Choosing the right diet: Mediterranean

I am not one for diet culture, but the Mediterranean diet is more than your typical diet aiming to lose weight. This diet is about general health and allows you to eat a wide variety of things as opposed to a strict regime of a few specific foods. You can adjust the diet to your specific needs and health goals, such as heart health or the improvement of gut health.

Typical “diet culture” can be dangerous and lead to difficulties like eating disorders when people focus too much on the weight loss aspect, as most diets do. Health website, Wechu writes, “Diet culture does not consider that what is best for one person could be harmful for another. Instead, it gives a set of desired standards which are rooted in the pursuit of thinness, and not in the overall well-being of a person.” There are thousands of diets out there, all claiming that they are the diet that is guaranteed to make you lose 10, 15 or 20 pounds.

Not everyone needs to be the same size, however, and dieting should be about the health aspects a person can gain from it — not what they can lose. The Mediterranean diet focuses on the general health aspects a person can gain from what they eat. According to Cleveland Clinic, the benefits of a Mediterranean diet include lowering the risks of heart disease, getting to a healthy weight for each individual, how it supports blood pressure, how it supports gut health, lowers the risk of some cancers, its effect on brain health and living longer.

There are no shortage of benefits that come with this diet, and it does not even aim at “losing weight.” It has a goal of getting each individual to their specific healthy weight — not less. There are also a wide variety of foods you can eat with this diet as opposed to some diets that only allow you to eat a few specific foods. According to Mayo Clinic, people on the Mediterranean diet can enjoy vegetables, fruits, whole grains, beans, nuts, seeds, olive oil, seasonings, fish, poultry and eggs.

Sugar, red meat and dairy are still allowed on the diet, but it is recommended to limit the amounts you have. On the diet, you are also encouraged to exercise and share your meals with those around you. The diet is based on the people living around the Mediterranean Sea, who tend to be healthier and at less risk for certain conditions than Americans, according to Healthline.

Diets can be very controlling over people’s lives because of all the rules and regulations they come with, but there is no one Mediterranean diet. Each individual can make the diet exactly what they need for their own health goals.

The Mediterranean diet, and the way it is formulated to allow so much freedom, makes it one of the best options out there for dieting. If you are in search of a new diet, consider trying one like this that allows you the freedom to eat healthy but does not put an emphasis on weight loss.

Carter is an opinion writer for the Liberty Champion