A Mediterranean diet can lead to lasting results — and these three New Yorkers are proof. Here, they explain how the eating plan helped them shape up for good.
He lowered his weight — and cholesterol
Amitzur Mor, head chef at the Flatiron District Mediterranean restaurant Barbounia, grew up eating a healthy diet in Israel, but in recent years, he’d fallen off track.
“Olive oil and vegetables have always been my favorite foods in the world,” says the 44-year-old, who lives in Harlem. “But I used to supplement with alcohol, meat and lots of bread.”
A year and a half ago, he realized something had to change.
“I picked up new jeans and I couldn’t close them,” he says. “I looked at myself and was like, ‘We have an issue here.’ ” The 6-foot-1 chef weighed 245 pounds, and his joints ached from the extra weight and consuming too much fatty meat.
He decided to fully embrace the Mediterranean diet he grew up with, focusing on vegetables, fish, olive oil and spices.
Seven months after I started my diet, I went to my doctor to do a blood test. He called me and was like, ‘Wow, great job, come back next year.’
“In the morning it’s chopped salad with egg, lunch is vegetables, and dinner is salad with seafood. I dropped bread completely.”
Instead, he reaches for Barbounia’s hummus, packed with chickpeas, tahini and olive oil — “I eat it with a spoon,” he says.
The plan has worked. Mor is down 42 pounds, and he still is able to indulge on occasion.
“I give myself a day [each week] where I can eat whatever I want, usually at another restaurant,” he says.
Mor says his healthy diet has left his body in better shape than ever. “The biggest thing is that you can feel the difference in your joints,” says Mor, who spends his time off biking around the Northeast.
He even credits the switch with reversing potential heart problems.
“[Before] my doctor was always telling me that my cholesterol was a problem,” he says. “Seven months after I started my diet, I went to my doctor to do a blood test. He called me and was like, ‘Wow, great job, come back next year.’ ”
She’s kept the pounds off
Karen Greenfield, 40, turned to the Mediterranean diet in 2009 to lose the 20 pounds she’d put on while in college in her early 30s.
Greenfield, who works in advertising at Syracuse University and lives near the college, says the diet itself wasn’t difficult. “I always really liked vegetables . . . and I always liked nuts,” she says.
But in upstate New York, it was hard to find the fresh fish and herbs that the diet suggests, so she adjusted based on what was available. “The choices were scarce,” she says.
So she adopted the parts of the Mediterranean diet that worked for her — eating more vegetables, olive oil and whole grains. After eight months on the plan, the 5-foot-4 Greenfield slimmed down from 163 pounds to 145. She’s stuck with the diet and has maintained the weight loss for years. And, she says, there are benefits beyond the numbers on the scale.
“Eating this way gives you more energy,” she says. “I’ve always liked the idea that I ate more ‘European’ than others.”
An end to yo-yo dieting
After two and a half years on the Mediterranean diet, psychotherapist, author and former yo-yo dieter Ken Page says he’s never turning back.
“Before this, I was always dieting,” says Page, 60. “I would do the Atkins diet, and I’d wake up in the morning and eat slabs of bacon. I had heartburn and digestive upset, and that just went away on the Mediterranean diet — it was incredible.”
Since turning to Mediterranean foods, he’s quit bingeing and depriving himself, he says. “I relish food . . . I feel better, clearer, and more energetic.”
You have these go-to foods that are going to put a smile on your face, and you know they’re health. It’s the good life.
The Long Beach, NY, resident first heard of the diet through a nutrition coach, Conner Middelmann-Whitney, who wrote the book “Zest for Life: The Mediterranean Anti-Cancer Diet.”
Within his first year on the diet, the 5-foot-6 Page dropped from 174 pounds to 154 and saw his triglyceride levels plummet by 200 points.
He’s built a daily eating plan that makes him feel good: Breakfast is usually steel-cut oatmeal, or eggs with greens and mushrooms; lunch is a probiotics-packed drink of unsweetened kefir blended with berries; and dinner might be fish with wilted greens and roasted potatoes.
“You have these go-to foods that are going to put a smile on your face, and you know they’re healthy,” he says. “It’s the good life.”
Through Thursday, The Post is a publishing a special series on the Mediterranean Diet. On Wednesday, look out for mouth-watering recipes and tips from one of the country’s top Greek chefs, while Thursday will highlight dining-out strategies on the diet.