Healthy Eating Plan

A key to keep your brain sharp long past your 80th birthday is simply to eat a Mditerranean-style diet! And Harvard doctors say that the same delicious eating plan will cut your risk of heart disease, diabetes and other major health hassles as much as 50%.
Are you ready? Follow this easy six-step plan:

People in the Mediterranean love jazzing up yogurt, cereal and other dishes with flaxseeds
and that's smart: Adding 1 oz. of them to your daily diet could lower your arteryclogging cholesterol and triglycerides 10% or more, enough to cut your risk of heart disease as much as 25%. Flax's ALA (short for alphalinolenic acid) fat works this magic by helping the liver fine-tune its beakdown of cholesterol.
Boost brainpower with whole grains - Follow the Mediterranean habit of choosing hearty, unrefined grains over bland white flour, and you'll boost your memory and focus so dramatically you could score 16 points higher onstandard I.Q. test. Nutrient-dense whole grains contain the B vitamins that your brain nerves need to function at their peak. They're also more filling and keep isulin and blood-sugar levels more stable, which prevents diets-sabotaging cravings.
Get energized with extra-virgin olive oil - This Mediterranean staple is well known for its heart-healthy attributes, and consuming 2 tbs. daily cuts your risk of blood-sugar problems 22% in one week, plus lower your risk of rheumatoid arthritis and other inflammatory conditions as much as 40%! Follow-up research suggests that same dose cuts your risk of some cancers as much as 25%.
"Extra-virgin oilive oile is rich in antioxidanta that neutralize free redicals before they can damage and age body cells" , explains Wendy Bazilian, Dr.P.H., author of the SuperFoods Rx Diet.
Prevent colon cancer with superfood snacks - Got a sweet tooth? Mediterranean women have a delicous fix:
. Mix 1 cup plain Greek yogurt (choose one with a low fat content) with
. 2 Tbs. of unpasteurized honey and
. 3 Tbs. of chopped walnuts
and eat daily.
This satisfying sweet treat kills carb cravings while cutting colon cancer risk as much as 30%. Thanks goes to its rich supply of protaglandin E2 - a compound that protects the digestive tract from toxins. Plus, unpasteurized honey has enzymes that squelch the growth of infection-causing bacteria in the intestines.
Shield your breasts with fish stew - A recent study confirms that the healthiest women in Greece are the ones who eat two servings of fish weekly and a little bit of tomato every day. Fish is packed with EPA and DHA, essential fats that help protect against diabetes, cancer, heart disease and other diseases.
And tomatoes are nature's top source of lycopene, an antioxidant that quashes the growth of abnormal breast cells:
12 oz. of fish weekly, plus one medium tomato - or
1/2 cup of cooked tomato products - daily
Dodge diabetes and Alzheimer's with red wine - Folks in the Mediterranean love red wine, and studies suggest that's one of the top reasons they have just half our risk of diabetes, plus a 75% lower risk of Alzheimer's disease and dementia. Red wine's powerful antioxidants, called phenolics, and its 400 other active ingredients are key: they cut damaging inflammation in both the brain and the isulin-producing pancreas 25% or more.
The study-proven dose: 4oz. daily for women, 8oz. daily for men. Not a wine drinker? Eating a heaping cup of red or purple grapes daily could have the same great effect.

Bonus:
Smoother Skin
Adding 1/2 cup each of two of the following Mediterranean favorites to your dayly diet can reduce skin inflammation and kick-start tissue healing, resulting in a younger, smoother complexion in as litlle as one month: Avocados, Berries, Legumes, Onions

New! Comments

Have your say about what you just read! Leave me a comment in the box below.

Learn more Mediterranean Diet
Enzymes are complex proteins that are capable of inducing chemical changes in other substances without being changed themselves. Enzymes are specific in their action.