I’m trying to wrap my head around this. I grew up with what I consider the ‘regular’ food pyramid. As you can see, there are a LOT of differences between that and the Mediterranean lifestyle food pyramid shown here.
- They agree that we should eat very few sweets. We have been trying to cut out all, if not most, added sugar because 1) my husband is Type II diabetic, and 2) because we know sugar is bad for us.
- They agree we should eat more fruits and veggies. I’m not finding many recipes to try because the Med diet includes WAY too many veggies my husband not only dislikes, but dislikes with a vengeance. I’m sneaking in more veggies here and there that he DOES like where he can see them, and sneaking in even more in soups, stews, and casseroles where he CAN’T identify them.
- The ‘regular’ pyramid says to avoid fats and oils, while the Med one encourages you to embrace extra virgin olive oil.
- The Med pyramid encourages you to eat fish and seafood at least twice a week. They also say poultry is good, but discourage red meat (only use as a flavoring).
- Beans are DIS-couraged in the regular pyramind and EN-couraged in the Med.
And so it goes. I’m making small changes each week, trying to incorporate as many of the differences as I can without causing my husband grief. So far, I’ve been successful…
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