diet.

One characteristic of the Sonoma Diet is the use of special plates. This conditions the portions, but you can do the same by getting the habits of controlling what you eat.

In the Mediterranean Diet, if you want to reduce weight (maybe about 3-4 Kgs), you cut completely sweets, sugar and saturated fats. I do not recommend trying to lose more than that without medical guidance. In one or two months, you come back to the normal routine of food intake. Do not forget the daily exercises. But the knowledge must be in your mind. You have to be convinced. If you have to follow a paper, you will soon abandon your aim.

 Sonoma is the oldest wine-producing region in USA, settled around 1812 by Russian colonists. It is also known as “California’s Provence”.

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Recently, the Spanish Government has asked the rest of the countries of the European Union to support the request that Mediterranean Diet should be declared by UNESCO Patrimony of Mankind.

The undeniable benefits of the Mediterranean Diet are well known by most of the people, specially by the USA citizens’. We have to recognize that the concept was not only discovered but also launched by this great nation.

The Mediterranean Diet is not only food. It is a philosophy and a way of life. Daily exercise, respect for the Environment, love for the traditions, and search of the roots of the good food intake.

We have to fight the potentially dangerous food. The Mediterranean Diet does not ban any food except the artificial ones. The most important thing is to keep the proportions in our diet and to accommodate it to the characteristics of every person. If we have health problems, it should be the doctor who had to give us guidance.

We are having problems for telling people to avoid trans fats. They are present in many manufactured foods. We suggest everybody to read the labels and to avoid the ones containing hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated fats.

The trans fats also appear if you want to reuse any type of natural fats or oils. The more you reuse them, the higher proportion of trans fat you’ll have in your pan.

It is our intention to continue promoting the Mediterranean Diet and following our crusade against the trans fats, in spite of the difficulties we may encounter.

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