The Advanced Mediterranean Diet: Lose Weight, Feel Better, Live Longer

by Steve Parker

The author's goal is to help overweight people lose weight while eating Mediterranean-style, ultimately leading to better health. Scientists in the mid-20th century found that the Mediterranean diet was associated with longer life and less chronic disease. Dr. Steve Parker (M.D.), enhances the traditional Mediterranean diet by incorporating the latest scientific breakthroughs. This is not a low-fat or low-carbohydrate diet. The eating plan approximates the traditional Mediterranean diet by suggesting the optimal consumption of fruits, vegetables, nuts, legumes, whole grains, dairy products, olive oil, meat, chicken, eggs, and fish. Wine is optional. Four different eating plans are laid 1100, 1500, 1900, and 2300 calories. The recommended caloric consumption is determined by the individual's sex and current weight. Dieters choose from an extensive list of doctor-approved foods that are readily available at supermarkets. Easy recipes are provided but are optional. The author specifies how much of which nutrients confer the health and longevity benefits. For example, fish is in the traditional Mediterranean diet, but how much and what kind yield the health benefits? The author's clear two servings per week of, preferably, cold-water fatty fish such as trout, salmon, or tuna. A chapter is devoted to adaptation of the program by people with type 2 diabetes mellitus. Later chapters explain the pros and cons of weight-loss (bariatric) surgery and weight-loss pills and nutritional supplements. The last chapter discusses long-term weight control issues and prevention of weight regain.

304 pages, Paperback

Published February 1, 2008

About the author

Steve Parker is a British science writer known for producing hundreds of children's and adult nonfiction books covering zoology, medicine, evolution, and natural history. Educated at the University of Wales, Bangor, where he earned first class honours in zoology, he later worked at the Natural History Museum and held editorial positions at Dorling Kindersley before becoming a freelance author during the late 1980s. Parker contributed early titles to the acclaimed Eyewitness series and later wrote award-winning books including Science Crazy, Fizzing Physics, The Human Body Book, and Kill or Cure. He has also edited major collaborative works on evolution and medicine, regularly visits schools and libraries, and serves as a Senior Scientific Fellow of the Zoological Society of London.

Reviews

[Melissa]

Interesting to actually read about dieting. Something I have never done before. I am sure if you read any diet book a lot of it is the same. But there were some "principles" that I had either never thought of before or just didn't know at all. And it also gave me just that much more motivation to start my diet again.