An informal poll as to how many follow a Mediterranean meal plan?
 

An informal poll as to how many out there follow a Mediterranean meal plan, not necessarily as a "diet" but either because they enjoy the types of food, or for cultural reasons.......or they feel that it helps them to feel healthy?

Mediterranean Diet: Best For Your Heart? - Ask Dr. Weil


http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/med...n-diet/CL00011

com/article/342422-example-meals-for-mediterranean-diet/?utm_source=livestrong_opar&utm_medium=4

Since reading the results of the latest study. I have switched over to olive oil, and bumped up our vegetables and cut portions size again on meat.

Eating lots of fruits and vegetables is a way of life with us, but the Publix bakery calls out to us....too much.

I am glad you reposted the elements of this diet.

You are now an adopted Italiano Grecian French Turkish citizen of the world and enjoying your food, which is the most important thing, in the company of your loving family members in TV. Did you enjoy the spinach?

I hate to say this, but all the vegans and vegetarians think they are onto something "new" when in reality the people of ages ago did NOT consume so much meat at all...........beans, lentils, legumes in general, were very much consumed. My Ukrainian mom made lima bean soup which I wish I could find a recipe for......but all it was was lima beans, celery, some type of crushed tomatoes.........? My Polish mom in law made beet soup.....my Ukrainian grandmother made cabbage soup and potato soup. They ate veggies before they were even popular..........and my Italians made minestroni soup with all the veggies.........

I use strictly olive oil. My dad used to buy it in the large gallon size.
We don't use that much of it at all, so I buy a medium sized bottle.

Strange the way you keep touting this diet senior citizen
when there is enough data to question it's benefits.

Watch the video please and I look for your comments.

Want more information of the pseudo health benefits of olive oil and the Mediterranean Diet?

Check out the video below by Jeff Novick. about 8 min.

Olive Oil is NOT Health Food but Sick Food - YouTube

Ounce for ounce, olive oil is one of the most fattening, calorically dense foods on the planet. The bottom line is that oil will add fat to our already plump waistlines, heightening the risk of disease, including diabetes and heart attacks, says Dr. Joel Fuhrman.

Dr. Esselstyn agrees, stating that between 14 and 17% of olive oil is saturated, artery-clogging fat, every bit as aggressive in promoting heart disease as the saturated fat in roast beef.

“They (oils) contain saturated fat which immediately injures the endothelial lining of the arteries when eaten. It doesn’t matter whether it’s olive oil, corn oil, or any other kind of oil”, he says.


..

What do the Asian's use in their woks?

veggie broth, wine, water, soy, tamari.

Peanut oil

I appreciate your opinion, however, soy and tamari are not good for some folks at all. Up here and whenever we've had Asian or Chinese food, they use peanut oil in their wok.

Is that a better oil than olive for health?:icon_hungry:

...............

So, many things R not good for some folks, what's your point?

They don't use peanut oil exclusively or in all dishes, moreover, they will use what you ask them use.

Our local Chinese restaurant uses peanut oil in their wok.
We request no MSG. Their vegetarian dishes are excellent.
In fact, we had tofu for the first time last month and it was delicious.

As far as olive oil.........everything I've heard is that it is healthy.
It's all we use at home. All Italian dishes call for olive oil.....
To each his own.....

5 things you may not know about olive oil - CNN.com
Interesting article re olive oil from CNN


Fight Arthritis: 10 Foods That Help and Hurt | Lifescript.com

Olive oil is one of the foods that help arthritis.......

Click on the numbers at the bottom from 1 through 7 and beyond.......
Why it's a good arthritis food: Olive oil contains oleocanthal,which blocks enzymes involved in inflammation.

About 3 tablespoons of extra-virgin olive oil acts like one-tenth of a dose of ibuprofen, according to a study at the Monnell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia. That may not be much, but small dietary changes add up.

“Since olive oil’s not calorie-free (one tablespoon has 119 calories), don’t douse your food with it,” Bonci warns.

How much to eat: One tablespoon a day on salads, bread or vegetables is a good amount for an optimal arthritis diet.

As a Vegan I never thought that I was onto something "new"....

Senior citizen, that old stuff is not interesting to me at all, oil is not beneficial IMO.

What's interesting is knowing how well read you are and how much you are into your diet you completely are absent any comment about Jeff Novick's video.

Care to comment on his findings?

