The Mediterranean Makeover: Their diet; our culture; preventing diabetes anyway

The logic is straightforward. We know that preventing diabetes is better than fighting the disease after it has developed. We also know that the Mediterranean diet can prevent the development of diabetes in the first place. Thus, in theory, we should be able to apply this approach to prevent the development of the disease.

It sounds easy enough, but the solution is not so simple. How, for example, does one become Greek, or French, or Spanish, or Italian, if you live on this side of the Atlantic? Yes, they are healthy. And, yes, the closer you adhere to their diet, the less likely you are to develop diabetes. But we are not them, nor do have their food, their relaxed lifestyle, or their cultural predisposition toward daily life activity.

So how do we take the Mediterranean diet out of the Mediterranean, and still make it work for us? The key is, just as they do in their region, to relax a bit. Don’t try to force fit every iota of their food choices and behavioral habits into our lives. More specifically, don’t try to rigidly mirror the fats, carbs, and proteins of their diets. They aren’t micromanaging molecules, and you shouldn’t either.

The alternative is to try a bit softer. Emulate the principles of the Mediterranean diet rather than the exhaustive details. So what are those general rules?

Eat food. If it ain’t food, don’t eat it. All healthy cultures eat food, and avoid synthetics. Whether they’re eating brie on baguettes, pasta al pomodoro, or a standard Greek salad, everything they do eat is a real food – no synthetics, no hydrogenated oils, and no dyes. Just food.

Love your food … really. To love your food, you need to eat small by the bite. Have you ever watched Italians eat? No one is gobbling their burrito in the car at the red light, no one orders massive quantities of food, or feels that 39 cents justifies an extra pound of French fries. As importantly, if you love your food, you need to take your time. You have to take 2 hours to eat your lunch, but at least take 30 minutes to enjoy it.

When you eat small and take your time, not only do you enjoy it more, but you give your brain a chance to register that you are full before you overeat. Thus, you control portions; thus you control calories; thus you control your weight. And all you have done is learned to love your food again.

The Mediterranean diet clearly helps prevent the onset of diabetes for those living in the Mediterranean region. To get those results on our continent, we can’t teleport to and from the Portofino piazza, but we can apply the general rules that make their successful lifestyle work.

Relax. Eat food. Love your food again. These basic elements can be plugged into our lifestyle, so that we can reverse the trends, eat healthfully, and prevent diabetes before it ever starts.