The "Mediterranean Diet" Is Not Healthy!

Everybody knows the Mediterranean diet is healthy, right?

Wrong!

We've been brainwashed. This misconception all started way back in the 60's when studies were released making claims about this diet.

But dig a little deeper and here's what you find:

The data was taken in the 50's ... a time of post-war recovery (poverty and starvation). On the island of Crete! Only!

Where people trudged up and down mountains for 9 miles a day. Where they did hard manual labor behind a plough. And where they ate what they could get ... which was vegetables and a little fish!

By the way, which country is the Mediterranean? Israel? France? Spain? Northern Italy ... or Southern Italy? Algeria?

The whole concept is quite ridiculous actually!

Let's face it. Most people view the Mediterranean diet as basically the stuff we're used to eating, plus maybe some olive oil and wine.

And we've been sold a bill of goods on olive oil and wine too! But who cares if it tastes good?

Olive oil is basically refined fat which is hugely calorific relative to any nutritional benefits, especially in the quantities the olive oil importers have been telling us to consume it in.

And wine is not heart healthy. Its a protoplasmic poison that screws up your circulation and adds ... you guessed it, more empty calories!

But we think it's a health food.

That's just obscene!

Another case of research out of context ... or scientists standing so close to the woods, they can't see the trees.

So let's take a look at this "paragon of virtue" today. Crete. Where the Mediterranean diet emanated from.

The place where people live longer and have a low incidence of heart disease. Or so we're told.

In very rough terms, the inhabitants of Crete today consume at least twice the saturated fat they did when data was collected back in the 50's.

They also consume three-and-one-half times the trans-fats and cholesterol they did ... and about half the fiber.

Sort of like us.

Which means they've got a one-way ticket to all the nasties that go along with a diet that is totally inappropriate for human beings.

So much for the Mediterranean diet.

Oh yeah, did you know that Spain actually tops the USA in the obesity tables? Both are in the top 20 countries. The USA has a third of their population that is obese (old figures, I'm guessing) and Spain exceeds 40%!

But Spain makes good red wine and cold pressed olive oil and sells a bunch of it all over the world!

The New England Journal of Medicine (something I seldom quote) remarked way back in 2003 that it was "unfortunate" that the main message people got from the whole Mediterranean hype was to eat more olive and canola oil.

Why?

Because they are only adding more calories to a diet that is already beleaguered by excess calories.

It went on to say that the message "should be" to eat more fruit, vegetables and legumes ... and fewer foods rich in saturated fats.

Yes, I know ... olive oil is a mono-unsaturated fat. But it is still calorie-dense and refined from olives so it has no fiber.

Next week ... the Atlantic diet. Eat like an Atlanticasian! (Disclaimer: intentional parody here).

I'll drink to that!