Lon a Mediterranean diet, cradled over the centuries on the edge of the Mare nostrum, is the best in the world. With its spaghetti, its oil, tomatoes and oregano. Wins for the fifth consecutive year the competition among forty diets evaluated by the experts of US News & World Reporta company renowned for its rankings of universities, hospitals or, indeed, eating patterns.
“Especially during the stressful times of the pandemic,” say the American scientists who rewarded it, “we want food that we can enjoy and food that maintains our health, that strengthens our immune system.” Flavors and science.
Mediterranean diet, how it started
But do Italians follow the Mediterranean diet? In fact, less and less. Only 32 percent adopt correct lifestyles, according to a research curated by Nomisma for UniSalute, so much so that there are 18 million overweight adults and 5 million obese (data from Italian Obesity Barometer Report).
We would have recipes at home that promise to prevent diabetes, to support our hearts, to preserve the brain, not to get fat and we neglect them. Already in the 1950s it was an American who first understood the potential of the Mediterranean table: the biologist Ancel Keys.
He was struck by the low incidence of cardiovascular diseases and gastrointestinal disorders in Southern Italy and Crete, so he moved to Pioppi, in Cilento, where he lived for four decades.
He died a centenary and his legacy, the Mediterranean diet, is a celebration of Italian diningturnip greens, chickpeas, walnuts or other ingredients that continue to be investigated in the laboratories.
Mediterranean diet, how many prejudices
And the benefits are always there. But the diet’s reputation is undermined by prejudices, which distort its essence. Here are nine commonplaces to be disproved.
“We stuff ourselves with pasta”
Those who pass off the colossal eating of spaghetti with sauce as a Mediterranean diet, as in the famous scene of Totò in Misery and nobility.
In the Guidelines for healthy Italian nutrition, drawn up by the Food and Nutrition Research Center (Crea), the standard serving of pasta or rice for a 1500 kilocalorie diet is 80 grams, once a day.
It is not a normal plate of rigatoni that makes the chili rise, but rather brioches. It’s not the fruit that makes you fat, it’s replacing it with juices. It is necessary, slowly, to get used to replacing an unhealthy food with a food that is good for you.
Spaghetti al pomodoro are a pillar of our local gastronomy, but by themselves they do not make the Mediterranean diet (photo Getty Images).
With a portion of pistachios (30 grams) instead of a bag of chips (100 grams) you cut 330 calories, with a slice of wholemeal bread for breakfast instead of a croissant with cream about 100 calories and the same if you eat a peach instead four shortbread biscuits.
The success of high-protein diets, such as Atkins and Dukanhas led many people to think that swapping first courses and bread with meat makes you lose weight.
They will be amazed to know the result of a study carried out in Luxembourg (Oriscav-Lux, published in 2015), which followed 1152 people for about two years: Excessive animal protein intake increases the risk of accumulating abdominal fat over time.
“Whole or refined cereals doesn’t change much”
But it changes a lot. Whole or semi-whole grains are part of the Mediterranean diet, while refined flours are the basis of focaccia and snacks of the so-called western, American dietwith many ultra-finished and long-term inflammatory products.
White rice and foods with 00 flour, like so much bread on the market, have a characteristic: the high glycemic index, that is, they make the blood sugar splash and push the production of insulin, the hormone that regulates blood glucose levels.
Glycemic spikes are not good for you and, among other things, make you want to eat more: a lot of insulin quickly lowers blood sugar, making your appetite come back. On the other hand, with the grains that have not lost pieces on the way to milling, the rush of sugar is slowed down and the sense of satiety lasts longer.
It must be said that durum wheat semolina pasta, the one we find in the supermarket, although it does not have the richness of fiber, vitamins and minerals of the whole wheat version, does not have a high glycemic index like products with refined flour.
“We need to dissociate carbohydrates and proteins”
The dissociated diet does not make sense, even for the mere fact that pasta or even fruit have a protein share. Not only: carbohydrates and proteins back up. Insulin, the hormone produced by the pancreas to regulate the presence of glucose in the blood, favors the use of amino acids, the building blocks of proteins, for protein synthesis.
For their part, proteins burn calories better than carbohydrates during digestion and give a sense of satiety. It is understandable why the most attentive institutions offer the so-called healthy dish.
It is an intuitive formula developed at Harvard University to eat in a balanced way, according to the principles of the Mediterranean diet.
