The Mediterranean Diet Pyramid: Beyond Food Groups
The Mediterranean diet is based on the traditional diet of the Mediterranean region, and is very different than the typical American diet. The Mediterranean diet is based off the pyramid system, similar to what you might have learned in grade school when the USDA used a Food Pyramid or MyPyramid to model a balanced diet. The Mediterranean diet pyramid is based off your weekly intake rather than your daily intake. The core elements of the diet include a variety of fruits, vegetables, whole grain grains/cereals, and olive oil at each meal. Meat is not a necessary element in each meal. In fact, meats are broken down weekly, allotting 10 meals a week with meat, and 2-4 meals with eggs. If you eat three meals a day, that would mean more than half of your meals for the week would be vegetarian! In a typical western diet, almost all of our meals have ...