The Mediterranean Diet - Healthy Diets - Weight Loss - Nutrition

Introduction

Over the course of the past forty years, women the world over have become particularly concerned about their diets. They have become concerned about diet related issues for two primary reasons:

Women have expressed concern over how a particular diet plan effects their appearances

Women have expressed concern over how a particular diet's plan effects their health

As a result, a growing number of women have found themselves attracted to the Mediterranean diet food. When it comes to the Mediterranean diet, there are six primary reasons why women find themselves strongly attracted to the diet regimen.

Weight Loss and Healthy Weight Maintenance

In many countries around the world, a record number of women are being classified as overweight and even obese. As a result, a growing number of women find themselves seeking effective and healthy dieting regimens to lower their weight to appropriate levels -- for both cosmetic as well as health reasons.

The Mediterranean diet has proven itself to be very effective at providing a means through which women can lose weight in a healthy manner. Additionally, the Mediterranean diet has proven incredibly effective as being a solid path a woman can take to maintain a generally ideal and healthy weight.

Anti-oxidants and Aging

The Mediterranean diet regimen is flush with foods that are rich in anti-oxidants. This includes leafy, dark green vegetables as well as certain fish that are common features in this dietary scheme.

Anti-oxidants have been proven to slow the appearance of aging in women. Additionally, anti-oxidants have been demonstrated as being effective at preventing organ and skin deterioration in women. The consumption of foods that are high in anti-oxidants has been proven to enhance longevity in both women and men.

Metabolic Syndrome

Metabolic syndrome is an ailment in which a person ends up afflicted with both Type Two diabetes and hypertension. Most experts believe that diet can play a significant role in reducing the likelihood of metabolic syndrome in men and women who are prone to the ailment.

Without exception, medical experts who have studied the cause and effect of metabolic syndrome universally have agreed that the Mediterranean diet is the perfect dietary scheme to prevent and control metabolic syndrome.

Heart Disease

Multiple studies in a number of different countries have concluded that the adoption of the Mediterranean diet lowers the incidence of heart disease in women (and men). Indeed, an analysis of the incidence of heart disease in the Mediterranean nations suggests that the use of the Mediterranean diet can lower the incidence of heart disease in women from twenty-five to forty percent.

Hypertension

Recent scientific studies have examined the rising incidence of hypertension amongst women. Many researchers attribute the increase in hypertension amongst women in recent years to a number of changes that have occurred in their lives, including:

-- a greater number of women entering the workforce

-- a growing number of women being forced to juggle the raising of children with a full time career

-- the food and beverage choices that women are making in the 21st century

Research studies in a dozen different countries over the course of the past twenty years have suggested that the Mediterranean diet is effective at lowering the incidence of hypertension in men and women. That's just the tip of the iceberg.

Because it is high in fruit, vegetables and whole grains and because the diet is low in saturated fats, most nutritionists and other experts believe that the dietary scheme works to lower hypertension in both men and women.

The Mediterranean diet combined with regular exercise has been demonstrated to have a marked effect on reducing the incidence of hypertension amongst middle aged women.

Breast Cancer

Perhaps the most important "ingredient" of the Mediterranean diet is olive oil. Save for fresh fruits and vegetables (in most instances) olive oil universally is present in the Mediterranean diet. As a result, on the surface, the diet scheme appears to be high in fat. Indeed, upwards to thirty percent of the caloric intake of the Mediterranean diet does come fat. What is important to keep in mind is that nearly 100% of the fat in the Mediterranean diet is unsaturated and comes directly from olive oil. In other words, the fat in the Mediterranean diet essentially is healthy. Olive oil, and the fat contained in the product, simply does not trigger the negative consequences that flow from saturated fats, from animal fats.

In addition, there have been several important scientific studies undertaken in the past decade that have demonstrated that a diet high in extra virgin olive oil works to lower the risk of breast cancer in women. Thus, one of the beneficial results of adopting the Mediterranean diet is a lowering of the risk for breast cancer.