What is the Mediterranean Diet? It's a nutritional model that was patterned after the way people eat in countries such as Italy and Greece. People started paying attention to it after it became well publicized that people living in that part of the world have a much fewer occurrences of cancer and other diseases.

Though this diet was developed in the 1940s by an American doctor, Americans didn't start paying attention to it until well into the 1990s. Better late than never. There are key differences between the traditional American diet and the Mediterranean diet that are worth noting.

The US Food Pyramid is markedly different from the Mediterranean Diet food pyramid. The Mediterranean Diet contains very little red meat, for starters. They do use red meat in their recipes, but not frequently, and in little portions. And whereas the US Food Pyramid lumps all the different kinds of meat into one category, fish takes up a big portion in the Mediterranean Diet food pyramid.

What make up the main staple of Mediterranean fare are whole grain foods, like bread and rice, couscous, potatoes, and other such things. Nuts and beans are another important part of the Mediterranean diet. So are fruits and vegetables in particular. This is something both food pyramids share in common, though the recommended quantities are fairly different.

While the Mediterranean Diet food pyramid has these separate from one another, the traditional US food pyramid has all of the forms of protein lumped together in one, making it difficult to see what specific parts each type of food should play in one's diet.

The reason why people have finally begun to pay attention to this Mediterranean way of thinking and eating is that they have been discovered to have shockingly low rates of cancer and other such diseases.

You'll find plenty of red wine being used in the Mediterranean Diet. Red wine has really powerful antioxidants, and it is part of just about every meal. The same goes for olive oil, which is used in Mediterranean cooking and is also known to have some antioxidant properties. If you want to live a healthy life, check out the Mediterranean Diet food pyramid. It will help you not only look better, but you'll feel better too.