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The Real Mediterranean Diet: A prac­ti­cal guide to under­stand­ing and achiev­ing the health­i­est diet in the world is the lat­est book by Simon Poole, who offers read­ers a prac­ti­cal, daily-use guide to improve and enjoy their dietary habits.

“My inter­est in the Mediterranean diet began over 20 years ago, as sci­en­tific research began to reveal just how pow­er­ful this diet can be,” the author, a Cambridge-based physi­cian, told Olive Oil Times.

“I began to tell patients and col­leagues, with a par­tic­u­lar focus on how best to sup­port oth­ers to dis­cover and share the extra­or­di­nary ben­e­fits of this way of life,” Poole added.

An author, broad­caster and com­men­ta­tor, Poole is an inter­na­tion­ally renowned author­ity on the sci­ence and appli­ca­tion of the Mediterranean diet and lifestyle. His first book The Olive Oil Diet, co-authored with Judy Ridgway, was awarded the International Gourmand Prize for the world’s best Mediterranean cui­sine book.

Poole is among the instruc­tors in the Olive Oil Times Education Lab, where he pro­vides insights into the key role of extra vir­gin olive oil within the Mediterranean diet.

“It became appar­ent that the major­ity of chronic ill­nesses might be pre­vented through lifestyle changes,” he said, explain­ing how the idea for the book came about.

“I began to advise my patients to adopt a more Mediterranean way of eat­ing,” he added. ​“For some, there have been moments of epiphany, when an under­stand­ing of the way the diet works has sparked pro­found changes in their life, which can be mea­sured in their improved health and well­be­ing.”

“Many were aston­ished at improve­ments in their blood pres­sure, cho­les­terol lev­els, weight and even their sense of hap­pi­ness and well­be­ing,” Poole con­tin­ued. ​“They reported feel­ing fit­ter and more ener­getic.”

Backed by his direct expe­ri­ence and knowl­edge, Poole offers an inter­est­ing and rich overview of the Mediterranean diet and lifestyle, which read­ers may use as a prac­ti­cal hand­book to take full advan­tage of this way of eat­ing and liv­ing. The book explores the value that the Mediterranean diet can bring to every­one, young and old.

From polyphe­nols and macronu­tri­ents to the mul­ti­tude of avail­able ingre­di­ents and how to com­bine them, the book helps to under­stand how food is pre­pared, cooked and com­bined to max­i­mize the pos­i­tive effects.

These top­ics and more are cov­ered in a clear, con­cise and eas­ily digestible for­mat to suit any reader. A key focus of the book is to explain the sci­ence that under­pins the Mediterranean diet and its pos­i­tive impact on heart health, longevity and pro­tec­tion from inflam­ma­tion, heart dis­ease, can­cers, demen­tia and more.

“Many sim­ply adopt the Mediterranean diet because it is such a plea­sur­able way to enjoy truly whole­some foods and to cel­e­brate the art of prepar­ing and shar­ing sim­ple yet exquis­ite meals,” Poole said.

For this pur­pose, The Real Mediterranean Diet includes numer­ous recipes from lead­ing chefs from around the globe who are advo­cates of the Mediterranean diet.

These include United States-based celebrity chefs Maria Loi and Amy Riolo, renowned Lebanese chef and tele­vi­sion per­son­al­ity Joe Barza, Tokyo-based chef Yurie Honda, Chilean celebrity chef Pilar Rodriguez and Sereen Kurdi, the head chef to Queen Noor Al Hussein and numer­ous oth­ers.

“In my expe­ri­ence, it is the under­stand­ing and enjoy­ment of the Mediterranean diet which results in an endur­ing love affair with the lifestyle,” Poole con­cluded.

The Real Mediterranean Diet: A prac­ti­cal guide to under­stand­ing and achiev­ing the health­i­est diet in the world is avail­able glob­ally through lead­ing book­sellers. More infor­ma­tion can be found on Poole’s web­site.