Mary Flynn is a nutritionist, an author, a teacher, a researcher, and one of the strongest advocates of the Mediterranean diet. She works at Miriam Hospital and has shown particular interest on the effect of food on the treatment of diseases among human beings, as well as the relationship of diet to weight and overall health.

The Mediterranean eating pattern has been the focus of her researches. Unlike other programs, this diet doesn’t work on deprivation but on balance—delectable foods are parts of the meal, just to be taken in moderation. Flynn did some studies comparing this eating pattern to conventional diets and to other diet programs like the one recommended by the National Cancer Institute. The scope of her studies covered the effects of these diets on certain diseases like cancer (particularly breast cancer) and diabetes, as well as on body weight.

She took particular interest on olive oil, one staple unique to Mediterranean diet. Mary Flynn stressed the importance of extra virgin olive oil in one’s meal, not only because it’s the healthiest source of fats and it contains antioxidant but also because it makes every meal tastier, even vegetables. In fact, she has put together a plant-based olive oil diet that’s very similar to and based on the Mediterranean diet and she is now conducting a study comparing it to traditional eating patterns among 50-year old or older women diagnosed with breast cancer.

Mary Flynn also challenges the common low-fat principle being promoted by many of the modern diets today. She highlights the distinction between the amount of fats and the type of fats being consumed—the amount actually matters little compared to the type. With the right type of fat, one that comes from olive oil for instance, you can expect benefits like low rate of heart disease and cancer—even when you consume the fat in great amount.

This principle can very well be illustrated in the book she wrote together with Kevin Vigilante—Low Fat Lies High Fat Frauds and the Healthiest Diet in the World. In the book, she exposed that low-fat diets do not always work when it comes to losing weight. She even exposed the dangers of these eating patterns to one’s health and revealed the healthiest diet—the Mediterranean diet.

So, who says you need to be deprived when you’re on a diet? Not when you’re on a Mediterranean diet and Mary Flynn can attest to that. The no pain, no gain principle isn’t so real, after all.