Just imagine lunch or dinner as a big dish:
- half is made up of vegetables and fruit, with more vegetables than fruit;
- a quarter is intended for cereals and derivatives (preferably wholemeal or semi-wholemeal);
- a quarter to proteins, therefore varying between legumes, eggs, dairy products, meat, fish, but also nuts if there is in the dishes;
- all washed down with water, one and a half liters, a day, and seasoned with spices and aromatic herbs, a little salt and extra virgin olive oil.
The three macronutrients, that is, fats, carbohydrates and proteins, are on the lunch and dinner tables, along with the fiber and micronutrients of fruit and vegetables. But the attention should be on the times, trying to dine early, because the more the evening advances, the worse our metabolic management of carbohydrates..
“The Mediterranean model is carnivorous”
Let’s say it is omnivorous. There are those who think that eating meat often is part of Italian customs, it is not so. The Mediterranean diet includes animal proteins, none excluded, but it is mainly vegetable, with fruit, vegetables in abundance, legumes and cereals.
It is now recommended to eat red meat only once a week and white a couple. Twice also fish, crustaceans and molluscs, two-three eggs, two-three cheeses, preferably fresh and lean.
But at least three vegetarian meals should be cooked per weekbuilding courses around beans, whole grains and vegetables.
“Fruit is sugary, like a dessert”
Various studies show that eating fruits and vegetables prevents weight gain (including a German meta-analysis on European Journal of Nutrition, 2012). It is true that a fruit is a source of simple carbohydrates, but the sugar content represents on average 10 percent of the total weight and the rest is water, fiber and micronutrients.
For example, research on American children and obesity has shown that consuming one to two apples a day, while on a low-calorie diet, gives excellent results on the scale.
Among other things, calories cannot exhaust the characteristics of a food. Fruit is packed with vitamins and minerals and the World Health Organization has recently reiterated that you should eat five or more servings of fruit and vegetables a day for the proper functioning of the immune system.
“Vegetables and legumes swell the belly”
True, beans and some types of vegetables are part of those foods that can ferment in the intestine, with the production of air. But in a series of experiments (published on Nutrition Journal) a group of researchers found that people are overly concerned about the effects of legumes.
The problems have them who eats them occasionally. “They want to get used to it” as they say, and the belly will stop muttering when they arrive, if they are brought to the table gradually with greater continuity. There is the vegetable mill, if anything, to eliminate the peels, which contain the most problematic fibers.
The Mediterranean model and all diets that have their roots in the millenary cultures of peoples include legumes. Eating them, at least three times a week, is systematically associated in studies with a longer existence.
A person, only by tracing behaviors that were his ancestors, with an extra classic soup and a few plates of peas, can potentially prevent obesity and diabetes, stroke and heart attack, atherosclerosis and cancer.
“It’s a difficult diet to follow”
The Mediterranean diet also ranked first in the easiest-to-follow diets category, according to US News & World Report.
Simplicity is given by several factors: it does not ban entire food groups, there are hundreds of recipes to be made in a few minutes and with a few ingredients, you can go to the restaurant finding the dishes to compose a menu in Mediterranean style, remembering to also order vegetables or a salad.
Another consideration prompted nutrition experts to reward our home diet: satisfies the sense of satiety, which is an important fact. And one of the reasons is given by the presence of extra virgin olive oil fats and fibers in vegetables, legumes, fresh and dried fruit, whole grains.
“It’s an expensive diet”
Maybe those who object to the costs of the Mediterranean diet have a latest generation smartphone and a designer garment on them. In this case it is a question of making choices.
What is certain is that spending a little more to buy fruit, vegetables, quality extra virgin olive oil and fish is an investment in your health.
To eat, you can use a lot of money but use it badly. Reduce the consumption of meat and sausages and favoring legumes is an example of how to rebalance the portfolio. Buy cheaper vegetables in seasonand another.
“This is just a food plan”
Diet comes from dìaita, which according to the ancient Greeks was the best way to live to stay healthy. Such is the Mediterranean model.
It doesn’t just include directions for menus, it also includes movement. Walking is a classic and more muscle strengthening exercise should be added, especially as the years go by.
And there is conviviality, one of the reasons why the Mediterranean diet was recognized as a UNESCO heritage site in 2010. Meals in company are the cornerstone of the villages overlooking the sea of history that unites them.
Eliana Liotta is a journalist, writer and science writer. On iodonna.it and on the main platforms (Spreaker, Spotify, Apple Podcast and Google Podcast) you will find his podcast series The good that I want.
All the articles by Eliana Liotta.
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