What is the Mediterranean Diet? And Is It Good for You?

Nutrition is one of the foundational building blocks of health. What we eat plays an incredibly important role in our digestion, mental health, hormone production and energy levels. At Natural Terrain, assessing a patient’s diet and nutritional intake is a common occurrence. Diet is an important way to make sure you are getting all the vitamins, minerals, proteins and nutrients you need to be healthy. The diets that are prescribed are often well-researched diets that are tailored to the needs of the patient. One diet that has a lot of good research behind it is the Mediterranean diet.

What is the Mediterranean Diet?

The Mediterranean Diet is a diet based on the daily servings of food groups. Often the Mediterranean diet is described in a pyramid, with different food groups put into different levels. The bottom of the pyramid is what should be eaten at every meal and the top of the pyramid are foods that should be eaten the least.

Base Level

On the base of the pyramid is vegetables, fruits, whole grains, herbs, legumes and healthy fats. Olive oil is encouraged as the main healthy fat, but nuts and seeds are also placed in this category. Legumes, such as beans, peas and lentils should replace meat products in at least 3 of your meals each week. Every meal should focus on this main category.

Level 2

The next level of the pyramid is fish and seafood. Fish is the main source of animal protein in the Mediterranean diet. It is high in Omega-3’s which are anti-inflammatory and great for your health. When selecting which types of fish to eat, it is best to choose fish with lower levels of mercury. You can look here for low mercury fish. In Edmonton, we recommend buying your fish from Ocean Odyssey Inland for some of the freshest, high-quality fish.

Level 3

The third level is Poultry, Eggs and Dairy which should be consumed in small amounts. Eat these types of foods once every couple days.

Top of the Pyramid

The last category, which should make up the lowest proportion of your diet is red meats and sweets. Choose lean cuts of meats when possible and consume these only a couple of times each month. Leave sugary foods for special occasions only.

Water is encouraged to be drank throughout the day. Moderate intake of red wine is allowed, with the maximum drinks per day being 1 for women and 2 for men.  While the emphasis is on food group selection, the Mediterranean Diet also suggest daily exercise and eating with others, which are good practices to start.

What are the health benefits?

The health benefits of the Mediterranean has been well studied. One of the most studied link is between the Mediterranean diet and the prevention of cardiovascular disease. Studies show that following a Mediterranean diet can reduce your risk of stroke, heart attacks and death from cardiovascular disease. It has also been shown to significantly reduce blood pressure.

Mediterranean diets also have been useful in preventing and treating diabetes. The Mediterranean diet can help lower glucose levels and improve insulin sensitivity.

Besides diabetes and cardiovascular disease, the Mediterranean diet has been helpful to improve sleep quality, manage PCOS, prevent cognitive decline, decrease the risk of depression and prevent some cancers.

Although the Mediterranean diet is considered a ‘diet’, it does not require any change in the amount of food intake. Working with a naturopathic doctor to tailor a diet like the Mediterranean diet can be an important step in preventative medicine and building the foundation of health.

References

  1. Schwingshackl L, Hoffmann G. Adherence to Mediterranean diet and risk of cancer: an updated systematic review and meta-analysis of observational studies. Cancer Medicine. 2015;4(12):1933-1947. doi:10.1002/cam4.539
  2. Shafiei F, Salari-Moghaddam A, Larijani B, Esmaillzadeh A. Adherence to the Mediterranean diet and risk of depression: a systematic review and updated meta-analysis of observational studies. Nutr Rev. 2019;77(4):230-239. doi:10.1093/nutrit/nuy070
  3. Martini D. Health Benefits of Mediterranean Diet. Nutrients. 2019;11(8). doi:10.3390/nu11081802
  4. Campanini MZ, Guallar-Castillón P, Rodríguez-Artalejo F, Lopez-Garcia E. Mediterranean Diet and Changes in Sleep Duration and Indicators of Sleep Quality in Older Adults. Sleep. 2017;40(3). doi:10.1093/sleep/zsw083
  5. Georgoulis M, Kontogianni M, Yiannakouris N. Mediterranean Diet and Diabetes: Prevention and Treatment. Nutrients. 2014;6(4):1406-1423. doi:10.3390/nu6041406
  6. Rees K, Takeda A, Martin N, et al. Mediterranean-style diet for the primary and secondary prevention of cardiovascular disease. Cochrane Heart Group, ed. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. Published online March 13, 2019. doi:10.1002/14651858.CD009825.pub3
  7. Benson G, Pereira RF, Boucher JL. Rationale for the Use of a Mediterranean Diet in Diabetes Management. Diabetes Spectrum. 2011;24(1):36-40. doi:10.2337/diaspect.24.1.36

