6 Easy Ways to Follow the Mediterranean Diet

By Janis Graham / Readers Digest

If you’re diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, your doctor will almost certainly tell you that you need to lose some weight. Now research identifies the best way to do it: Eat the Mediterranean way.

In the study, 215 overweight people with diabetes followed either a classic, low-fat regimen (based on American Heart Association guidelines) or a higher-fat, Mediterranean-style diet (lots of olive oil, as well as vegetables, whole grains, and fish and poultry). After four years, both groups had lost similar amounts of weight—but only 44 percent of the Mediterranean-style eaters needed diabetes drugs, compared with 70 percent of the low-fat dieters.

The benefits come partly because a Mediterranean diet is full of healthy foods and partly because it doesn’t rely on fat-reduced foods high in refined carbs, says Dariush Mozaffarian, MD, an assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School. Read on to find out which foods will help your blood sugar.

Eat less of these: Beef, lamb, pork

And more of these: Fish, poultry, beans

Eat less of these: Butter, margarine, butter substitue

And more of these: Extra-virgin olive oil or other vegetable oils such as soy bean and canola

Eat less of these: Low-fat crackers, chips

And more of these: Walnuts or other nuts, sunflower and pumpkin seeds, olives

Eat less of these: Reduced-fat cookies

And more of these: Fresh fruit

Eat less of these: Egg substitute; fat-free yogurt; reduced-fat American, Cheddar, and Swiss cheese

And more of these: Whole eggs; whole yogurt; feta, Parmesan, or goat cheese

Eat less of these: Baked potatoes, bread, rice

And more of these: Roasted or sautéed vegetables tossed with herbs and drizzled with olive oil