The Real World Diet

Free Diet Planner for The Real World

The Real World Diet is just that - a diet for living in the real world. So what does that really mean?

Create a two-week custom meal plan including breakfast, lunch and dinner, for yourself or your entire family - even kids under 14! NO making separate meals.

Shopping lists are automatically generated. Just print and shop for the next two weeks of meals.

Frozen meal options for lunch or dinner (such as Lean Cuisine or Weight Watchers).

Easy, kid-friendly meals with leftovers for lunches or later in the week.

Special diet options include Comfort Food (great for families with kids!), Vegetarian (lacto-ovo), low sodium, lactose intolerant, Coumadin (warfarin) use, GERD / Acid Reflux safe, and gluten allergies (celiac disease).

Other websites charge you as much as $29.95 per month for this service, but The Real World Diet is completely free. (We don't even ask for your credit card information.)

Sign up for The Real World Diet now!


Mediterranean Diet Basics

The basics of the Mediterranean diet can be broken into 9 important areas of change for your health:

1. Vegetables - This one’s pretty easy. It’s hard to eat too many vegetables...
2. Legumes - Making beans your choice for a starch...
3. Fruits and nuts - Fruit is the perfect snack...
4. Cereals - Whole grains are really good for you...
5. Fish - More fish, less meat...
6. Olive oil - This really means eating more monounsaturated fat...
7. Dairy products - The traditional Mediterranean diet doesn’t have dairy products as a major focus...
8. Meats - Less meat and lean meats...
9. Alcohol - There is good evidence that moderate use of alcohol is good for you...


           

 
 

The Mediterranean Diet

No. 9 - Alcohol

WineThere is good evidence that moderate use of alcohol is good for you and this research supports that. Interestingly, the alcohol consumed by the Greek participants in this study was more often with meals.

About Alcohol

Alcohol in Recipes
Is Alcohol Good for You?
Choosing Wine
Cooking Wine
Cooking with Beer
Extracts vs. Oils
Extract, Vanilla
Sake
Sherry
Sherry, In Soup
Vodka in Cooking

Research Articles - Alcohol in The Mediterranean Diet

You can read more about the science of why alcohol with meals is still good for you in these articles:

To help prevent diabetes, take... wine? One of the interesting things about scientific research is that sometimes you start out to discover one thing and end up finding something else. Recently a group of scientists from the University of Minnesota set out to investigate whether a diet rich in flavonoids (an antioxidant found in fruits, vegetables, and beverages like tea or wine) might help reduce the risk of Type 2 diabetes.

Alcohol is good for your heart: Studies have noted that moderate alcohol use is associated with a lower risk of heart attack in those persons with known cardiovascular disease or in higher risk populations. Yet no studies are focused specifically on alcohol use and whether it is by itself a protecting factor.