Mediterranean diet may prevent memory loss and dementia, study finds
cnn.com
cnn.com
> Forget lasagna, pizza, spanakopita and lamb souvlaki -- they are not on the daily menu of those who live by the Mediterranean seaside.
> The true diet is simple, plant-based cooking, with the majority of each meal focused on fruits and vegetables, whole grains, beans and seeds, with a few nuts and a heavy emphasis on extra-virgin olive oil. Fats other than olive oil, such as butter, are consumed rarely, if at all. And say goodbye to refined sugar or flour.
> Meat can make a rare appearance, but usually only to flavor a dish. Instead, meals may include eggs, dairy and poultry, but in much smaller portions than in the traditional Western diet.
> However, fish, which are full of brain-boosting omega-3's, are a staple.
That's definitely not today's Mediterranean diet. Maybe it's what Mediterranean diet used to be 70 years ago, but as Mediterranean countries became richer, so did their diet.
Refined flour bread is present and consumed with almost every meal. Meat is very regular too. Foods like lentil soup and bean soup are eaten with lots of bread, cheese, and other side dishes that make it much less healthy.
The Mediterranean diet is a diet inspired by the eating habits of Greece, Italy, and Spain in the 1960s.[1][2] The principal aspects of this diet include proportionally high consumption of olive oil, legumes, unrefined cereals, fruits,[3] and vegetables, moderate to high consumption of fish, moderate consumption of dairy products (mostly as cheese and yogurt), moderate wine consumption, and low consumption of non-fish meat products. Olive oil has been studied as a potential health factor for reducing all-cause mortality and the risk of chronic diseases.
Hmm.. that's what I said too, right?
https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/meat-cons...
Ranking of the three countries whose cuisines inspired the mediterranean diet, according to the site:
Italy 24
Spain 31
Greece 87
This ranking doesn't say anything about what kinds of meat are consumed and this is culturally determined also. For instance, counting per-capita consumption, Greeks, Spanish and Italians eat more pigmeat than other kinds of meat:
https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/per-capita-meat-consumpti...
https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/per-capita-meat-consumpti...
https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/per-capita-meat-consumpti...
And all three countries raise relatively few cattle (with Greece having less than a million):
https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/cattle-livestock-count-he...
I'm bringing this up because, to my knowledge, the traditional diet in Greece, while predominantly lacto- ovo- pescaterian also included cured pigmeats as a common food item, while lamb was eaten only rarely, at religious feasts (particularly Easter Sunday and the religious feast of a town's patron saint) and cattle were raised primarily for dairy. Similar in Italy and Spain.
So the "Mediterranean diet" as it is understood today is only "inspired" by the dietary habis of the traditional diets of Italians, Spanish and Greeks. In truth, these people traditionally consumed meat in larger quantities than assumed by the modern "Mediterranean diet". Accordingly, the amount of meat that modern Italians, Spanish and Greeks eat has not changed as much, from their historical past, than is suggested by comparison with the modern "Mediterranean diet".
That said, those three peoples are still far behind other developed countries in their consumption of meat today, especially beef and particularly so Greece.
You're right about refined flour. In Italy, Spain and Greece, bread is always on the table and it is mainly white bread. Pies like spanakopita and pasticcio are also today made mainly with refined flour. Sugar is also much more widely used today, as is salt, compared to the past, because of higher availability overall.
I grew up in a metro area, and can say that my family, relatives, and friends, have had some kind of meat (mainly chicken, beef and pork) at least 3-4 times a week for main course. And curated meat in sandwich snacks again another 3-4 times. I don't think there were many times I have gone more than 1 day without any kind of meat.
And of course as you mentioned every holiday/celebration must have some kind of meat, mostly goat.
And that's before you grow up and start eating out.
That's what I meant "very regular". Maybe by western standards it still isn't too much.
On the other hand, that's not at all how my side of the family ate and it's not because anyone there is remotely vegetarian. I think my cousin was more influenced by his dad's way of eating and his dad was from a different part of the country than mine, where they have more animals and fewer vegetables.
