6. Mediterranean

You're listening to diet crash course, aHimalayan learning audio course. You sure to check out all the other awesomecourses on the Himalaya app or himalaya.com rub a little olive oil on it. Okay.Maybe that's not what all the people who follow a Mediterranean diet do itjust. I'm kind of playing homage and poking fun at the Greeks.

[00:00:32] If you guys don't know, my wifeis a hundred percent Greek. Her parents are off the boat or plane from Greecewhen they were just teenagers. So Mediterranean diet as is actually near anddear to my heart for the third consecutive year. The Mediterranean dire meansthe number one best diet overall.

[00:00:52] Ranked by us news and worldreports. Now it's easy to follow. It has less meat, sugar, saturated fat whilealso incorporating nuts and produce whole grains and following just an easydaily regimen. Now this diet also took top honors for best diets, for healthyeating easiest diets to follow best diets for a diabetes.

[00:01:15] And. Best plant based diet. SoI'm joy Thurman, and this is your crash course. Now the Mediterranean diet hasbeen around for a long time, and it has this long standing reputation for justbeing one of the healthiest diets around. I know back in 2007, when I, I wasintroduced to the Mediterranean diet, actually this diet, I didn't even realizeI was on a diet because as I've explained in that intro episode, The diet iskind of what you're just eating.

[00:01:42] So I was eating the sad crapstandard American diet. And when I met my wife in 2007, she had graduatedcollege a year before, got her master's in science and she was living with herparents house. So I would go there and I was wearing earrings at the time. AndI took them out because I didn't want her parents to know that I had earringsfor some reason that, but her mom would just cook these amazing foods and haveall these sorts of vegetables and things.

[00:02:08] And these smells that. I waslike, what is that? And they'd have these red sauces and just delicious flavors.Little did I know I was eating a Mediterranean diet. I started having greensand incorporating those into my life, craziness, right? Eating green things whowould have thought I was going to do that.

[00:02:27] And all my mom was quitesurprised when she said I was doing that. And then her dad would make me fruitsmoothies and take them in the backyard. And I just really feel like he wasdoing that to spy on us and Chuck, who this guy was trying to. Court hisdaughter. Well, Dean, my father-in-law lots of respect for you, but, uh, fourand a half months later, we were engaged.

[00:02:47] So you're stuck with me now.It's been 12 years. Love you, honey. So Mediterranean diet. I mean it reallyquite interesting. I started eating a lot of this food and started beingimmersed in the Greek culture. And one thing I realized is that yes, theMediterranean diet was incredibly healthy and olive oil.

[00:03:08] I don't even know if I ever hadolive oil before that and these healthy fats in the way of cooking and theydidn't really fry anything. It was just quite interesting because I was used tothrowing things in Cresco and frying them up and not really knowing how tocook. I would even take a can of tuna, put it on a frying pan, fried up, slapsome cheese on it and some bread.

[00:03:27] And that's actually what I ate.It was kind of my. Poor. Man's single man diet. I digress, but eating this way.I started to feel really good. So thanks hula my lovely mother-in-law forstarting me on the right way to help. I didn't really know that I was goingthis route. I was working out a lot and I thought, Hey, it's okay if I just eatprocessed meat and all this sort of stuff.

[00:03:50] It's it's okay. I still have absright. But it didn't feel good. And one thing I also realized I met theMediterranean diet is also about ease of lifestyle. So if you've ever been toareas where the Mediterranean diet is prevalent, like Spain, France, Italy, andyes, of course. Nice. If you go to a restaurant there, you need to ask for amenu, you sit down and you relax.

[00:04:13] You have to ask for a menu andthey take their time and they enjoy their food and they laugh and they relax.So, yes, the Mediterranean diet has a lot of food. That's good for you, butalso maybe it's a Mediterranean mentality that we could all take a little bitof. So it doesn't matter if you're carnivore or if you're paleo or vegan, maybelet's just kind of just relax a little bit.

[00:04:38] And de-stress crazy thought.Right? All right. Let's get into it. Now. The Mediterranean diet has beenproven to have lots of lower incidences of disease compared to are crap. UnitedStates, Western sad, American diet, and even Northern Europe. Now it can beclassified as a plant based diet. So if you miss my plant-based crash course,go ahead and check that out and get into all what plant-based means.

[00:05:07] And if you're going to go fullon plant-based or you can go vegan or any other combination of that. So it doesfollow along the rules of being predominantly plant based. This is focusing onhealthy fats and veggies, fruits, nuts, seeds, lagoons, grains. And yes,there's a little bit of meat, but that's more of a side dish.

[00:05:31] So they're pretty much limitinga lot of the red meat and sweets and processed foods. And if one thing, ifyou're listening to all these crash courses, a lot of these diets emphasizegetting rid of the processed crap food, food, and the added sugars. That'sprobably a good idea. I don't know if many people are going to, uh, So Joey,you're wrong on that one?

[00:05:52] Well, lots of evidence now,Mediterranean. What are you going to do? How do you start it now? You want, youwant to be home and just either order your food or go out and get all of yourfood and grab it ahead of time. So the first few weeks you have that controlledenvironment, and then you're going to focus on those plant foods, poultry,seafood, eggs, dairy.

