Another prominent feature of the Mediterranean Diet is that it is low in carbohydrates. There may be bread, which is so delicious you can savor every bit, and there may be sweets that you can savor. But this diet usually results in the consumption of less than 100 calories in sugars every day (which is about all your liver can process without activating fat storage enzymes). This diet also typically counts less than 600 calories worth of carbohydrates a day, and they come from a wide variety of sources: bread, rice, fruit, wine, and vegetables. Limiting carbohydrates gives your body the raw materials it needs to make the glucose that fuels every cell, without overwhelming the ability of the pancreas to make insulin.
Mediterranean diets include meat and fish, typically grilled, broiled, or baked, but never battered and deep fried. Too much protein, most people are unaware, results in the body's having to use excess amino acids to make glucose, which in turn may have to be stored as triglycerides or fatty acids, and urea. The urea byproduct is strongly acidic, and the body avoids acidification by neutralizing it with calcium or, ironically, the amino acid glutamine. Calcium typically comes from the bones. Glutamine comes from protein — so the body may have to break down protein to neutralize protein when you eat too much. Mediterranean diets include cheese and, rarely, milk, just enough to provide sufficient calcium, along with greens and fish, in amounts that the body can actually absorb.
All Mediterranean diets use olive oil. The primary component of olive is omega-9 fat. This is the safe, non-reactive, nourishing kind of fat that our bodies store as reserve fuel and to fill out the curves in our contours that make us attractive. Olive oil contains small amounts of omega-6 and omega-3 fat. These are "essential" fatty acids. Our bodies have to have them, and they have to come from food. But what is left unnoted about omega-3's and omega-6's is that they are highly reactive. They spoil easily. They have to be consumed fresh or they can actually cause the health problems that they are needed to prevent. The Mediterranean diet uses fresh olive oil, usually without heating it, and preserves both the essential fatty acids and natural antioxidants found in the product.