Mediterranean Diet Food Pyramid

Here it is, the Mediterranean diet food pyramid, your low glycemic guide to lifetime fat loss! To understand how much of each food group you need for your low glycemic eating plan, keep reading.

Health and weight are related to nutrient consumption. The body constantly needs the raw material to rebuild itself, power itself and maintain good health. When we don’t do that we see the results, obesity, diabetes, and heart disease.

The Mediterranean diet plan plays a critical role in preventing these diseases:

coronary heart disease,many types of cancer, cardiovascular disease, hypertension, obesity, dental caries, gingivitis, periodontal diseases and noninsulin-dependent diabetes mellitus

This is the low glycemic way for a lifetime of fat loss.

How to Lose Weight Permanently

Look at the bottom of the Mediterranean diet food pyramid and make these foods part of every meal and every snack. If you have type 2 diabetes, insulin resistance, metabolic syndrome or obesity avoid all sweets. Most of your day's food is fruits and vegetables with one quarter being raw seeds, raw nuts, whole grains and olive oil. Base every meal and snacks too on these foods. You can eat them raw or lightly cooked. You do NOT need animal protein at every meal.

Eat fish as often as you can, daily to 5 - 6 times a week. Meats and sweets you need least often, no more than two or three times a week. The sweets should be low glycemic ones and better to stick to low glycemic fruit for your sweets if you are insulin resistant. Once you have reached your goal weight then you could have very small amounts of the natural sweets that have nutrients like honey, maple syrup, or coconut palm sugar rather than cane sugar.

Americans tend to consume more meat than is healthy and more than is necessary at one meal. Instead of eating slabs of meat, slice a steak thin and serve two people when you stir fry it with vegetables. You could serve it with barley, quinoa or even brown rice which has a moderate glycemic index. Eat a hearty meal like this for lunch and then just have a salad or yogurt for dinner with a green smoothie. This is a heart healthy, diabetic diet, the low glycemic way of eating. You can call it a pre-diabetic diet, you can call it food for life. It's the way to health and permanent weight loss.

Don't eat whole grains with protein in the evenings. Either have protein OR grains, not both. It's better food combining and easier on your digestion and your waistline. The best whole grains for losing weight are the low glycemic ones.

Once we settled into agricultural based societies we became dependent on a few food staples like potatoes, rice, wheat and corn. Our lifestyles gradually have become more sedentary.

Machines do a lot of our work and children today sit in front of videos and computers instead of playing outdoors. We are less active and get fewer nutrients - no wonder we developed the modern diseases.

Notice that the agricultural staples today are often highly refined, high glycemic carbohydrates! As our diets became more and more refined and “industrialized” we became more and more interested in sweets. Our blood sugar was raised by the staples, we discovered cane sugar and over time began craving sweets. No surprise there! And then we developed the sugar diseases which are rampant in today’s world.

We have to eat a better quality of food today because our dietary requirements remain the same as our ancestors although we need less calories to live. We have such a need for nutrient dense food that unless you are eating like the Mediterranean diet food pyramid above, you are probably missing vital nutrients. The Mediterranean diet is a food lover's diet and also the way to eat for real health and a lifetime of fat loss!

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