After sharing his new discover with his patients, they urged him to share it with the world. So he wrote what has turned out to be the one of the hottest weight-loss book to hit the shelves, The Miami Mediterranean Diet.

“What inspired me to write this book were my patients and my colleagues. By taking an aggressive prevention approach like getting people to exercise, relax and putting people on the Miami Mediterranean Diet I have seen significant results in health in patient after patient,” says Dr. Ozner.

Dr. Ozner, who is also the Director of Wellness and Prevention at Baptist Cardiac and Vascular Institute in Miami, found great differences between the western way of life and the lifestyles of the people in the Mediterranean regions.

Those differences seem to be behind some surprising statistics. For example, a middle-aged Greek man has a 90-percent less chance of dying from heart attack than a middle-aged American man.

According to Dr. Ozner, the recipe behind their surpassing good health lied in not one ingredient but a conglomerate of all the food and lifestyle choices within the Mediterranean Diet.

Here are the 10 essential ingredients, according to Dr. Ozner, for weight-loss success the Mediterranean way.

1. Olive Oil
“Olive oil has been shown to be beneficial to overall health,” notes Ozner. “It contains omega-9 fat. It helps to lower the cholesterol. It has ingredients that are anti-inflammatory and antioxidant. What we should be doing is replacing olive oil for other types of saturated fat used in the diet, mainly butter and margarine. By replacing other types of fat with olive oil the body is able to achieve a significant health benefit.”

2. Red Wine
The next toast on the list of good health is red wine. “Red wine certainly is part of the Mediterranean Diet. It’s one of the most powerful antioxidants and it helps to increase the good cholesterol, which we call HDL cholesterol and decrease the clotting of our blood,” says Ozner. While red wine is a frequent drink on many Mediterranean tables it’s also consumed in moderation -- a point Dr. Ozner strongly emphasizes.

3. Moderation
Red wine is not the only food consumed in moderation. The next essential ingredient is not a specific food item but the amount of food that’s on the plate. If you go to the Mediterranean regions of the world, you find portion sizes are smaller. "One of the things that I point out in the Miami Mediterranean Diet is how to effectively cut down on portion size and yet never walk around hungry,” says Ozner.

4. Nuts and Almonds
Forget greasy potato chips and sugary candy, nuts and almonds are the preferred snack in the Mediterranean region. “Fresh raw almonds are a delicious snack It will fill you up with fiber, they are a great protein source, they are loaded with vitamins, especially vitamin E,” notes Ozner. “If you have five or six almonds with a glass of water, it fills you up."