The Mediterranean Diet

Eating food for its health value or so called healthy foods presents a problem. It's a moving target. Just when you get the hang of it, the experts change the rules. Remember when downing a raw egg in milk every
morning was the thing to do?  Eat fish live longer. Remember that advertising? Then we became aware of Hepatitis A, PCB's and mercury and were told to limit fish consumption to once a week and shell fish at our own risk. 
  They even got to the backyard barbecue telling us that grilling food produced HAA's (Heterocyclic Aromatic Amines) which caused cancer in laboratory mice. I guess  the experts know  what they are talking about. I don't think,  left to themselves, mice would barbecue that much.  Maybe it's not meant for them to eat,  certainly not in the amounts that they are required to consume.
  The experts do provide advice on how to get around the HAA problem. Boil the item for three minutes before
grilling.  Have you ever boiled a hamburger for three minutes?  If the answer is yes,  don't invite me to your next picnic.

The one thing that I thought would last was beta-carotene. Surely carrots are good for you. When they produced the results of a study that told us they contribute to certain  cancers, it reminded me of the day they told me there was no Santa.

Organic food even took a hit when the Center for Disease Control concluded that organic produce caused a disproportionate amount of illness considering its small share of the market.  It seems organic farmers commonly use fertilizer made from animal waste instead of synthetic chemicals,  and there can be dangerous bacteria in animal waste. True organic farmers compost the manure to kill the bacteria,  but some uncertified farmers do not always follow the procedure properly. The center is concerned about a new form of E.coli.,so the government is currently drawing up new standards for organic food farming.

Food,  it may come as a shock to some,  is not medicine.  If it were,  we would buy it in a pharmacy.  Food is food.  We buy it in a food store.  We cook it and enjoy it.  I, for one, don't go for fads or over regulation.

Now having said that,  there is one thing that has stood  the test of time.  That's fats in food.  Fat needs discussion  and once you understand fat,  it’s pal cholesterol and a  little about sodium and sugar you will be ready to make your own healthy eating decisions.

Enter center stage the  Mediterranean Diet, which is basically the natural eating  habits of the people of  the Mediterranean region as observed by a joint study  of the Harvard School of Public Health and the United Nations WHO/FAO. 
  They observed that the people of this area had the lowest rates of chronic diseases in the world and that adult life expectancy  was among the highest,  even though medical services were limited.

The study focused on Crete,  most of Greece, and Southern Italy in  the 1960's.  They developed the phrase
Traditional Mediterranean Diet as shorthand for the healthy traditional diets of these people.

The characteristics of the Mediterranean diet are:

1. Olive oil as the principal fat,  replacing all other fats and oils including butter and margarine.

2. An abundance of food from plant sources, including fruits, vegetables, potatoes, pasta, grains, bread, beans,
nuts and seeds.

3.Emphasis on minimally processed and seasonally fresh foods.

4. Daily consumption of low to moderate amounts of  cheese and yogurt.  (low fat versions may be preferable)

5. Weekly consumption of low to moderate amounts of fish and poultry.

6. Red meat a few times per month.

7. One or two glasses of wine per day,  normally with meals.

Strict adherence to the Mediterranean diet might be a little to drastic for some but certainly adding seasonal vegetables, fruits, pasta and a few grains, nuts and  seeds to your diet wouldn't hurt. Surely staying away from processed foods makes a lot of sense.
Mainly,  I think the replacement of all fats with Olive oil is the most healthy aspect of the Mediterranean diet,
so let's talk about fat in the diet.

Fats are composed of units called fatty acids and categorized by the predominate fatty acid type:

Saturated Fats

Saturated fats are found primarily in animal products  such as beef,  veal,  pork,  lamb, and as well as
whole milk, cream, coconut oil, and vegetable shortening. Saturated fats are used by the body to make cholesterol.  A high dietary intake can raise LDL (bad cholesterol) levels in the blood,  increasing your risk of heart disease.  The USDA recommends limiting your intake of  saturated fats to less than 10% of your total daily calories.

Polyunsaturated Fats

Found mostly in corn,  soybean,  safflower,   and sunflower oils and certain fish oils,  these fats may actually lower your total blood cholesterol levels.  But they may also lower your good cholesterol (HDLs) and are still high in calories.  They should not exceed 10% of your total daily  caloric intake.

Monounsaturated Fats

These fats are found in olive,  peanut,  and canola oils. It is thought that monounsaturated fats may reduce
LDLs (bad) without affecting HDLs (good). It is recommended that these fats make up no more
than 10-15% of your total caloric intake.

Trans-fatty acids

Trans-fatty acids occur when polyunsaturated fats are hydrogenated to make margarine and shortening.
While  the jury is still out,  it is thought that trans-fatty acids behave much like saturated fats,  raising LDL
cholesterol.

The benefit of using olive oil,  as your primary source of fat is that it is a monounsaturated fat and current research has it that monounsaturated fat reduces LDLs, the bad cholesterol, while not affecting HDLs,  the good cholesterol.  Keeping in mind that our bodies need cholesterol and that most is made in-house by the liver, the thinking is to keep the outside intake low,  note that grains,  pasta,  fruit, vegetables, nuts and seeds do not contain cholesterol.

Make no mistake the body needs fat.  It is the most  concentrated source of stored energy and necessary for
making hormones, such as testosterone and estrogen, and it controls body temperature and a host of other
important functions.

Carbohydrates

Glucose is still the body’s first choice of energy,  but,  if you run out of it,  your body will begin to break down
stored fat.

All carbohydrates are broken down into glucose, except fiber.  It is the fuel for every cell in your body and the only fuel used by the brain. Carbohydrates are made up of sugar molecules:

Simple carbohydrates (one to two sugar units) are found in fruit,  table sugar and products made with sugar.

Complex carbohydrates (more than two sugar units) are found in potatoes,  rice,  pasta,  cereals,  beans, grains and many vegetables.  Animal products contain no carbohydrates at all.

A healthy diet should consist of approximately 60% carbohydrates, with an emphasis on complex carbohydrates.  Your body has to work harder to break  down complex carbohydrates into glucose, thereby providing a steady stream of energy.  In addition,  complex carbohydrates generally contain more vitamins and minerals than their simple sugar counterparts.  Complex carbohydrates are also a wonderful source of
dietary fiber.  Because human digestive enzymes  cannot break down the bonds that hold fiber together,
fiber provides no nutritional value or calories to your diet. However,  far from unimportant,  fiber absorbs large
amounts of water,  moving solid materials through the digestive tract,  preventing constipation and possibly some types of colon cancer.

Protein

Another essential nutrient protein,  makes up virtually every part of your body. The protein that we consume is broken down into amino acids.  There are 22 amino acids, that when strung together in different combinations, make up all the proteins needed by the human body.
Nine of the amino acids are considered essential, meaning that they must be obtained from dietary protein sources.  The other 13 are considered nonessential-not that the body doesn't need them, but because our bodies can synthesize them from fats, carbohydrates, and other amino acids. Soybeans and soybean products are a great source of  protein and contain all nine essential amino acids. Animal sources of protein are considered high quality protein as they contain sufficient amounts of all the essential amino acids.

So much then for the basics of the Mediterranean diet it certainly is an interesting subject, and definitely something to consider when making healthy food decisions.

If you would like to know more,  a lot more about healthy eating  habits that  will be of benefit to you go to the website of the Mayo Clinic  mayohealth.org    the site has recipes, information and a lot of very  interesting and important health related articles.

I would hope that all of this has done one thing, and that is make you aware that you are what you eat , and
to bookmark the Mayo Clinic's web site. It will be one of the most important resources on your computer.