In the simplest sense of the concept, the Mediterranean diet consists of foods that many people eat in southern European, North African, and Middle Eastern countries such as Greece, Spain, southern France, Italy, Portugal, Morocco, Egypt, and Israel. Healthy staples include fresh fruit, organic vegetables, olive oil, seafood, legumes, whole grains, and nuts. Also featured in numerous Mediterranean diets are moderate amounts of dairy and poultry and low amounts of red meat or sugar.

Any given list of Mediterranean food is going to be purposefully broad because like we said, there’s no exacting diet plan to speak of. Instead, you have an array of ingredients along with general serving suggestions.

Should you adopt the Mediterranean lifestyle—which would be a wise move—there are certain foods you should be willing to eradicate from your diet altogether. Predictably, these are the types of foods that are most commonly associated with things like obesity and heart disease. Given how delicious a typical Mediterranean diet plan can be, we don’t think you’ll miss them. Plus, you can still eat chocolate.

We won’t inundate you with nutritional information, but just know that by adopting a Mediterranean diet, you’ll uncover a boatload of benefits. That’s because traditional Mediterranean food provides an all-natural injection of the good stuff. By that, we mean it delivers the following:

Okay, okay, so we said there’s really no such thing as a true Mediterranean diet plan. That’s because Mediterranean food is a general category and not a strict fitness regimen. Nevertheless, there’s no harm in assembling a theoretical meal plan, which can help you kick off your new lifestyle.

Healthy snacks are a fundamental component of the typical Mediterranean diet. In between meals, you can munch on the following foods (to name a few):