Folks are often out pimping their new diet books, trying to make a buck with a fad diet based on the bottom line rather than decreasing your waist size or helping you get healthy. Well, have you heard of the Mediterranean Diet? [1]

Introduced in 1993 by the "nutrition meets gastronomy" group Oldways, Harvard School of Public Health, and the World Health Organization, the Med Diet is a not-for-profit diet. The diet was created in reaction to the non-fat food craze of the early 90s and incorporates good fats, namely olive oil, into meals.

Oldways promotes satisfaction over deprivation and believes eating should not be about denying foods, but instead about enjoying them. Take pleasure in the foods you eat. Notice the foods you put into your body, enjoy and savor them, share a meal with friends, and realize that eating healthy is about management, not banishment.

Here are the basic guidelines of the diet:

• Make olive oil your primary source of dietary fat
• Incorporate an abundance of food from plant sources, including fruits and vegetables, breads, grains, beans, nuts, and seeds
• Eat low to moderate amounts of fish and poultry weekly
• Eat low to moderate amounts of cheese and yogurt daily
• Drink a moderate amount of wine (one to two glasses per day for men, one glass per day for women)

Here are a few tips for following the Med Diet:

• Substitute olive oil for butter.
• Snack on almonds instead of fat-free cookies.
• Spread avocado on a sandwich to replace the mayonnaise.

This diet is considered
a healthful diet for heart patients to follow [2]. If it is good enough for folks with heart conditions it is good enough for me.

Curious to see their version of the food pyramid? Then



To read more about the diet visit Oldways [3] - it is a great website chock full of information.