Customer Reviews

The Way They Ate: Origins of the Mediterranean Diet

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I bought this book our of curiosity as I wanted a historical reference on how people ate in the Mediterranean as well as general guidelines on how to eat healthier. For both these purposes it has exceeded my expectations.

The latter part of the book is filled with medical information regarding the Mediterranean diet as well practices one needs to follow to be accordance with the diet. For fun I followed the guidelines set out by the diet. The only difficult part was eliminating red meat, dairy and simple carbohydrates from my diet.

Amazingly (I am still floored by this) I lost 13 pounds over the course of two months. 13 pounds, and without any additional exercise! My goal was not to loose weight but eat a more natural, healthy way so you can imagine my surprise as the pounds came off. Additionally my energy level has soared and I find I have the endurance to work harder, longer.

Obviously this diet won't be for everyone and neither will the book. It is translated from Italian and there were a couple places where I felt something was definitely lost in the translation. But overall the authors vivid detail of ancient diets and well as today's current Mediterranean diet makes it a worthy investment. It has certainly improved the quality of my life which has endeared me to this little black book.

This was a great find to add to my library, this is not a recipe book but does include the foods that were being eaten around the mediterranean (Egypt,Greece,Phoenicians and more) throughout history. This is an in depth study by a Professor of metabolic diseases who cooridinates a program on metabolism and ageing. I found that he also included material on modern thought for these subjects including sections on diet and cancer and intriquing information on early exercise by these peoples.This book will be a great guide for eating and includes an endorsement from The New England Journal of Medicine.