What are the Health Benefits of a Mediterranean Diet?

Have you been trying to search for a more plant-based diet for your health? Are you looking for a dietary regime that focuses more on fruits, vegetables, beans, and legumes in your diet? If your answer to both of these questions is yes, then you might want to consider following a Mediterranean diet.

A type of Mediterranean diet could be the perfect solution for incorporating more plant-based foods in your diet, especially if you’re struggling with maintaining good gut health. And when your focus is on good gut health, then you can be assured that your overall health will gradually be taken care of as well. 

Before we consider the health benefits, however, let’s first understand the different types of Mediterranean diets, the various types of foods that fall under these diets, and the type of Mediterranean diet that’s most beneficial for your gut and overall health.

What is a Mediterranean Diet?

While the health benefits of the Mediterranean diet stem across the spectrum, it’s important to understand which type of Mediterranean diet is associated with which advantages to get the most health benefits out of them. 

Here is a figure to showcase the holistic updates on the Mediterranean Diet Pyramid (MDP), which illustrates the importance of a sustainable Mediterranean diet plan.

There are two types of Mediterranean diets: Standard Mediterranean Diet and a Green Mediterranean Diet. A Standard Mediterranean Diet focuses on the types of items mostly eaten in the Mediterranean region. This diet is focused on the regular consumption of fruits, vegetables, beans, legumes, whole grains, olive oil, nuts, spices, and herbs. 

Along with this, dairy, poultry, and eggs are encouraged in some amounts, and fish and seafood are consumed about twice a week. If you’re following the standard Mediterranean diet, then you can have some dark chocolate and red wine, but you should avoid red meat, sweets, processed, and refined foods. These foods contain high sodium and added sugars, which aren’t part of a healthy eating plan and can leave damaging effects on your overall health. 

On the other hand, a Green Mediterranean Diet is an even healthier version of the standard Mediterranean diet, because it completely eliminates red meat and any other type of meat that is processed. It’s a diet plan that focuses mostly on plant-based foods blended with traditional recipes including heart-healthy olive oil and Mediterranean herbs and spices.

A green Mediterranean diet has been reputed for being rich in polyphenols that contribute to the growth of friendly gut bacteria, and simultaneously, work to reduce the population of harmful gut bacteria. These capabilities have allowed this plant-based diet to be revered for its large-scale health benefits, which have brought it to the attention of many people around the world.

So, what are the advantages of consuming a green Mediterranean diet, you ask? Let’s take a closer look at the elements that popularize this eating plan as a wholesome, healthful diet.

What are the Benefits of a Green Mediterranean Diet?

As mentioned earlier, a green Mediterranean diet is more honed in on the plant-based side of the standard Mediterranean diet. In other words, there is a greater focus on consuming mostly plant foods like fruits, vegetables, herbs, spices, whole grains, beans, and legumes.

This type of diet consists of a good amount of protein and a lot of flavors and textures, but isn’t too high in carbohydrates or calories. Plus, a green Mediterranean diet has the added benefits of polyphenol-rich foods (i.e. duckweed, green tea, olive oil, red onions) that are high in antioxidants, which are great for your gut and overall health.

These polyphenol-rich foods are great for your immune health as well as your brain health, which makes this diet beneficial for maintaining holistic health and wellness. In fact, these foods also help in reducing gut inflammation and inflammation in the body due to their antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties.

A green Mediterranean diet focuses on feeding your gut bacteria well, which helps with things like: regular bowel movements, boosted metabolism, increased immune health, and sustainable weight management. Studies have shown that a regular green Mediterranean diet is capable of reducing conditions like fatty liver, leaky gut, high cholesterol, metabolic disorders, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease.

Therefore, the benefits of the Mediterranean diet (standard and green) are mainly associated with ensuring that you’re regularly consuming nutrient-rich and health boosting foods.

How Can a Mediterranean Diet Help You in Weight Management?

Now that we understand the various types of benefits associated specifically with the green Mediterranean diet, let’s take a look at the ways in which both the standard and the green Mediterranean diet can help you lose weight:

Standard Mediterranean Diet:

The standard Mediterranean diet consists of lots of fresh produce, beans, legumes, whole grains, nuts, and seeds. It also has a variety of flavors added from onions, garlic, herbs, and spices along with heart healthy olive oil benefits.

Dairy, eggs, and poultry is consumed moderately, and fish and seafood is limited to only about two to three times a week. Plus, red meat and processed meats are avoided as much as possible. 

