Is It The Mediterranean Diet Or The Mediterranean Lifestyle‪?‬ Fork U with Dr. Terry Simpson

In science, we don’t look to confirm what we know; we want to find out something that we don’t know. We love it when science proves us wrong.
If your doctor told you that you have heart disease, were pre-diabetic, or said you should eat healthier, they likely will tell you to follow the Mediterranean Diet.
When I introduce the Mediterranean Diet to my patients I get a response like this:
“Sounds great!  Who doesn’t love red wine, olive oil, and fresh Italian tomatoes?”
This is followed by asking for a recommendation of a book of recipes from the Mediterranean.
The Mediterranean Diet seems to invoke sitting on a rooftop restaurant in Positano sipping wine while munching on fruit and waiting for pasta. The food and wine are part of the lifestyle, as is relaxing and breathing in the surroundings. You might not be on a rooftop restaurant in Positano (lucky if you are). You might be looking in your yard and seeing a squirrel or rabbit or flowers, and taking in that time to breathe and relax and maybe the glass of wine and thus transporting that lifestyle to your home.
Which do you think is better for your heart and your brain: rushing home from a stressful day at work, grabbing a martini and letting the alcohol calm you or going outside, taking a deep breath of fresh air, maybe having a glass of wine?
In the original Greek, the word “diata” was used to describe how one should live, what one should eat, how to maintain a healthy body. It is from diata that our word “diet” derives. There is no doubt what you eat impacts your health.
While the origin of the Mediterranean Diet is what ‘some’ people in the Mediterranean ate, but that isn’t what we (doctors, scientists, registered dieticians) mean today.   Over the last fifty years over 150 foods have been studied to see their effect on humans, for better or for ill.  
Years of research, studied on millions of people, and yet most people have the view of the Mediterranean lifestyle as hummus and fish. So let me introduce this diet, and this lifestyle to you, and why it may be the most important lifestyle you should understand.
In spite of all the noise on the internet about low carb/keto, vegan, or other diets/lifestyles you will find that the Mediterranean Diet is consistently ranked as the number one or two diet in the United States. 
That is based on many studies showing how the diet leads to a decrease in heart disease, lower blood pressure, better control of diabetes, fewer strokes, and lowering the risk of dementia.
The Mediterranean diet is neither low carbohydrate (it is about 50% carbohydrate) nor low fat (it is about 30% fat). It is not high protein (it is about 20% protein). Improvement in your health comes from eating certain foods, and not from counting macros (proteins, carbs, fats, and alcohol). Weight loss and better health are both touted from those who profess “low carb” or “low fat” and yet weight loss with the Mediterranean lifestyle is equal to or better than the low fat or low carb “diets”.
Those who claim low-carbohydrate diets are the best for diabetes are often stunned that the Mediterranean diet provides superior long-term results for diabetes and insulin resistance. While they rightly point out that a diet rich in whole grains and fruits, will produce transient spikes in blood glucose levels, the long-term results from the Mediterranean lifestyle are superior to avoiding those foods – providing better control for diabetes.
Back to those categories: Vegetables, Fruit and nuts, legumes, whole grains, meats, dairy, fats and oils, fish, and alcohol.
Each one of those categories is worth a point, so you have a chance to get nine points total. For some categories, you get a point for eating a given quantity of food (more for some, less for others). We determine adherence to the diet based on how many points a day a person gets on...