The Mediterranean Diet is one of the best documented and most effective approaches to slow, sustained weight loss and general improvement in cardiovascular health. Foods eaten on a typical Mediterranean diets are tasty, natural, and easy to prepare. People who follow the plan without counting calories or measuring portion sizes typically lose about 12 to 20 pounds (5 to 10 kilos) in six months, and keep it off if they continue eating the same way. Type 2 diabetics who follow Mediterranean diets produce less insulin (overproduction of insulin being the problem), so their bodies release fat to be burned more easily, and type 1 diabetics can manage their blood sugars with less injected insulin. Just about everyone will have lower total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, and triglycerides.
What do you eat on a Mediterranean diet? What most advocates of this powerful style of eating overlook is that while people in Mediterranean countries eat well, they don't eat all the time. It's considered OK not to eat every meal every day. In fact, in southeastern Europe where observantly religious people fast up to 150 days a year, it's considered virtuous not to eat at all from time to time.
Taking a break from food does more than reduce calories. Any time cells are given an 18-hour or longer break from having to do something with incoming proteins and glucose, they can break down old, malformed, or damaged enzymes and DNA and get ready to produce their replacements. Then just about as soon as the body receives just a few grams of protein, they are ready to start all over again. Despite what some ill-informed "experts" tell us, we don't need protein all the time. In fact, we need an occasional break from protein for at least part of a day, so our cells can do the maintenance work they need.