New to many folks at TV:icon_hungry:

Too many here live to eat rather than eat to live :1rotfl:

Notice that the authors of the study set up careful comparisons and then cut the study short after 5 years. Yes, for ethical reasons but that was very convenient for them. This way little will be known about the diets impact on cancer and how it compares with other diets around the world. And it doesn't seem as though they are looking for the very best diet in the world, just the best out of the 3 comparisons they set up. Hmmmm!

In the book "The Okinawa Program" it showed several diets that were better than The Mediterranean Diet. I believe the Mediterranean diet came in 7th or 8th. I'll look it up later to make sure.

When I first heard about The Mediterranean Diet in the news, I suspected that it might have been sponsored by the olive oil industry. Now that I have seen the Mediterranean food pyramid with olive oil at the bottom of the pyramid, I'm fairly certain that the study was sponsored by olive oil. If you don't think so, tell me what olive oil is doing at the bottom of the pyramid.

I still use a little olive oil but very very little. One teaspoon (i.e., 1 measuring spoon) with lunch and one teaspoon with dinner. When I read that olive oil was healthy, I felt encouraged and started to use slightly more (perhaps a table spoon per day which is still a small amount). And over a period of a few weeks I have put on about 4 pounds. It hasn't hurt me as far as weight because I was at a low weight anyway. But if I didn't go back to my regular amount of 2 teaspoons per day, I'd be living in fatsville by now.

So why isn't olive oil at the very tip of The Mediterranean pyramid, instead of at the bottom? Ca-ching - $$$$$, it's all about money. And the last thing they want to do is compare their diet with other diets around the world.

However, it will sell because the average person is more concerned with taste than anything else. And perhaps they really don't want the very best diet. Enjoy yourself now and worry about weight gain, strokes, and cancer later.

:)

The best diets in the world:
 

Okinawa, Japan came in first.

All of Japan came in second

Hong Kong came in third

Sweeden came in fourth

Italy (Mediterranean) came in eighth

Greece (Mediterranean) came in tenth

United States came in eighteenth

The source: World Health Organization 1996, and Japan Ministry of Health and Welfare 1996

This was based on Death Rates per 100,000 people for Coronary Heart Disease, Cancer, and Stroke.

For heart disease, Okinawa had 18 deaths per year while Italy and Greece both had 55.

For cancer, Okinawa had 97 deaths. Italy had 135 and Greece had 109.

For stroke, Okinawa had 35 deaths. Italy had 49 and Greece had 70.

I'm partial to the Med/diet but allergies restrict my intake of dairy and gluten foods and I don't digest soy well, and I avoid red meat ! Wish I could add a few more pounds to my 115 but it's not happening unless I resort to processed "junk" and I don't want to sacrifice good health. So what to do ? :mmmm:

The real question is not your weight but your "BMI"

Come on u can get more recent data than 1996?

Almost 20 years old????

Meaningless in 2013

My diet philosophy is simple............IF IT TASTES GOOD..............IT'S NOT GOOD FOR YOU............follow that and you'll live for a good long time....I hope.....!!!!!

Okinawa diet has pork, fish and poultry.

Okinawa diet - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Virtually no eggs or dairy products were consumed by the Okinawans.[9]

I love eggs ~ eat them almost every day at breakfast, but I'm not sure about eating pork ?

https://www.dtmi.duke.edu/news-publi...heart-troubles

Duke University is a great institution; we know relatives who've been cured of various ills there..........and others who work there.

Ditto, we can trust the research from the New England Journal of Medicine.......

No one is saying that anyone has to eat a certain way or not eat a certain way. Everyone has to choose what works for them.

NO "ONE WAY" is the one and only way.............in anything in life. I do not think it is good to be "rigid" about anything.......moderation is not a dirty word; neither is flexibility in meal choices.
If it's a celebratory event and the host has gone to great lengths to provide some well thought out delicious entrees or deserts, why not partake of them........
Tasteless cardboard is not my idea for Christmas or Easter. Dwelling totally on one's health day in and day out also is not conducive to being jovial and enjoying life.
Again, to each his own.........Mayo Clinic - Mediterranean Diet: Ingredients for a Heart-Healthy Eating Approach
It isn't just olive oil alone that constitutes the healthy eating approach within the Mediterranean Diet.........
When you consider that they do not use butter on their bread........also that they do not use creamy salad dressings on their green salads.....
Olive oil is used sparingly to drizzle on a salad...........or to saute with. It is the rest of the diet, in my mind, that is uppermost.
It's not a "diet" but meal choices..........lots of vegetables and fruits, nuts, SEAFOOD and very little red meat........red wine.


