Did you know that May is Mediterranean Diet Month?  The “MedDiet” is one of the healthiest eating styles in the world!  It’s not even a diet, it’s a way of eating!

I’ll tell you more about it in a minute, but first, here’s the “new news”  –  a study just published found that switching to a 10-day Mediterranean Diet improves mood and memory and cardiovascular health in 10 days.  Wow!!

This study included 24 healthy young women.  After initial blood tests and measurements of arterial blood flow and stiffness were obtained, they were divided into 2 groups:
●  Group A ate their “normal” diet for 10 days, had lab tests repeated on day 11 and then were switched to a Mediterranean-style diet for 10 days with the lab tests repeated on the 22^nd day
●  Group B ate the Mediterranean-style diet for 10 days first, had blood tests repeated on day 11 and then were switched to their “normal” diet for 10 days  with the lab tests done again on day 22.
(This is known as a “cross-over study design”.  It gives very clean information for scientific validation.)

Here are the results:
● Compared to “normal”, the  MedDiet showed significantly elevated contentment and alertness, and significantly reduced confusion
●  Compared to “normal”, the MedDiet also showed significant improvement in cognition, such as memory recall
●  Compared to “normal”, the MedDiet showed improvement in arterial stiffness measurements
●  Compared to “normal”, there was no difference in blood flow with the MedDiet
●  The results were the same in both group A and Group B!

Well, if 10 days of a Mediterranean Style Diet can do that …. and with its list of other health benefits … maybe it’s worth adopting, at least some of the time!

I have spoken about the MedDiet before.  In my first blog on it we looked at the MedDiet itself and its beneficial effect on Metabolic Syndrome .  In my second blog on it we looked at the MedDiet’s beneficial effect on aging (really).

So, what is the MedDiet?  It is a way of eating that is common in the part of the world that borders the Mediterranean Sea.  The MedDiet has nothing to do with calorie restriction, it has to do with food choices.  The MedDiet Food Pyramid has 4 basic food groups:
# 1  –  Every meal:  fruits, vegetables, grains (mostly whole), olive oil, beans, nuts, legumes, seeds, herbs and spices –
#2   –  Eaten often, at least two times per week: fish and seafood  –
#3   –  Eaten in moderate portions daily or less often but at least weekly: poultry, eggs, cheese and yogurt  –
#4   –  Eaten on occasion: meats and sweets.

It really isn’t hard to eat the Mediterranean way! Mediterranean Diet Month is a good time to start.

If you’d like to be in a better mood and think more clearly too, the MedDiet just may be for you! Gosh, I feel better already …