The Mediterranean diet focuses on healthy fats, unrefined carbohydrates, legumes, nuts and copious amounts of fruit and vegetables, lean protein, hardly any sugar, and a small glass of dark wine with your evening meal.

So why is this tipped as the diet to follow along with? Well, evidence has shown a good amount of health benefits. I generally can't stand the word diet, yet this approach towards a way of eating is much more of the full life-style change, with no counting calories.

So why is this tipped as the diet to follow? Well, evidence has shown an abundance of health advantages. I generally can't stand the term diet, yet this method towards a way of eating is much more of the full lifestyle change, without any calorie counting.

The Mediterranean diet will not make you feel hungry while you should consume until you’re satisfied. However, with the abundance of nourishing vegetables and healthy fats, it will be sure to fill you up for extended, in addition to having to eat less because the healthy fats and fibre will satiate.

With the National Obesity Forum questioning the present nutritional guidelines which they fear has 'underpinned the obesity epidemic over recent decades.\” This refers back to the eat correctly plate, which for me is severely outdated, and doesn't acknowledge healthy fats, and drives heavily on refined carbohydrates.

So, what is the evidence?

Weight Loss

Because the diet plan focuses on healthy fats and unrefined low GI carbohydrates this allows us to feel fuller for longer, meaning we snack less and have reduced cravings for foods high in sugar.

A study published in the Lancet this past year showed participants who ate high levels of essential olive oil and nuts lost MORE weight compared to those on a low-fat controlled diet.

Heart Disease

Focusing on foods rich healthy fats such as essential olive oil, nuts and fatty fish, it provides our bodies with rich sources of unsaturated fat, and reduces your consumption of red meat and delicate sugars that has been linked to reduced cardiovascular events.

The PREDIMED study checked out 7,500 men and women free from heart disease and located after Five years the more closely participants adhered to the med diet, the low their risk was for heart events like cardiac problems.

Diabetes

It steers away from sugar and delicate carbohydrates which increase our insulin levels and lead to obesity. In addition to driving obesity, insulin resistance may be the # 1 risk factor for heart disease, a pre-cursor to type 2 diabetes and also is strongly associated with high blood pressure. It's also linked to many cancers and every one of these chronic diseases are separate from body weight. Lead author of the book, The Pioppi diet, (which concentrates on the med lifestyle), cardiologist Dr Aseem Malhotra says \”there's no such thing like a healthy weight, merely a healthy person\” and also the evidence strongly supports he's right.

Skin Health

The Mediterranean diet is full of omega-3, are powerful anti-inflammatory agents, helping lessen the inflammation behind skin conditions for example eczema, acne and psoriasis.

What to see more?

Dr Aseem Malhotra, a consultant cardiologist who works in the NHS and Harley Street in London, believes our diet can dramatically influence our overall health. His new book, The Pioppi Diet, is a 21-day lifestyle plan and draws inspiration in the best aspects of the Mediterranean diet. The Pioppi plan is based around avoiding added sugar and refined carbs, and instead building your diet around vegetables and fatty foods like oily fish and essential olive oil. I woke closely with Aseem, where both of us believe sugar to be the main driver behind the increase in obesity and chronic disease.

Aseem's book helps educate you from a scientific angle, unlike a number of other 'health books' which aren't based of facts and science. In addition to a multitude of endorsements from eminent doctors, scientists and dietitians it is even having impact on the green benches at Westminster. A few weeks ago, Keith Vaz MP, chair of the All Party Parliamentary Diabetes group urged 100 MPs with the highest prevalence of type 2 diabetes within their constancies to follow the program. Real impact factor for any book which provides me hope that we can start to reverse Britain's obesity and kind 2 diabetes twin epidemics. Former secretary of state for health Andy Burnham has described it as having \”the capacity to make millions of people healthier and happier, and help sustain our NHS\”. I could not agree more.