In this video, I'll uncover the top things that you need to know in order to get started
with the Mediterranean diet.
They saw these countries around the Mediterranean Sea having some better quality health that
they had better cardiovascular health. They had just better health overall. You live in
many of these countries that offer a lot of processed food to the people. Essentially.
These are people who are struggling with weight loss because they're eating processed food,
they're reading a ton of toxic, unnatural ingredients. They're eating foods that they
can't even really understand half the ingredients within the package. It's going to be very
important for cellular health, brain health, neurological health, the whole deal. I mean,
this is one of the reasons that people who eat a lot of fish are so healthy. They typically
do not suffer from neurological disorders.
Now, there's so many different diets out there and they all really go through their phases
of popularity. There was a time when everybody had to be on the paleo diet and it was the
hottest thing out there, and then of course the ketogenic diet came and they kind of dismantled
that. So now everybody wants to follow the ketogenic type. But one of the diets that
many people aren't talking about is a diet that's been highly studied in research and
one that has been really proven to help you greatly improve your health and that's the
Mediterranean diet. So that's why in this video we're going to talk about how to get
started with the Mediterranean diet. We're first going to talk about the basics of what
it is, some of the science behind it as to how it can help you improve your health, and
then of course, what you should eat and what you, you should avoid while on the Mediterranean
diet. Now, this diet has been a particular interest to me as of lately because of according
to my ancestor reports, my DNA reports, my genetics, this is the diet that I'm supposed
to follow. So anyway, it's been an interest of mine and so I want to share that with you,
so stick around to the end.
But before we get started, I'm Dr. Zyrowski and welcome to the channel. If you're new
to the channel, it's a pleasure to have you here. Be sure to subscribe, hit that bell
notification, and join our notification community. That way I can help you excel your health
and your life.
Let's go ahead and dive right in and first talk about what is a Mediterranean Diet. So,
this is a diet that was started. It was researched about over 50 years ago and what they did
is they took 13,000 men and they just looked at their health. They were looking at some
of these different countries where their health wasn't so great - the Northern European countries,
America. And then of course they saw these countries with their health, not so great,
but they saw these countries around the Mediterranean Sea having some better-quality health. So,
they wanted to know what was going on, but they were interested in them. They why were
they so much healthier? So, they did studies on them and what they found is that they had
better cardiovascular health, they had just better health overall.
Now when we look at the Mediterranean diet is based on traditional foods to countries
eat back in the 1960s This is when this study really began back then and they wanted to
really see what they were doing. And so, this is what the diet is based off - the traditional
foods they ate. Now there's multiple versions of the Mediterranean diet. Now that's something
that's important to consider because when we talk about the Mediterranean Diet, the
Mediterranean Sea and all the countries around it, they basically all have variable diets.
If you were in Greece, you ate a certain way. If you were in Italy, you ate a certain way.
So, what we want to do is kind of just cut through the clutter and just talk about the
basics of starting the Mediterranean Diet and not get too caught up in the all the different
variables it.
Now, one of the things you're going to notice about the Mediterranean diet is this is a
diet that's really based on whole foods. I mean, it's just eating good quality, wholesome
foods. It's that simple. So, let's go ahead and talk about this diet and some of the benefits
it has to offer.
Now, one of the things that it's going to do is it's going to help promote weight loss.
Plenty of research out there saying that if you follow the Mediterranean Diet, you're
going to lose a lot of weight because this is a good whole food-based diet. If you live
in America, you live in many of these countries that offer a lot of processed food to the
people. Essentially, these are people who are struggling with weight loss because they're
eating processed food, they're eating a ton of toxic, unnatural ingredients. They're eating
foods that they can't even really understand half the ingredients within the package. So,
we want to really follow a good whole food-based diet like the Mediterranean Diet. If we want
to start losing weight.
A lot of people think that you have to go straight from eating the standard American
diet to the ketogenic diet. If you want to actually get better health and you want to
lose weight, but the truth is, is following a good quality whole food diet is going to
do magic for you. So, we want to make sure that we take that into consideration when
we consider weight loss and just improving our overall health.
