Imagine sitting down to a huge spread of delicious and vibrant dishes. Beside a heaping pile of aromatic Falafel are marinated strips of chicken, with Middle Eastern spices and extra virgin olive oil rolled into thin Saaj bread. Seasoned tomatoes and other delights surround these wonderful dishes, ready to tempt you into another bite.
Although this sounds like a recipe for weight gain with so many incredible foods there to tempt you, it’s actually a recommended diet for weight loss. The Mediterranean diet has been proven in multiple studies to help you not only lose weight, but also keep it off.
Diets don’t work
The reason why so many diets end in failure is because they are temporary. Restrictive diets that carve out whole food groups do initially lead to weight loss, but you often gain that weight back plus more when you return to normal eating habits.
In the Mediterranean diet, there is a huge variety of different foods to choose from, and relatively few limits. Mediterranean food is mostly vegetables and grains, with very little dairy and red meat. Instead, seafood is the main protein source.
Why the Mediterranean diet does work
Most people give up on diets because they are too restrictive. It takes real willpower to look at a bag of potato chips and think to yourself, “I’m never going to eat carbs again.”
Rather than tell you that you can never eat carbs again, they instead give you a huge variety of choices in what you can eat. You might swap out those potato chips for Turkish Koufta Tajine, which features potatoes along with a host of other delicious vegetables.
You’ll come away feeling full, but you’ll also be healthier than you were, with each dish packed with nutrition.
It’s easier to change your lifestyle when you don’t feel restricted, and studies back up just how helpful the Mediterranean diet is on making these changes. In a recent study conducted in January of 2020, participants who switched to a Mediterranean diet were able to lose an average of 6 ½ pounds.
More importantly, they were also able to sustain this weight loss. The researchers also looked at other diets such as the Paleo diet and intermittent fasting, and while all of them helped with weight loss, the people who switched to a Mediterranean diet were more likely to stick to it.
The researchers also noted that those who chose the Mediterranean diet also saw lowered blood pressure and other health benefits, on top of the weight loss.
Start making a change today
Getting started with a Mediterranean diet is easy. If you’re not sure what foods you’ll like, consider starting off by visiting a restaurant and sampling a variety. Once you know what you like, you can start incorporating these dishes into your every day meals.
The Mediterranean diet has a lot to offer. Those who eat it enjoy longer, healthier lives, as well as rich and tasty food that satisfies in every possible way.
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If there’s anything we know about nutrition, is that certain foods are “healthy” one year, and “unhealthy” the next. Food science can be frustrating, but the good news is scientists are getting closer to understanding what the most healthy diet is for human kind, and what we should be eating.
The reality is, humans have adapted to eat a broad variety of foods. This is why we can live all around the globe, from Inuit tribes living inside the arctic circle, all the way to the Huaorani people in the Ecuadorian Amazon. These people live in very different places, and the foods they eat are extremely different—yet both live healthy lives on their diets.
Yet if you look at what the healthiest people around the globe are eating, common themes did emerge. Many researchers are using meta analysis to look at dozens or even hundreds of nutrition studies all at once, to help find common themes. Here’s what they learned so far.
Eat Nutrients, Not Ingredients
May common diets exclude whole macronutrients as part of the new routine. This could be giving up carbohydrates, such as in the Keto diet, or low fat diets since eating less fat will make you less fat—right?
These diets often don’t work long term, because they don’t have major nutrients that you need in them. Instead of eating only carrots for a week, or excluding carbs or fats, eat a balanced range of nutrients.
This doesn’t mean that you have to include meat, milk, or other products you don’t want to eat—but to be sure you are getting your protein, B Vitamins, Calcium and Iron from other sources.
Eat Less Processed Food
One common theme that scientists found when looking through hundreds of different studies is that, unsurprisingly, highly processed food is not healthy for you. Even if you change nothing else about your diet, switching processed foods for fresh food has always shown better results.
The best ingredients don’t have ingredient labels, and are simply one ingredient—apples, oranges, lettuce, etc. If you do purchase something with an ingredient label, pick something with simple ingredients that you understand what are.
Eat Your Veggies
Although meat is fine in small amounts, the reality is most people eat way more of it than they should. Vegetables contain an array of nutrients and fiber that we need, and if we’re filling up on steak instead, we’re not
Meat also has a lot more calories than vegetables or fruit, so if your goal is to lose weight you could be compromising your efforts through not balancing your meat intake with fruits, vegetables, nuts, and seeds.
Need more guidelines? Go Mediterranean
The Mediterranean diet consists of pretty much everything that scientists now know is healthy for you. It is a diet that contains a rich array of nutrients, mostly plant based, but also without compromising flavor.
The Mediterranean diet has plenty of minimally processed foods, a rich array of vegetables, fruits, nuts and seeds, and the nutrients you need to be healthy. It is also one of the few diets associated with a long life—all of the zones in the world where people live the longest consume a Mediterranean diet, or one that is very similar.
If you want to eat healthy, but find nutrition science confusing, start with a Mediterranean diet. It’s the perfect way to go.
References:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/quora/2018/02/27/scientifically-what-would-be-considered-the-perfect-diet/#77edbed3640e
https://www.healthcentral.com/article/cardiovascular-benefit-of-plant-based-protein
https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/03/science-compared-every-diet-and-the-winner-is-real-food/284595/
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Indoor dining is being allowed back once again, as San Diego County received the good news of Covid-19 cases receding in the area. With the caseload down in San Diego, that means it is safe for restaurants to open up to indoor dining, and safe for you to come and visit.
This is very exciting news for everyone who has been yearning to get back inside of a restaurant to join with family and friends. At Aladdins, we have missed being able to let our customers into our building, and are very grateful for this opportunity.
We are looking forward to seeing you, but we also want to keep you safe. The changes that have been coming over the past few months have all been with the goal of keeping our beloved customers as safe as possible.
We are once again allowing indoor dining, but there are going to be a few changes to make the experience as safe as possible for you. We are reducing capacity to 25% of what we can normally sustain, and of course everyone must be masked when not seated.
We will be doing our part to keep everyone safe by wearing masks ourselves, and for your safety we recommend that you call ahead to any restaurant you are going to visit and make sure the wait staff will be wearing masks before going out.
Staying safe and healthy is important for you and for everyone, here are a couple of things to keep in mind in order to enjoy indoor dining while reducing your risk at the same time.
Be prepared to wait
In San Diego, we have not been able to dine indoors since July. This means the opportunity to indoor dine is very exciting and fresh, and lots of people will want to take the opportunity for this experience. In order to make dining safe however, restaurants can only accommodate so many people.
That means you may have to wait your turn in order to get into the restaurant, and you’ll have to wait in a socially distanced line in order to keep things safe.
Wash your hands and don’t touch your face
One of the easiest ways to lower your risk of infection is to use common sense practices such as washing your hands thoroughly and avoiding touching your face, especially if you haven’t washed your hands recently.
Stay home if you’re sick
With fires and smoke everywhere, it might be a bit hard to tell the difference between allergies and sickness right now. If you think there is a possibility you are sick however, it’s best for you and everyone else for you to stay home. Staying home when you are sick helps lower the risk of spreading Covid-19 to others.
Stay home if you are immunocompromised
No matter how safe everyone tries to be, it is more risky to go out than to stay in. If you are in an at-risk group for becoming extremely sick or dying from Covid-19, it’s best not to take that risk at all. We care about every one of our customers, and would be very sad if we missed any of your faces due to illness.
We’re looking forward to seeing you, and we hope that you’ll be able to enjoy this experience safely as we open up once again.