There is a significant difference between your diet (foods you eat on a daily basis) and dieting (usually to lose weight). Over 100 million Americans are on some form of diet to lose weight. They eliminate carbohydrates and or fats or follow a hybrid plan hoping it will shed excess weight for medical or personal reasons. Three popular weight loss diets that have been around in one form or another for decades are; low carbohydrate, low fat and Low Calorie.

Each diet plan claims permanent weight loss and better health. Some advertise weight loss of 40, 60, 100 pounds and more while actual weight loss is significantly less or short-lived due to extreme, unsustainable dietary changes. Want to loss 40 pounds in two months? There are weight loss products claiming to do just that. Other diet plans require a one to two week detoxification period before you are weaned on healthy foods. Low fat and low Calorie diets force you to permanently give up many, if not all, of the foods you love. Eating a healthy diet is important because it improves your quality of life, but the probability of failure using an extreme diet plan is as high as a smoker quitting cold turkey. Dieter’s loss weight on these plans, but gain it back after they’ve reached their goal and “go off” the diet or give up on the plan and return to their old eating habits. When your lifestyle includes a healthy diet there is no need for pseudo scientific diet programs.

On average, Italians and other people living along the Mediterranean Sea live longer, healthier lives than Americans. Why? It is not due to a superior healthcare system. Two reasons are their diet and lifestyle; their manner of living. Environment, lifestyle and genetics play an important part, but your diet is one risk factor which you have complete control. For most Americans, a diet consisting mainly of processed and fast foods high in fat, Calories and sodium is a personal choice not a necessity. Eating a healthy diet is a lifelong commitment to maintain good health not something you do for a few months to lose excess weight or after being diagnosed with heart disease, high cholesterol or diabetes.

How does a Mediterranean diet differ from an American diet or other diet plans? First, unlike Atkins, South Beach, Pritikan and other weight lose programs a Mediterranean diet is not a weight loss plan. The generic term Mediterranean diet refers to the foods people living near the Mediterranean Sea eat on a daily basis. Most are based on foods and lifestyles dating back to ancient Greece, Rome and the Middle East. Research has confirmed people living along the Mediterranean Sea have longer life expectancies and lower rates of cancer, diabetes and heart disease than Americans and other Europeans.

A Mediterranean diet is more than eating healthy foods including fresh fruits and vegetables and using healthy oils like olive oil. Europeans have eaten fried potatoes for hundreds of year. What Americans call French fries originated in Belgium. Thomas Jefferson enjoyed Belgium style fried potatoes so much while stationed in France he brought the recipe to the United States. A new world crop (the potato) originating in South American became an old world favorite; the fried potato.

An occasional serving of fried potatoes or any fried food is no worse for your health than an occasional piece of chocolate, chicken wings or bottle of beer. Eating a super sized order of fried potatoes every day is not good for your health because fried foods are high in Calories and sodium. Unless you are active enough to burn up the Calories you eat, the excess Calories are converted to body fat. If you currently eat fried potatoes or potato chips daily, cutting back to once a week or less allows you to enjoy these foods while significantly reducing the total number of Calories and sodium in your diet.

Doctors, nutritionist and other health professionals are recommending a Mediterranean style diet for Americans because it is a sustainable diet. Southern Italian style food is one of the most popular cuisines in America and one type of Mediterranean diet. Italian restaurants and pizzerias are in almost every city and town in America. The problem with going out for Southern Italian food is that most Italian restaurants in American do not serve traditional Southern Italian style meals. This is true of most ethnic restaurants in the United States. It is not because Americans won’t eat or enjoy an authentic Italian style meal. The reason is economics. Popular American Italian restaurants, especially national chains, offer inexpensive pasta entrees like spaghetti and meatballs, ravioli and lasagna because it gives customers more food for their money. Being Italian and having lived with relatives in Italy, I know lunch and dinner don’t begin with endless bread sticks and salad.

Sixteen Middle Eastern, European and African countries border the Mediterranean Sea. Mediterranean diets vary by country and region. Major regions include; Western European, Eastern European, Middle Eastern and North African.

Within each region are diverse styles based on locally available foods. Variations of a Southern Italian Mediterranean diet exists in other parts of Italy, Spain, Portugal, southern France, north Africa (especially Morocco and Tunisia), Turkey and parts of the Middle East. This book presents a Southern Italian Mediterranean diet from the southeastern State of Apulia which borders the Adriatic Sea and includes the heel of the Italian peninsula. Apulia is Italy’s number one producer of olive oil and wine and a major producer of fruits and vegetables. The regional cuisine uses an abundance of vegetables. Two significant benefits of a Southern Italian diet are; the rates of chronic diseases were among the lowest in the world and adult life expectancy is among the highest in the world with significantly lower healthcare costs.