What is the REAL Mediterranean Diet?

In today’s vodcast, I chat about what happened to the Real Mediterranean Diet over the years. Learn about the rise and fall of low-fat diets and how the Real Mediterranean Diet can play a significant role in helping people lose weight.

Get to know more about these topics in the following blog post sections:

Pseudo-Mediterranean Diets in the Twentieth Century
Low-Fat Diets in the Twentieth Century
The Real Mediterranean Diet is Back!
Mediterranean Diet Helps You Lose Weight

These conversational vodcasts are available to the Kitchen Pioneers who have joined my YouTube membership community—The Traditional Foods Kitchen Academy.

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My comprehensive vodcasts are exclusively available to members of the Traditional Foods Kitchen Academy, who we call Kitchen Pioneers. You can learn more about my optional YouTube membership community, including members-only videos and exclusive perks.

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This membership community is optional. I’m still publishing my weekly detailed instructional cooking videos on my public YouTube channel that you can watch for free. (Thanks so much for being a Sweet Friend and subscriber!)

In addition to links to the latest Kitchen Academy vodcasts, this blog post lists some of the public videos that I talk about in my vodcast.

Pseudo-Mediterranean Diets in the Twentieth Century

Do you remember nutritionists telling us to eat a Mediterranean Diet in the mid to latter part of the twentieth century? If so, you may have wondered if this diet included the types of foods that were really eaten by people who lived in the Mediterranean.

Not surprisingly, that twentieth-century diet did not reflect what the people in the Mediterranean were eating. Where were the eggs, fat, and pasta? In many cases, these types of foods were missing from the diet. Instead of a Mediterranean diet, those twentieth-century nutritionists recommended a pseudo-Mediterranean diet, which they promoted as a low-fat diet.

Low-Fat Diets in the Twentieth Century

During this time in the twentieth century, some biased scientific research—sad to say—encouraged this low-fat diet. Unfortunately, we became less satiated with the lower fat diets, which meant more frequent hunger pangs. The lack of fats caused us to add more carbohydrates (often over-processed and rich in white sugar) to quell our cravings. Low-fat diets led us to a great deal of overeating that, unfortunately, created what we know today as the obesity epidemic!

Read more about how the low-fat diet movement came about and how it has since been debunked with this article:

Weston A. Price Foundation: The Skinny on Fats

The Real Mediterranean Diet is Back!

Fortunately, in recent years, the Real Mediterranean Diet has returned to the forefront with a nutritional profile of 40% fats, 40% carbohydrates, and 20% protein. Unlike the pseudo-Mediterranean Diet, this Real Mediterranean Diet in our twenty-first century reflects what the people in that region actually ate. And yes, pasta—cooked properly in the al dente style—is part of a healthy Mediterranean Diet!

I talk about the Real Mediterranean Diet in my member vodcast. You can also learn more about what happened to the Mediterranean Diet and how it returned to its real roots with the following links:

Weston A Price Foundation: The Mediterranean Diet: Pasta or Pastrami? – The Weston A Price Foundation website offers a wealth of information. Their content explores not only the Mediterranean Diet but many other traditional diets as well.
Oldways: Cultural Food Traditions – The Oldways website offers more specific information about the Mediterranean Diet and how to implement it in your daily diet.

And for more reflections on traditional diets, watch my previous member vodcast that explains traditional foods diets and how to get started.

What Are Traditional Diets and How to Get Started

Mediterranean Diet Helps You Lose Weight

As I mention in my vodcast, the Mediterranean Diet is consistently rated as the top diet to lose weight and eliminate many troubling health conditions. Dr. Kim Foster is a medical doctor and a health coach with several free resources to learn more about the Mediterranean Diet:

Modern researchers discovered the real Mediterranean Diet provides many health benefits. You can learn more by reading these fascinating studies:

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