The next thing here is it really has been shown to help prevent heart attacks and also
strokes. One of the things that the Mediterranean Diet has been really shown to do very well
is really help improve cardiovascular health. It's one of the things that they noticed when
they did this study back in the day. They basically went and found that many of these
men had good cardiovascular health. Many of the men from the Northern European countries,
from America did not necessarily have good cardiovascular health. So very good for that.
It's going to help them prevent Type II diabetes, which is very important. I mean, this is a
thing that so many people are struggling with today. So, this is a good diet that's going
to help with them. It's going to help reduce their risk of dementia, reduce their risk
of Parkinson's - neurologically based disorders, brain deterioration, neurological deterioration,
want to make sure that we're supporting our nervous system. The Mediterranean diet does
so and also just basically helps with premature death. When you look at all these different
ways that the Mediterranean diet can help you, these are things that people are really
struggling with today. I mean if you look at cardiovascular events alone, I mean there's
one in three people who die prematurely from a heart attack, so this is something that
many, many people are struggling with and the Mediterranean diet can really help them.
Let's go ahead and talk about what you eat while on the Mediterranean diet because obviously
this is really important because this is the basis of the diet. Now, first of all, vegetables
is a big, big staple in the diet. These people are eating a lot of good, healthy green leafy
vegetables. These people are eating a lot of cruciferous vegetables. Vegetables is one
of the major bases of this diet. Now right here in this green section, this is basically
highlighted green because these are the things that you're supposed to eat in abundance while
on the Mediterranean diet. So, lots of vegetables, lots of fruit. Now when you look at fruit,
if you're someone who is maybe a diabetic, somebody who is trying to lose weight, you're
going to not want to get into the big fruits, the high sugar fruits, the high-glycemic index
fruits. You're going to want to stick more to things like berries - very micronutrient
dense, low-glycemic index. It’s going to be a little bit more beneficial for you if
you're trying to lose weight, if you're trying to reverse a insulin resistance issue or maybe
a hormonal imbalance, you want to stick to the lower glycemic fruits here. A lot of nuts,
seeds, legumes, potatoes, and then of course whole grains is a big staple in the diet as
well. Now this is something people are going to look at and go like, well, why are you
promoting whole grains? I didn't make the diet, you know, and this is something that
existed way, way beyond my time here. So, when we look at whole grains, what I really
have people do here is I have them eat good quality grains. If you're going to do anything,
if you're going to eat whole grains, if you want to eat bread, eating like good sprouted
whole grains, like an Ezekiel bread or just minimizing the intake of it altogether is
not a bad idea either. I mean, there's some people, this is going to be a kryptonite food
for them. They just shouldn't be eating them because they disrupt them. Maybe they have
celiac or whatever it is. Maybe there's a reason that you need to stay away from grains
altogether. Then just avoid it. It's not a big deal is not a reason to write off this
diet and say that you can't do it. So, if you don't want to do whole grains, then of
course just pull it out and maybe you can't do it pull it out. And if you want to add
in grains, of course, just make better choices there. I mean, make sure you're sticking to,
like I said, a sprouted whole grain.
Next here is fish and seafood. So, remember these were countries surrounding the Mediterranean
Sea and so they ate a lot of fish, they ate a lot of seafood. This is really good. They're
going to be rich in Omega-3s. The fish in the seafood is going to have a lot of DHA
and it's going to be very important for cellular health, brain health, neurological health,
the whole deal. I mean this is one of the reasons that people who eat a lot of fish
are so healthy and they typically do not suffer from neurological disorders. So, lots of fish
and seafood, lots of extra Virgin olive oil. This was a big staple for these people. And
it's something that is just so healthy. I mean, when you look at olive oil or extra
virgin olive oil, I mean loaded with antioxidants, all kinds of different anti-cancer nutrients
in it. Very, very powerful, very good stuff there. And then lots of herbs and spices.
So, as I mentioned before, these are the foods that you're going to basically consume in
an abundance right here.
