Yes, you can make mistakes on the Mediterranean Diet. And it’s more common than you’d think.

The Mediterranean Diet, renowned for its health benefits and delicious flavors, has gained significant attention in recent years with the popularity of The Blue Zones, The Longevity Diet, and the like. With its emphasis on fresh fruits, vegetables, whole grains, lean proteins, and healthy fats, this dietary pattern is known to promote heart health, reduce the risk of chronic diseases, and contribute to overall well-being.

However, despite its simplicity and flexibility, many individuals stumble upon common pitfalls when attempting to adopt the Mediterranean Diet — or perhaps more accurately, the Mediterranean lifestyle. 

In this article, we will explore the most prevalent mistakes people make when starting their Mediterranean Diet journey, and provide practical tips and strategies to overcome them.

Read the full article here:

https://eatlikeanitalian.com/mistakes-on-the-mediterranean-diet/

It’s well-known that the populations who follow a Mediterranean Diet are among the healthiest and longest-living on the planet. But while the focus is obviously on the variety of delicious foods, what is often missed is the role of fasting.

Either for religious reasons or for the simple lack of abundance, inhabitants of Italy, Greece, Spain and other Mediterranean countries have experienced extended periods of calorically restricted diets. And they were healthier because of it.

These circumstances not only extended their lifespan, but also their “healthspan,” allowing them to be active and able to enjoy life well into their 90s and past 100 years-old.

In recent decades, scientists have strove to understand the mechanisms of this phenomenon. To help us gain a layperson's understanding of how all this works, I have spoken with Renee, who is a medical science liaison at L-Nutra, the parent company of ProLon, developers of the Fasting Mimicking Diet. We take a deep dive into the metabolic pathways that, some say, leads to the elusive Fountain of Youth.

Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/AxjjlzbsCuA

Read on the Blog: https://eatlikeanitalian.com/how-fasting-slows-aging/

Both the Mediterranean Diet and the Paleo Diet ask us to “eat the way our ancestors ate.” BUT, the Mediterranean Diet asks us to look back only 3-4 generations, whereas the Paleo would have us look back 2.5 million years, or roughly 80,000 generations. Evolution has had plenty of time to catch up…

During the Paleolithic period, early humans lived in caves or simple huts and were hunters-gatherers, which is the crux of the Paleo Diet. Approximately 75% of deaths at the time were caused by infection, including diarrheal diseases that resulted in dehydration and starvation. Other causes were injury/accident, animal attacks, and complications of childbirth.

Life expectancy back then was approximately 33 years. In other words, they did not have time to develop diseases of aging.

Then, agricultural communities developed approximately 10-12,000 years ago when humans began to domesticate plants and animals. By establishing domesticity, families and larger groups were able to build communities and transition from a nomadic hunter-gatherer lifestyle dependent on foraging and hunting for survival. Lifespans increased significantly.

But nowadays, we've become victims of our own success. Low quality food and sedentary lifestyles have caused a whole host of age-related degenerative diseases.

Fortunately, we have population data from generations of communities in the Mediterranean and other "Blue Zones" to show us how to get back on the path to health. For ourselves and for our planet.