Olive oil: What are the health benefits? - MayoClinic.com

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/med...ecipes/MY02229
Some Mediterranean Diet recipe.........from Mayo Clinic

Consider yourself lucky that you can't eat the above foods. You don't need them.

I agree with Jimbo that it's your BMI that's important. If your BMI is around 18 or 18.5, you're probably going to live a long healthy life, assuming you're getting the nutrition you need. If you want to gain weight, why don't you eat natural raw nuts, like walnuts and almonds. Nuts are healthy and high in calories.

I tried but couldn't find anything more recent.

It's only a little over 15 years old.

It's still an indication. The mediterranean diet has been around for a long time and I don't think it has changed much. The Okinawan diet hasn't changed, as far as I know. And the Standard American Diet is still about as bad as it can be. If anything, diets around the world may be slowly getting worse as the fast food industry makes new inroads.

Basically, as many of these diets have been written up in books, they will remain the same. The question is: Will people keep following them?

Jimbo, here's a challenge for you: Can you find a study to show how a plant based diet ranks with other diets such as the Okinawa diet? Do you have a study for a plant based diet that shows deaths per 100,000 for heart disease, cancer and stroke? Life expectancy for a plant based diet? Number of centenarians per 100,000 population?

Oh, NO!! Salad isn't good for me? And what about hardy vegetable soups? They're not good for me either?

I believe you mentioned this once before and the answer is still the same: You have to pay attention to the details of their diet. For example, they also eat eggs but only about 2 to 3 per week. And the eggs are from free roaming (outdoor) chickens that never get any growth hormones or antibiotics. Overall, the amount of animal protein they get in their diet is only a small fraction of what the average American gets. At some later time I'll get you an exact comparison (Okinawan vs American).

The problem with the average American: When they hear that pork, fish, poultry and eggs are okay. They will remember that but they won't remember any details about quantity and quality. Just like when they hear that chicken is healthier than red meat. They will proceed to eat fatty, breaded and deep fried chicken on a regular basis. Whereas Okinawans might only have boiled chicken a few times per year. And when they do have it, it might be in very small portions (I would guess about two ounces because they are small people and don't eat anything in big portions).

I see by your link the average BMI for Okinawans is 20.4. That's very good but not ideal. Ideal for an individual would be between 18 and 19, assuming we are not talking about body builders or professional athletes.

I never thought about my BMI so I checked online at BMi calculators and mine is 19.1 ~ in the healthy range ~ so I guess I'm OK and I do snack on raw almonds and other nuts without oil on them. :pepper2:

excellent

I promised you a comparison with the American diet because it's misleading to say pork, fish and poultry without putting it into perspective. So here it is:

Total animal protein consumption (by weight) for Okinawan elders: 15%

Total animal protein consumption (by weight) for Americans: 52%

As a rule, the further away a diet gets from animal protein, the healthier it is. IMO, that's what put the Okinawan diet at the top of the list for healtiest diets around the world.

I didn't vote.

The Science Behind the Mediterranean Diet:




Why It Works by Connie Diekman, Med, RD, LD, FADA and Sam Sotiropoulos

The Mediterranean diet first evolved as a result of studies by Dr. Ancel Keys. Dr. Keys was a physiologist who first became interested in the diets of Italians when he was stationed in Italy and observed differences in diet and in overall health. One population group that was of particular interest to him was the inhabitants of Crete, who had a diet that consisted of 40 percent of calories from fat, but had the lowest levels of cholesterol and heart disease versus other Mediterranean countries.
In 1958, in response to this observation, he started the fifteen-year Seven Countries Study. The Seven Countries Study looked at the eating patterns of more than 12,000 men in Finland, Greece, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, the United States, and Yugoslavia.
The study found that the more saturated fat people consumed, the higher their blood cholesterol levels and the rate of death from cardiovascular disease. The study found that the higher the saturated fat intake, as a percent of calories, the higher the disease rate.
The fact that saturated fats were reviewed based on percent of total calories is important to the outcomes, since several Mediterranean countries consume high-fat diets but the percent of calories from saturated fat is low. Of the seven countries, Greece, Italy, and Japan had the lowest cholesterol levels and the lowest number of deaths from cardiovascular disease.
The diet of the island of Crete at the time of the study was high in olive oil, olives, grains, beans, nuts, vegetables, and minimal amounts of fish. One of the key factors of the diet was that the foods were consumed in their natural or whole form and not in more processed forms. In addition, they consumed wine on a daily basis. It is the diet of Crete that led to the use of the term Mediterranean diet.