Now on this section over here, this is in yellow because this is food that is more like
eat it rarely eat it few and far between. It’s not the food that you're going to be
eaten abundance, but still an important part of the diet. So, poultry, cheese, eggs, yogurt
and red meat. And I don't get too crazy about like, well only eat this and rarity because
I mean when we look at a lot of these foods here, they're very good, healthy foods. I
mean, you look at eggs is considered one of the powerful super foods, one of the most
perfect foods. It's got good balanced fats and proteins and everything that you need
in it. And so, eggs are great for you. One of the big things that they would stress in
this section here is just eat red meat rarely. It's not that you need to avoid red meat altogether,
it's just that you would eat it more on the rare. So, eat this in abundance, eat this
a little bit less, and then eat red meat rarely. This is according to the Mediterranean diet.
Let's go ahead and talk about what you need to avoid. Now, one of the things I mentioned
about this diet is it just a good whole food wholesome diet, and this is where these foods
right here is where you get into a lot of problems when you start looking at America
and a lot of the Northern European countries that this study was referring to when they
said they weren't as healthy. So, first here is going to be soda. Now just think of it
this way if you're having anything where you're taking a table sugar and putting it into it,
then that's going to not be a very healthy food for you. If it's not naturally, just
found in nature then is not going to be good for you. That's why people get a little bit
crazy about eating fruits and how they have all this sugar in them, but the truth is the
fruits are not what is causing all the problems in people. It's all the added sugar. And so,
we've got to make sure we're staying away from the sodas, things like ice cream, and
like I said, anything with added sugar in. That's a lot of things that people are eating
out there today – candy, all kinds of sweets.
Now we also want to make sure that we're staying away from refined grains because we talked
about whole grains and I recommend eating sprouted grains. One of the things you want
to stay away from is like the bleach white flours, the bleached white pastas, all these
different refined grains out there that are not good for you. So, stay away from that
because they do nothing to promote health and they aren't good for you. And I can argue
that all day long. Make sure you're staying away from these refined grains.
Hydrogenated oils are another thing that you want to stay away from. These different trans
fat, these low-quality oils, these different like sunflower oils and things of that nature.
We want to make sure that we're sticking to really good high-quality oils and fats. Olive
oil would be a really good one, which we already talked about. Avocado oil would be a great
oil to cook with because it's great at high heat and then coconut oil is good as well
and also is stable at some pretty decent temperatures as well. So, making sure that we're sticking
to the good quality oils is important because it's very important for overall health, but
also if we get into these battle oils are highly inflammatory, not good for us.
I want to make sure we're staying away from all processed food. I mentioned this already.
Stay away from all the different foods that you're going in and picking up at the grocery
store that has 30 different ingredients in that you can't pronounce. Stay away from that
stuff. And then of course, make sure that you are staying away from the low-fat foods.
Many of the big health organizations like the American heart association, they promoted
eating low fat foods for so many years. So, we want to make sure that we're just eating
full fat. If we're going to eat yogurt, we want full fat yogurt. We want to make sure
that we get like full fat cheese. We want to get full fat dairy if you're having dairy,
but stay away from all that low-fat stuff.
Next on our list here that we need to discuss is what do you drink while on the Mediterranean
diet. So, like I said, these are just simple people eating foods and drink from the earth
basically - water is a major one. That's going to be the key here is staying away from all
the different nonsense that people drink today - energy drinks, all that stuff. So, drink
a lot of water. They like their red wine. I'm not going to lie. And then also coffee
and tea are considered acceptable to well on the Mediterranean diet.
So, give this video a thumbs up, share it with your friends. Let me know in the comments
section below your experience with the Mediterranean Diet or if you're going to follow it yourself
I'd love to know. Also be sure to check out this video I did over here on the ketogenic
diet. And so, there is no perfect diet for everybody out there. Maybe the Mediterranean
Diet is right for you, or maybe the ketogenic diet is right for you. Learn everything you
need to know in this complete guide to the ketogenic diet right here.
Most people, their crashing, brain turns off. They're checked out. So, we want to make sure
we utilize nutritional ketosis…