10 ms·

From the article: > Forget lasagna, pizza, spanakopita and lamb souvlaki -- they are not on the daily menu of those who live by the Mediterranean seaside. > T

From the article: > 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.

caslon 5y ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mediterranean_diet https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mediterranean_diet 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.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- towergratis 5y ago
  > The Mediterranean diet is a diet inspired by the eating habits of Greece, Italy, and Spain in the 1960s. Hmm.. that's what I said too, right?
  - JumpCrisscross 5y ago
    It isn't a competition. Multiple smart angles on the same issue sharpens resolution for everyone.
    - towergratis 5y ago
      Obviously I thought it was a rebuttal of my point, hence the question
      - rickmode 5y ago
        Indeed. In email threads I will sometimes say “To amplify, …” to make it clear that I’m adding on, rather than rebutting.
cheese_goddess 5y ago
Meat is not "very regular" in the modern mediterranean diet. This site ranks countries by meat consumption (overall and not per capita and given with reservations because I don't know where the data comes from, but still): https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/meat-consumption-by-country 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-consumption-by-type-kilograms-per-year?country=~GRC https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/per-capita-meat-consumpti... https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/per-capita-meat-consumption-by-type-kilograms-per-year?country=~ITA https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/per-capita-meat-consumpti... https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/per-capita-meat-consumption-by-type-kilograms-per-year?country=~ESP 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-heads 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.
- 5y ago
tjr 5y ago
That article description sounds closer to Joel Fuhrman's "nutritarian" diet.

caslon 5y ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mediterranean_diet https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mediterranean_diet 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.

deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
towergratis 5y ago
> The Mediterranean diet is a diet inspired by the eating habits of Greece, Italy, and Spain in the 1960s. Hmm.. that's what I said too, right?
- JumpCrisscross 5y ago
  It isn't a competition. Multiple smart angles on the same issue sharpens resolution for everyone.
  - towergratis 5y ago
    Obviously I thought it was a rebuttal of my point, hence the question
    - rickmode 5y ago
      Indeed. In email threads I will sometimes say “To amplify, …” to make it clear that I’m adding on, rather than rebutting.

cheese_goddess 5y ago

Meat is not "very regular" in the modern mediterranean diet. This site ranks countries by meat consumption (overall and not per capita and given with reservations because I don't know where the data comes from, but still): https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/meat-consumption-by-country 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-consumption-by-type-kilograms-per-year?country=~GRC https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/per-capita-meat-consumpti... https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/per-capita-meat-consumption-by-type-kilograms-per-year?country=~ITA https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/per-capita-meat-consumpti... https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/per-capita-meat-consumption-by-type-kilograms-per-year?country=~ESP 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-heads 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.

5y ago

tjr 5y ago

That article description sounds closer to Joel Fuhrman's "nutritarian" diet.