That said, we did eat lots of cured meats at home. So much so that I'm laying off them now I'm a bit older, just in case.
Still I think it's like you say, the relative consumption is on the low side by western standards.
HN = Hanger News, today.
Also would you consider focaccia still appropriate for brined olives?
Anyone who's compared tomato imported from the Netherlands (the worlds second largest exporter of tomato) to a tomato bought in a farmers market in Italy knows what I mean.
Googling "Michael Poland organic food tastes better" might get you into the right direction.
Anyway I live in zone 7b and grow them outside (seeding inside at the end of February and transplantig them outside in May - usually after 15th of May but as weather is changing here it can be even sooner). And taste is so good. From cherry tomatoes to really big ones. From 20 to 60 plants you can be self sufficient. Eat them fresh, preserve tomato sauce and dry them.
I hate being that guy, but citation needed? Have you measured this (or can you share a study with us that has)? This is a bold claim and definite worth having reinforced.
> Anyone who's compared tomato imported from the Netherlands (the worlds second largest exporter of tomato) to a tomato bought in a farmers market in Italy knows what I mean.
I can attest to the difference in flavor between a fresh Mediterranean product and the basic supermarket version, but i can also attest to the flavor difference between a room temperature quality beer and an ice cold bottle of the cheapest crap imaginable on a beach.
We’re still waiting for the outcome of the NIH funded randomized controlled trial.
Autoimmune conditions can take years to decades to diagnosis, so a lot of people don’t realize they have one.
There is a specific AIP diet for this.
Many of the reduced carb diets are similar.
https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/aip-diet-autoimmune-pro...
This place is strange at times.
I too have fully recovered from an incurable autoimmune illness.
The reason we're seeing people with chronic disease earlier and earlier is that the newer generations have grown up with deficiencies and toxins (such as seed oils), going back to the womb.
One of the references I often give and is downvoted both here and on Reddit is a clinic in Hungary called "Paleomedicina" (already with "paleo" in the name some reach for the downvote). It's unfortunate as they are doing amazing work with incredible success for all these "incurable" diseases.
In short it's to do mainly with the linoleic acid (omega-6) content of those oils, these fats are highly unstable / subjected to oxidation. When they get integrated in our own body fat it wreaks havoc. Can't burn fat / inflamed / chronically hungry / tired etc.
I don't have a reference but I read a study showing how the fatty acid profile in people's body fat has gradually shifted to more and more polyunsaturated fat. This is not normal and as Dr. Shanahan explains, the integration of seed oil fats in human body fat is unprecedented and a massive experiment for which we're seeing the results for some decades now, but are slow to realize.
You would have tomatoes from June to August. Sardines would be the fatest around July. You would have grapes and wine by September and chestnuts by early November. You would kill a pig for multiple families once a year, eat some of it fresh and salt/smoke the remaining.
Perhaps this seasonal scarcity is not a protective factor but it seems to me that this a variable that is never discussed when looking at traditional diet of <geographic-region>.
Great point. Also keep in mind that religion plays a critical role. Greece in the mid 1900's was a very religious country, and most people attended the 40 days diet that they would abstain completely from consuming land-animal products.
Mediterranean diet includes olive oil, but it does not exclude sunflower seed oil. Maybe CNN is not such a good source of information of habits of people across the globe. Even people that I know owning olive plantations and processing installations don't consume a lot of it, they can't afford to.
To give you an idea, usually Greeks don't buy olive oil in bottles. They buy it in 5lt to 17lt containers
I believe the situation is similar in Italy too. At least southern Italy
If it does get adulterated illegally, I don't know. But haven't heard of any scandal like that.
If you fake phones or handbags or sunglasses nobody cares. It is forbidden but authorities turn a blind eye. If you fake tea in China, you get executed. Period.
The most important thing is that people know and a big industry behind. It is easy to trick Americans, but I know people that could clearly differentiate between different varieties like arbequina or picual and even the year and the place it comes from.
