http://www.care2.com/greenliving/the-worlds-healthiest-diet.html
The World’s Healthiest Diet?
By Rachel Johnson, Ph.D., M.P.H., R.D., Eating Well magazine
A few years ago I was invited to lecture in Italy. My husband, Mark, always ready for an adventure, tagged along. After my work was done, we visited the Cinque Terre, five tiny villages perched high upon rugged hills overlooking the Mediterranean. We hiked the scenic trail into the coastal town of Riomaggiore.
Weary from our walk we settled into a small cafe for a two-hour lunch: A small plate of pasta with pesto, fresh fish drizzled with olive oil and a platter of grilled artichokes and peppers, along with a carafe of the house red. With plenty of exercise, delicious food in reasonable portions and a relaxed pace, I experienced the Mediterranean lifestyle in its home base–and felt wonderful.
This year marks the 15th anniversary since the Mediterranean Diet was officially recognized by Oldways, a non-profit food-issues think tank in Boston, as one of the world’s healthiest. Based on the age-old dietary traditions of Crete, Greece and southern Italy, this “diet,” or eating pattern, is abundant in fruits, vegetables and olive oil, sparing with meat and anointed daily with red wine.
Now new studies are supporting this way of eating. In July, the New England Journal of Medicine published a study that showed that following a Mediterranean-style, reduced-calorie diet was just as effective as a low-carbohydrate diet. The study tracked 322 Israelis over a two-year period and found the Mediterranean eating pattern helped people lose more weight than a conventional low-fat diet and helped people with diabetes better control their blood glucose levels.
Another recent study by Spanish researchers reports that people who adhered most closely to Mediterranean Diet principles reduced their risk of developing type 2 diabetes by as much as 83 percent, compared with those who didn’t. We also know the diet reduces inflammation, a risk factor for heart attack and stroke, and may even ward off depression and lower the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease.
But while studies continue to support this eating pattern, the traditional lifestyle on the shores of the Mediterranean is regrettably losing ground. Inactivity is increasing and obesity is on the rise. Longer work hours leave less time to shop and cook, while a shift toward more sedentary lifestyles means more sitting in front of the computer screen than working in the fields.
Recognizing this, here are four tenets of the Mediterranean Diet for people with 21st-century lives.
1. Stock your pantry and cook at home. Do your best to cook more and use whole, unprocessed ingredients so you can control portion sizes, salt and calories. “We can’t ask people to make everything from scratch,” says Oldways dietitian Nicki Heverling, M.S., R.D. Instead, she suggests stocking your pantry and freezer with Mediterranean-inspired staples like canned tomatoes, olives, whole-wheat pasta and frozen vegetables.
2. Get most of your protein from beans and fish. Swap out some of your meat and get your protein from beans, nuts and other plants. By displacing meat, you’ll lower your saturated-fat intake while adding healthful nutrients, like fiber and antioxidant-rich flavonols. Heverling recommends starting with a few small changes: Aim to make a plant-based dinner, like meatless chili once or twice a week. Or make the focus of the meal whole grains and vegetables and think of meat as a flavoring; for example, use a little diced pancetta in a tomato sauce for pasta.
3. Make olive oil your staple fat. Give heart-healthy olive oil as well as other plant-based oils like canola and walnut oil star billing over saturated-fat-laden, LDL-cholesterol-raising butter, lard or shortening–even in baking. Or do as the Greeks do and saute your vegetable dishes in olive oil (ladera, or “oily” style) to highlight their flavor. Learn to appreciate extra-virgin olive oils with plenty of flavor, advises Antonia Trichopoulou, M.D., from the University of Athens School of Medicine: “Look for a yellow or green olive oil with a rich smell and taste.” Pale, odorless oils are fine for baking and frying and are still high in heart-healthy monounsaturated fats, she adds, “but they are lacking in the more than 200 microcomponents that have beneficial effects on health.” Microcomponents like oleocanthal, for example, which is a potent anti-inflammatory found in extra-virgin olive oils.
4. Enjoy a glass of wine with meals. Enjoy wine in moderation during meals, never drinking alone outside of the meal and never in excess. Drinking wine increases HDL (good) cholesterol, may help regulate blood sugar and can even help you digest your food and absorb its nutrients. Wines, especially reds, also deliver a dose of heart-healthy resveratrol. Take Trichopoulou’s advice and use wine “to enjoy life, not to forget life!”
Can the Mediterranean Diet endure today? I think ancient food traditions will never truly go away; they’ve already survived for millennia. But just the thought of traditional ways under siege is enough to scare some countries into safeguarding their food heritage: Italy, Spain, Greece and Morocco recently launched an international campaign to win United Nations recognition by adding the Mediterranean Diet to its World Heritage List, and give it protected status just like historic sites.