Diet Benefits

Dr. Keys observed that the use of fats like olive oil, along with a low intake of saturated fat, must be the main factors in the reduction of cholesterol, even though the fat intakes were often much higher than what would be expected to be a healthful intake. Along with this focus on unsaturated fats, he observed that in Crete and Japan the intake of fruits, nuts, and legumes, all very rich in folate, calcium, and vitamins E and C, might also be factors.
Animals in the Mediterranean region generally feed on grass rather than grain, so they were higher in the healthier polyunsaturated fats. The same could be said for dairy products, since dairy cattle also fed on grass rather than feed. Diet patterns in the Mediterranean were also rich in nuts, with walnuts often served as part of a meal; again, boosting the intake of healthier fats.
Dr. Keys continued his work with his colleague, Dr. Henry Blackburn, at the Minnesota Heart Health Program, which also looked at switching sources of fats to boost the healthier unsaturated fats while decreasing the cholesterol-raising saturated fats.
The Lyon Diet Heart Study

The Lyon Diet Heart Study built on the outcomes of the Seven Countries Study. The Lyon Diet Heart Study was a clinical trial that compared a standard American Heart Association diet to a traditional Mediterranean diet with the goal of determining if one was more effective in reducing the rate of recurrences of heart disease after a first heart attack. The study, which lasted for five years, involved more than 600 patients who had had a previous heart attack. Key components of the Mediterranean diet group were:

• Use of olive oil and canola oil margarine
• Wide variety of fruits and vegetables
• Moderate intake of chicken, fish, and wine

The study found that those in the Mediterranean-type diet group had a 72 percent reduction in deaths from heart disease and heart attacks versus the other diet group. The study also found a 61 percent reduction in incidence of cancer in the Mediterranean diet group. This study was followed by other studies in men and women with mixed outcomes, but the overall outcomes continued to support the benefits of a Mediterranean-type diet in reducing risk of heart disease.
The common factors associated with reduced risk seem to be the large portion of vegetables, fruits, and beans as well as the use of olive oil. The high antioxidant content of plant foods is one assumed factor in reduced disease risk, but the folate content of fruits and vegetables may also be an important aspect. Other studies have indicated the benefit might be due to the combination of the foods as opposed to any one food or food group.
North Karelia Study

Another study that followed the Seven Country Study was the North Karelia Study, conducted by the country of Finland to determine if the Mediterranean diet could reduce the very high levels of heart disease in Finland. The diet of Finland was traditionally very high in saturated fat, due to the high consumption of full-fat dairy foods like cheese, cream, and whole milk. At the same time, and due to the climate of Finland, the diet was very low in vegetables and fruits.
The North Karelia Study involved community education for diet change, incorporating community tips for healthier eating, steps to boost availability of produce, and guidelines on how to reduce full-fat dairy intake. Study outcomes showed a 50 percent drop in deaths from heart disease. The North Karelia Study has remained a point of reference for healthy eating in Finland, with current dietary guidelines using the same types of community education, policy development, and efforts toward food availability.
What is folate?
Folate, or folic acid, is a B vitamin that helps control blood levels of homocysteine. Homocysteine is a compound that has been linked to increased risk for heart disease. Folate is found in orange juice, broccoli, spinach, beans, avocados, and enriched grain foods. For maximum health, consume 400 micrograms each day; this is equal to about one and a half cups of cooked spinach.

Evidence Consolidated

For many people, all of these studies are more overwhelming than they are helpful, so what do they actually say? The studies done on the traditional Mediterranean diet all clearly show a connection to better health and less death from heart disease. While questions continue about the exact mechanism for this improvement in health and the reduction in death rate, the benefits of the diet outweigh the unknown.
The Mediterranean diet is an excellent source of a wide variety of vitamins, minerals, and phytochemicals. It adds plenty of healthy fats and the fiber content is excellent. Whatever each study proves about the Mediterranean diet and how it connects to health promotion, the one point that is very clear is that it is an eating plan that will keep you feeling good and support your health.