This type of diet ensures that you’re getting a sufficient amount of carbohydrates, protein, and healthy fats in your meals without adding in food items that contribute to insulin spikes and fat deposits in the body. In other words, by consuming this type of diet, you’re ensuring that your body is getting all of the nutrients without the harmful effects of processed and refined foods. 

Above all, it's all about consuming healthy food that doesn’t compromise on flavor, which helps you stay motivated to keep up with this diet and your exercise regimes. So, the goal of the standard Mediterranean diet is to keep your body healthy and energized, which will help you continue your weight loss efforts and eventually help you lose weight. 

Green Mediterranean Diet: 

The green Mediterranean diet, as mentioned above, is all about putting the emphasis on plant-based foods. This focus allows for this diet to be low in calories, but enriched with essential vitamins and nutrients that help your body function well. 

Though it may seem difficult to get a good amount of protein from a green Mediterranean diet, it is achievable if you have proper servings of plant-based proteins like beans, Mankai duckweed (or chia seeds, flax seeds if duckweed isn't available), chickpeas, tofu, and nuts.

In fact, some studies have shown that a green Mediterranean diet—when followed correctly—can be more successful in helping you lose weight since it includes an abundance of antioxidants and anti-inflammatory foods that aid weight loss. Moreover, a green Mediterranean diet is leaner than a traditional Mediterranean diet (it doesn’t contribute to fat storage), and has shown great results in helping people lose belly fat. This could be credited to the polyphenol-rich foods that not only help boost your physical health, but also work to improve your mental health by boosting serotonin and reducing cortisol levels.

Basically, this type of plant-based diet ensures that your body remains energized and your mind becomes healthier, more capable of managing stress. And when your stress levels are reduced, your cortisol levels will decline, reducing inflammation in your body and helping you better manage your weight. 

It’s important to note that high cortisol levels in the body contribute to weight gain especially around the face and abdomen, and makes it harder to lose this weight due to symptoms like: irregular appetite, insulin resistance, lack of sleep, high sugar cravings, and high-calorie food cravings. 

As a result, implementing a wholesome eating plan like the green Mediterranean diet helps boost your energy levels, metabolism, quality sleep, mental health, and an overall positive outlook on life. All of this can help you better manage your health, and achieve your weight loss goals.

Sustainability Updates to the New Mediterranean Diet Pyramid (MDP)

It’s important to note that the previous versions of the Mediterranean Diet were more focused on the type of food consumption and meal compositions for better health and nutrition. In comparison, the updates to the new Mediterranean Diet Pyramid add on the benefits of the types of foods being consumed and their impact on environmental sustainability.

This new Mediterranean diet pyramid reflects on consuming a diet that consists of less animal-based products and more plant-based items since the production of animal products places more stressors on the environment. 

In fact, this type of sustainable diet emphasizes the importance of eating home-cooked meals consisting of a variety of seasonal and fresh local produce obtained through eco-friendly measures to help sustain the environment. We need to be mindful of where our food is coming from and how it’s produced to ensure that we’re promoting a sustainable environment and sustainable local practices.

Along with that, the updates also focus on following an overall healthy lifestyle with reduced stress, regular exercise and movement (at least 30 minutes every day), and adequate rest to better maintain a healthy body weight. 

Basically, the new Mediterranean diet pyramid stresses the importance of making specific lifestyle changes that will aid your body in extracting the most benefits from following a healthy diet regime, and simultaneously, promote the health of your surrounding environment.

Conclusion

The Mediterranean diet—standard and green—provides many health benefits due to its emphasis on wholesome, healthful eating. Plus, the new updates on the Mediterranean diet pyramid help direct consumers towards a more sustainable approach that takes into account both their health and the health of the environment.

It’s a diet plan that encourages the consumption of essential vitamins and minerals and discourages unhealthy, fattening foods (i.e. sugary foods, red meat, processed items) that contribute to weight gain, obesity, and even cardiovascular diseases. 

These types of unhealthy foods not only harm you, but at times, their production processes can also harm the environment and the local economy (there’s a chance of low local employment if everything is made outside of your region and transported to you).

Essentially, you should aim to follow a holistic health regime that will allow you to improve your physical and mental health, and yield a high quality of life with sustainable practices. After all, maintaining a healthy weight and overall health and wellness is all about being mindful of the type of fuel that you’re consuming for both your body and your mind.