In the meantime, I’m working on putting Dr. Trichopouloua’s advice into practice in my everyday life. Olive oil for dipping has become a staple on our dinner table and we regularly enjoy meatless meals along with our nightly glass of red wine. Mark and I are happily returning to Italy this fall with a plan to enjoy the old ways as much as we can. Salute!
Rachel K. Johnson, EatingWell’s senior nutrition advisor, is Professor of Nutrition at the University of Vermont.
Visit EatingWell.com for free quick and easy healthy recipe collections!
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28 comments
add your comment »Well, it looks like some people got thier feathers ruffled. Relax, if your diet is perfect for you (and I stress "for you"), don't worry about it. The article obviously wasn't directed to you. Apparently it worked for the Mediteranaians and for the author or this article.
What I would like to know is, what would be a suitable alternative to the red wine. There is a person in my family that has some self control issues.
I would appreciate any suggestions.
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since vegans/vegetarians get sick if they eat any meat it is alian to add anything of that nature. check out goveg.com for some great recipes, who knows it might save you life! Schools should be promoting it for Earths sake. If all become VGN*^* than world hunger will end, because those sad farms use up way to much energy (over-consumption) There are some amazing organizations and reality is horrific! Maybe there is something grand we can do! Some great random sites to check out are veganTHIS.org PETA(2).com and even groups on many sites even this one!
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I like the idea of this diet and I adhere to some of the principles of it (olives, olive oil, fish and vegetables. Re the vegetarian debate, I was also vegetarian for 14 years until I got IBS. I was subsequently told to go on a low carb diet and I discovered that my digestive system wasn't meant to take grains, dairy, fruit or sugar. With great regret, I broke my vegetarianism otherwise I'd just be eating salad, vegetables, nuts and seeds and I don't consider that to be a balanced diet. Now my IBS is under control, and so are my blood sugar swings and I've been told that my polycystic ovaries have cleared up. I think that some people just aren't meant to do the vegetarian/whole grains thing as my body has proved and I think that's a shame.
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Fish can also be avoided. All these vegetables and olive oil coud suufice to provide the necessities for a healthy life. A good article useful for all those who would like to live healthy and happy
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This article is deceptive and manipulative. The advertisement for the article on the front page of Care2 calls the diet laid out here "the world's healthiest diet" but the article offers no proof of the claim. The title of the article is merely the author's opinion; that opinion, however, is presented as fact. Miss Bryer, you need to work on your writing. Present and support your arguments fairly. Sensible people will listen to nothing less.
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Dear Otis: I too have eschewed chewing on once-living creatures. I do not want any animals to be killed! So, good for you! I certainly agree with you. Would you mind if I offered a constructive comment, however? You might want to work a little bit on spelling and punctuation. You sound like a real nice guy, but if you're going to offer commentary for many strangers to read, you might want to look up words you're uncertain about, or ask someone to read it over for you before sending... That way, your message retains all its impact and the people aren't distracted by all the errors. I know it's none of my business but I think this is worth noting. Anyway, keep up the good work, Otis, and good luck on the spelling situation! Your friend, Cindy Black in Seattle
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To whome it may concern: If you tkink eating everythink that walks the earth is Healthy for you ,you go wright a head and eat it. I on the other hand have decided that live and let live works for me. I chose not to Kill animals and look for excuses to eat all things. I am almost 50 years young and have the heart and strenth of many cause I chose too eat what is healthy not mans processed garbage. All this is doing to our bodys is allowing us to die faster and killing us from the inside out. If one realy cares about ones body , I hope you do one will look for what is good for your body. If not you will have more health problems,problems even the Docters have no answers for. So ,eat well now or pay for it latter...you deceide. You are what you eat.
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Lauryn Slotnick,
Your arguments for eating animals are flawed, pathetic and pitiful. You are desperately trying to justify something which can never be justified. Please wake up and realize that we will continue to kill one another as long as we kill animals. Violence breeds more violence. Instead, make live and let live your motto !!!
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Lauryn,
I agree with everything in your comment, every thing is worded well! Sharleen
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To continue as the devil's advocate, a true macrobiotic diet was originally based on the food that one can eat and harvest from the surrounding environment; hence in places which freeze over during the winter where little or no vegetation occurs naturally (the operative word here), fish and meat are allowed, otherwise one would starve. With modern technology, there are plenty of processed foods and vegetation from hothouses which can sustain any diet at any time of the year if one were to eat locally or with food shipped from hundreds or thousands of miles away.
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