Mediterranean Diet: Pros, Cons, and Components

What is the Mediterranean Diet?

The Mediterranean diet has become popular all over the world. This diet is typical for countries surrounding the Mediterranean sea (as the name suggests); these include Italy, Spain, France, and Greece.

Overall, the Mediterranean Diet is a wonderful diet for anyone looking to make healthy changes to their diet and lifestyle. This diet is evidence-based and promotes a healthy relationship with food. This diet has been shown to improve many aspects of health, including: weight, blood sugar, blood pressure, and cholesterol management. The Mediterranean diet is based on listing foods to prioritize in the diet and which to limit, therefore, not completely restricting any foods from the diet. This way, you can still enjoy all the foods you love while practicing balancing out your plate and eating in moderation.

Pros and Cons of the Mediterranean Diet

Pros of the Mediterranean Diet

• The Mediterranean has various evidence-based health outcomes, including a decreased risk of:

  • All-cause mortality

  • Cardiovascular disease

  • Cancer

  • Diabetes

  • Other chronic diseases

• Linear association with a lower average heart rate

• Better adherence to the Mediterranean Diet Study (MDS) was associated with a reduced risk of depression

Cons of the Mediterranean Diet

• Lack of strict guidelines around exact intakes and portion control

• Potential for weight gain, due to the inclusion of calorie dense foods without strict intake guidelines

  
  

What are the components of the Mediterranean Diet?

• This pattern is defined using olive oil as the main source of fat, a high consumption of plant-derived foods (i.e., fruits, nuts, vegetables, legumes, cereals, and seeds), frequent consumption of fish, moderate wine consumption with meals, and low consumption of meat (mainly poultry), dairy products and sweets" (CARLOS)

Resources

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Guasch-Ferré M, Willett WC. The Mediterranean diet and health: a comprehensive overview. J Intern Med. 2021 Sep;290(3):549-566. doi: 10.1111/joim.13333. Epub 2021 Aug 23. PMID: 34423871. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34423871/

Carlos S, De La Fuente-Arrillaga C, Bes-Rastrollo M, Razquin C, Rico-Campà A, Martínez-González MA, Ruiz-Canela M. Mediterranean Diet and Health Outcomes in the SUN Cohort. Nutrients. 2018 Mar 31;10(4):439. doi: 10.3390/nu10040439. PMID: 29614726; PMCID: PMC5946224. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29614726/

Martínez-González M.A., Fuente-Arrillaga C., Núñez-Córdoba J.M., Basterra-Gortari F.J., Beunza J.J., Vazquez Z., Benito S., Tortosa A., Bes-Rastrollo M. Adherence to Mediterranean diet and risk of developing diabetes: Prospective cohort study. BMJ. 2008;336:1348–1351. doi: 10.1136/bmj.39561.501007.BE. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18511765/

Sánchez-Villegas A., Henríquez-Sánchez P., Ruiz-Canela M., Lahortiga F., Molero P., Toledo E., Martínez-González M.A. A longitudinal analysis of diet quality scores and the risk of incident depression in the SUN Project. BMC Med. 2015;113:197. doi: 10.1186/s12916-015-0428-y. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26377327/