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In health care you hear the words “you should start a Mediterranean diet” a lot. Many in the vascular sciences (such as cardiology or neurology) will TRY to place all of their patients on it. In this post we are going to talk about IF the diet is really that healthy, WHY the diet is supposedly healthy and WHAT exactly the diet is or consists of.
What is the Mediterranean Diet?
The Mediterranean Diet (MD) is a diet that consists of foods found mostly in the Mediterranean countries (such as Greece and Italy). Ignoring the specific spices, the diet consists mainly of a healthy amount of fruits, vegetables, nuts, whole grains and seeds. It also has a moderate amount of fish, skinless poultry (chicken/turkey) and eggs with some limited dairy mixed in. The keystone of this diet is that it is based on healthy fats (unsaturated fats) and thus has very limited red meat and fatty dairy or butter/lard. They primary use olive oil in their cooking, which is loaded with healthy unsaturated fats.
Why is it recommended in healthcare?
A very popular and widely entertained OBSERVATIONAL study came out in 2013 that noted the diet resulted in decreased risk of cardiovascular events (heart attack, stroke, etc.). An observational study simply means they OBSERVED a population and did not interfere with the subjects until data was collected (i.e. labs and other markers). The theory behind how this worked was by lowering bad cholesterol, increasing good cholesterol and decreasing your other inflammatory markers. However, this study has since been retracted due to flawed methods in the study. There are other much smaller studies that also conclude the MD will reduce your risk of cardiovascular events, but the main study that led most providers to start recommending the diet is born from flawed science.
Is the diet really that healthy then?
In a nutshell, yes. The diet is still healthy even though the study was flawed. However, it’s not going to single-handedly cure cardiovascular disease and it’s not for everyone. Any diet that promotes an abundance of healthy vegetables, fruits, nuts, whole grains and limits saturated fat is healthy. What ISN’T healthy is when you expect a patient to change their entire lifestyle in the snap of your fingers because only a handful of people are equipped with that kind of tenacity/grit/resolve. I am a firm believer in baby steps. Small steps in the right direction eventually become a stride that takes you into better health.
Another reason I don’t particularly care for healthcare providers recommending the diet, is that some providers simply don’t understand the diet themselves. Many providers say “I want you to cut out meat or animal products entirely”. This is no longer a Mediterranean diet! You can have very lean red meat, but even if you decided to cut out red meat you should not have to cut out lean white meats like chicken/turkey (skinless), fish or eggs! You are now bordering into VEGAN territory by cutting out meat and are no longer on a Mediterranean diet. Cutting out animal products is likely only going to negatively impact your protein intake and set you up for other problems (barring any religious or personal choices – this is simply in the setting of the Mediterranean diet). In fact, eggs are practically becoming a super food now that science allows us to better understand their impacts on the body (see my post on Cholesterol). The Mediterranean diet was built on low saturated fat and an abundance of fruits/veggies and unsaturated fats, not on avoiding animal products. With the proper information, I believe the MD is a healthy diet and can reduce your risk of cardiovascular events, but can also be quite a hard change for some people if drastically implemented.
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