 

Vitamin Supplementation Benefits are Real

Editorial by Ralph K. Campbell, MD and Andrew W. Saul

This article as been written by the Orthomolecular Medicine News Service and is posted with their permission. The peer-reviewed Orthomolecular Medicine News Service is a non-profit and non-commercial informational resource. Please subscribe to OMNS here  http://orthomolecular.org/subscribe.html and find archived articles here;  http://orthomolecular.org/resources/omns/index.shtml

Perhaps the only advantage of getting old is being able to look back and see what worked and what didn’t. Knowledge of severe vitamin deficiency diseases is an example of learning the hard way. The association of vitamin B1 (thiamine) with beriberi was perhaps the first example of the consequences of refining a food. Milling away the unattractive outer husk of the rice that contained the thiamine caused the disease. No drug could substitute for that missing, essential, “vital amine.” That’s how “vitamins” first got their name.

The 1930s

In the early 1930s, more such life-sustaining substances were isolated and also named vitamins. Many studies were done to determine what vitamins were in which foods, and they would subsequently be produced as supplements. The public seemed eager to learn more; vitamins were a very popular subject. Common knowledge exceeded what has been presented to most medical students. Recently, we are seeing a recognition and correction of this inadequacy in medical students’ nutrition education.

Post-war

A big change took place after World War II ended: many new drugs were put on the market. Drugs are designed to either enhance or inhibit a specific biological reaction. Vitamins, as necessary cofactors for many enzymes, also do this. The difference is that the drug is designed to target a specific action, whereas a nutrient works in concert with other nutrients. This can make it difficult to assign results, good or bad, to a single nutrient. But both drugs and vitamins work under the principle of giving an amount sufficient to push the equation to the desired effect.

Dosage

Insufficient quantities of a drug, or vitamin, will not get results. As Abram Hoffer, MD, has said, neither 500 units of an antibiotic, nor 500 milligrams of vitamin C, will get results. Early studies supposedly “proving” that vitamin C was worthless used amounts too small to be of any value. Linus Pauling and other researchers have said the same: if you are going to build a house, be sure you have enough bricks. This is the basis of megavitamin prevention and treatment.

Beta carotene

Amazingly, some still claim that vitamin supplements are actually detrimental. They often refer to a gosh-awful 1994 “study” claiming that beta carotene caused lung cancer. It commenced with a foregone conclusion that beta-carotene is bad stuff. As if to guarantee that it would be found accordingly, the study used long-time smokers as subjects. It is well known that smoking, due to the carcinogenic effects of tobacco tars, is a direct cause of lung cancer. Blaming a vitamin as the cause, in spite of a myriad of studies showing that beta carotene is preventive, makes no sense. [1]

Abram Hoffer, MD, has pointed out that

“With this group of heavy smokers it is certain that a large fraction already had the cancer. . . [T]he beta-carotene group smoked one year more than the no-beta-carotene group . . . How significant is one year more of heavy smoking in increasing the number of advanced lung cancers? The authors do not discuss this.”

Although Dr. Hoffer’s commentary was published both in a medical journal [2] and in the Townsend Letter for Doctors [3], few physicians saw it. Perhaps too many doctors are too busy to read. All doctors are inhibited by having a very limited time for each patient a visit, plus by far too much time required to be spent on the computer with record-keeping, insurance and government mandates.

Doctors need to keep an open mind about vitamin therapy. We should avoid the mistake many politicians are following: If they don’t agree with me, they are the enemy. Good medicine should at least listen to and examine the other side.

References

1. Saul AW. Which kills smokers: “Camels” or carrots? Are smokers getting lung cancer from beta-carotene? Orthomolecular Medicine News Service 2008. 4:23, Nov 18. http://orthomolecular.org/resources/omns/v04n23.shtml

2. Hoffer A. The Finnish antioxidant and lung cancer study. J Orthomolecular Med 1994. 9:2, 67-70. http://orthomolecular.org/library/jom/1994/pdf/1994-v09n02-p067.pdf

3. https://www.tldp.com/Indices/96authr.htm
Also: https://www.townsendletter.com/Oct2007/EDvitaminwar1007.htm