7 simple secrets to eating the Mediterranean way
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What if “diet” wasn’t a dirty word?
 
During Suzy Karadsheh’s childhood in Port Said, Egypt, diet culture was nonexistent.
 
“My parents emphasized joy at the table, rather than anything else,” Karadsheh said. “I grew up with Mediterranean lifestyle principles that celebrate eating with the seasons, eating mostly whole foods and above all else, sharing.”
 
But when Karadsheh moved to the United States at age 16, she witnessed people doing detoxes or restricting certain food groups or ingredients. Surrounded by that narrative and an abundance of new foods in her college dining hall, she says she “gained the freshman 31 instead of the freshman 15.” When she returned home to Egypt that summer, “I eased back into eating the Mediterranean food that I grew up with. During the span of about two months, I shed all of that weight without thinking I was ever on a diet.”
To help invite joy back to the table for others — and to keep her family’s culinary heritage alive for her two daughters (now 14 and 22) — Atlanta-based Karadsheh launched The Mediterranean Dish food blog 10 years ago. Quickly, her table started getting filled with more than just her friends and family.
 
“I started receiving emails from folks whose doctors had prescribed the Mediterranean diet and were seeking approachable recipes,” Karadsheh said. The plant-based eating lifestyle, often rated the world’s best diet, can reduce the risk for diabetes, high cholesterol, dementia, memory loss and depression, according to research. What’s more, the meal plan has been linked to stronger bones, a healthier heart and longer life.
 
Preparing meals the Mediterranean way, according to Karadsheh, can help you “eat well and live joyfully. To us, ‘diet’ doesn’t mean a list of ‘eat this’ and ‘don’t eat that.’” Instead of omission, Karadsheh focuses on abundance, asking herself, “what can I add to my life through this way of living? More whole foods, vegetables, grains, legumes? Naturally, when you add these good-for-you ingredients, you eat less of what’s not as health-promoting,” she told CNN.