{{citation-needed}}
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olive_oil#Adulteration
> There have been allegations, particularly in Italy and Spain, that regulation can be sometimes lax and corrupt.[90] Major shippers are claimed to routinely adulterate olive oil so that only about 40% of olive oil sold as "extra virgin" in Italy actually meets the specification.[91] In some cases, colza oil (extracted from rapeseed) with added color and flavor has been labeled and sold as olive oil.[92] This extensive fraud prompted the Italian government to mandate a new labeling law in 2007 for companies selling olive oil, under which every bottle of Italian olive oil would have to declare the farm and press on which it was produced, as well as display a precise breakdown of the oils used, for blended oils.[93] In February 2008, however, EU officials took issue with the new law, stating that under EU rules such labeling should be voluntary rather than compulsory.[92] Under EU rules, olive oil may be sold as Italian even if it only contains a small amount of Italian oil.[93]
Also see:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olive_oil_regulation_and_adult...
I don't know what people you are referring to, but of course people owning Olive oil plantations consume lots of it if they like it.And workers in those plantations.
I have lots of experience in Spain, Italy and Greece and on those countries you have a lot of olive oil, and near plantations(like in Jaen or Sevilla) EVERYBODY consumes it.
It is common there to take raw oil with bread for breakfast. Some people just don't like it in raw form, but most people like the food cooked with it, that is typical in Spain or Italy.
They can afford it because olive oil is expensive, but not that expensive there, and friends and family give each other oil gifts in bulk.
Those prices are not what you find in a shop in California for a small bottle. They give each other 10, 20 Litters containers.
Sunflower seed oil is used for frying things in big quantities,not just because price but because it has neutral flavor,but olive oil is used a lot for cooking in general.
You make fish in the oven, you add olive oil. You make meat, you use olive oil.
I live in central Europe most of the year and of course I cook with lots of olive oil(and sunflower oil too).
Eg https://www.nordicnaturals.com/healthy-science/is-eating-chi...
Once you actually go out of your way to eat a balanced plant based diet, you'll discover super tasty recipes that are on par or better with the dishes you are used to.
However, cooking delicious food with raw materials is not compatible, in my mind, with factory-produced nutritional supplements, because all of a person's nutritional needs can be covered by ordinary food. Does this perhaps make my point more clear? I don't understand the need for supplements, when one can cook nutritious and delicious food on their own.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mediterranean_diet#History_and...
> The concept of a Mediterranean diet was developed to reflect "food patterns typical of Crete, much of the rest of Greece, and Italy in the early 1960s".[43] Although it was first publicized in 1975 by the American biologist Ancel Keys and chemist Margaret Keys (a husband and wife team),[56] the Mediterranean diet failed to gain widespread recognition until the 1990s. Objective data showing that the Mediterranean diet is healthy originated from results of epidemiological studies in Naples and Madrid,[57] confirmed later by the Seven Countries Study first published in 1970,[58] and a book-length report in 1980.[59]
> The most commonly understood version of the Mediterranean diet was presented, among others, by Walter Willett and colleagues of Harvard University's School of Public Health since the mid-1990s.[60][61][62][63] The Mediterranean diet is based on a paradox: although the people living in Mediterranean countries tend to consume relatively high amounts of fat, they have far lower rates of cardiovascular disease than in countries like the United States where similar levels of fat consumption are found.
Comparing Americans with Italians and Cretans of the 1960's has so many confounding factors. For one thing, the Cretans and most Italians would have lived in villages and small towns and would have been predominantly farmers engaged in physical work (and so exercise) whereas most Americans of the '60s would live urban lives in large cities and not exercised a lot. I don't know if any research attempted to account for this difference in life styles, but diet can't have been the only factor that affected relative cardiovascular health.
https://www.amazon.com/End-Alzheimers-Program-Protocol-Cogni...
One thing Taleb points out is things like practicing lent or religious fasting that is component in these cultures.
In any field.