Does anyone do the Mediterranean Diet?

[Avocadodance]

I want to eat healthier, reduce meat and lose a bit of weight off my stomach. Does anyone follow this diet and find it easy to stick to? I like a lot of the foods you can eat on it so think it might be the diet for me. What sort of food/ meals/ snacks do you eat? Any good websites or recipes? Has anyone tried it and wouldn't recommend?

I follow the Mediterranean diet. I'm steadily losing 2pounds a week.

Dead easy to stick to. Lots of fruit, salad and vegetables. No butter or oil apart from olive oil. Choose Fish, seafood, chicken, turkey - red meat rarely. Eggs 3/4 tomes a week. Potatoes, pasta and hm pizza good. Pulses, grains, oats, nuts and seeds are all good too. Dairy occasionally, make sure it's not low fat. (Greek yoghurt, and milk) drink loads of water.

No processed foods or anything that looks like it was made in a factory. No fizzy drinks, no added sugar.

You can have a couple of pieces of dark chocolate and one glass of red wine a day.

Snack on a piece of fruit, handful of nuts, raisins or seeds.

I don't feel hungry or that I'm missing out.

Oh and I forgot bread! You can eat wholemeal or grainy bread and make sure pasta and rice is brown.

Another snack is popcorn (pop it in a covered bowl in the microwave with no oil)

I guess I do unintentionally as I'm Italian and we mainly eat Italian food at home.

A lot of our meals are pasta with different vegetable sauce combinations and a little bit of cheese for flavour/protein.
Frittata is also great for using up bits of veg/ham etc. DS calls in omlette pizza if anyone needs to sell it to fussy DC.
I'd like to eat more minestrone type meals but DH and DS both hate soup.
What else, we try to only have red meat or sausages once a week (although now I'm pg DM is making me eat lots!)

I do think its easier to eat healthily in Italy because the fruit and veg are tastier ( we live in the UK, I may just have rose tinted glasses from Italian holidays)

Thank you both. It sounds good and doable! I would struggle to cut carbs so swapping to wholegrain is a good compromise.

Following, I may well try this when I'm back from holiday

The healthy Mediterranean diet referred to in medical literature does rely less on carbs. So you can't eat lots of pasta, potatoes and bread - even if it is whole grain. The diet relies much more heavily on salad, vegetables and fruit. You can eat whole grain carbs but it shouldn't form most of your plate. It is also really imported to eat extra virgin olive oil (normal olive oil does not have the same health benefits) and unsalted nuts. These have beneficial health effects. You should also eat live cheese and yoghurt.

Thanks Jenny that's really useful. I like to still have the odd slice of brow toast or bowl of pasta. Thankfully I love veg and salad so happy to load up with that.

Following this with interest.

Most kids follow a Mediterranean diet. Pasta and pizzas.

Pizza IS a processed food. So is any kind of bread. Or yogurt. Olive oil and wine are very processed foods.
That's problem with "Meditarranean Diet". It has no definition.

Most kids follow a Mediterranean diet. Pasta and pizzas.

woop! pizza hut and mac 'n' cheese diet.

I looked up a 'healthy childrens diet' on the Italian version of babycentre and it would horrify most mumsnetters
Things I remember:
1 small juice allowed each day, no more than 1 glass of milk allowed.
Afternoon snack is baguette slice and jam most days. (or crackers, salad tomatoes and olive oil other days to be fair)
Pasta or rice (with veg and protein) for lunch every weekday.
Not too many eggs per week.
Good bits: lots of focus on pulses and fruit and veg. No 'low fat' anything. Oily fish recommended.

Tbh that's what I ate growing up and I'm pretty healthy.