[00:06:12] Okay. And then the dairy oftenis in moderation. Now, alcohol. Like red wine is allowed a little bit, um, onthis diet, you can have a glass or two a night, not a big bottle. It don'tthink you need to drink every single night, but it is allowed in moderation.Okay. I mean, if you're a Greek, they love their ouzo.

[00:06:32] So what do you eat specificallyon this Mediterranean diet? Right fruits. Nature's candy. Apples strawberries,Kiwi melon, blueberries, payors, peaches, apricots antioxidants, and thosescience anti-inflammation properties. Nature's candy is truly just deliciousside note about being in a Greek household.

[00:06:54] They always want to feed you andthey'll ask you three times every time. Are you hungry? No. Thanks. Are youhungry? No. Thanks. Are you hungry? Where's the food? No, thanks. How aboutsome fruit? Fruit is food, right? They always just try to feed you. And that'spart of that loving culture and it's a great vegetables and there's a lot ofspinach cauliflower, broccoli, onions, zucchini, asparagus potatoes.

[00:07:19] Oh, one of my favorite things ispotatoes cooked in a red sauce. Pretty good. A lot of times in the States, thecenter of American diet, where we're having we're, I'm just a bunch of breadand process stuff, and we're throwing it in a toaster and putting some butteron it and whatever, but there's a spinach pie that they make.

[00:07:35] It has this filo dough. That'sreally thin dough, just a few layers of that. And the whole middle is just abunch of spinach smushed in there. It's just basically eating spinach with thisthin dough on it. Really interesting way to get your vegetables. My sonactually loves this. Even make this with some of the aged cheese and the fedcheese.

[00:07:57] So they're actually gettingtheir nutrients in ways that some people might think, Oh my God, you're havingcarbohydrates, but you're also having a bunch of spinach. So if you want moreinformation on the macronutrients, what they are, what they do to your body andgo to that intro episode and I break it down.

[00:08:10] Besides a plethora ofvegetables, lagoons, chickpeas, beans, lentils. I also cook these and otherit's amazing red sauce and in a pressure cooker. Very good bunch of fiberprotein. That's a nice. Sometimes not even a side dish, they'll just make abunch of lagoons and beans and lentils. I remember the first time I was given abowl of lentils, like where's the rest of the food and lentils are incrediblyfilling.

[00:08:36] Whole grains. Cusco is milletBrown rice buckwheat farro farro is really good. It's kind of like a nuttyflavor to it. So you're going to nuts, nuts and seeds, pistachios, walnuts,chia seeds, flax seeds, Hazel nuts, macadamia nuts. They're not reallyrestricting a lot of things on this diet. They're just eating some whole foodsthat are known to be good for you and the poultry chicken Turkey, lamb, ofcourse goose duck.

[00:09:01] And yes, they're having a littlebit of red meat seafood. Pretty much open startings, mussels, tuna salad, eggs,dairy, and some of the dairy is the aged cheese and yogurt, which has beenshown to be handled by the body butter. And you've got these HGS like Goudait's, Gouda and yogurt, the Greek yogurt, amazing probiotic properties helpskeep you irregular.

[00:09:27] And I can't talk about theMediterranean diet without talking about the healthy fats, avocados, olives.Avocado oil and olive oil. I don't know if any of you've ever been to an olivetree farm. It's quite beautiful. And there's rolling Hills and Greece to seeall these little trees and they're just lined up perfect in rows and rows androws as far as I can see, and just a beautiful sight, the rolling Hills, andyou look over and you see the ocean now, olive oil.

[00:09:57] Why is olive oil so good foryou? I can't talk about the Mediterranean diet without talking about olive oil.Now, obviously it's extracted from the olives, from the olive trees. It's gotabout 14% saturated fat. 11% polyunsaturated and it has a, a good Omega sixOmega three ratio, but the predominant fatty acid novel is mine.

[00:10:19] One saturated fat. It's calledoleic acid. That's about 73% of the total content. Now oleic acid reducesinflammation and it may or may even have beneficial effects on genes linked tocancer monuments. Unsaturated fats are also very good because they're moreresistant to higher heat. So extra Virgin olive oil is very good for cookingnow, apart from the beneficial fatty acids, it's got mass amounts of vitamin Eand K antioxidant properties.

[00:10:47] Anti-oxidants help reduce yourrisk of chronic disease. Fight inflammation. Blood helps with blood cholesterolfighting from oxidation and just very good benefits for lowering risk of heartdisease. It's also an anti-inflammatory for your brain. Timer's disease is verycommon neurodegenerative disease, very common in the world.

[00:11:08] And you listened to my introepisode and talk about how both my grandparents, grandmothers had it. It's verydebilitating for the person that has it, and also for the people around themthat love them. So adding some olive oil has been shown to help with that. Soone of the key features in this neurodegenerative disease is a buildup of, uh,Beta amyloid plaques inside of your brain cells and olive oil will help that.

[00:11:32] I mean, even studies in miceshow that, well, it can help remove these plaques now, olive oil, avocado oil.Very good for you. I talked about the smoke point in olive oil. Olive oil has asmoke point of about 410 degrees Fahrenheit. And if you're gonna cook evenhotter, avocado oil is a good choice for you because it's a 520 degrees smokepoint.

[00:11:50] Now they also use a bunch ofvery good herbs and spices. I know my mother-in-law loves cooking with garlicand garlic is very good for you. Anti-inflammatory properties and tumeric andpepper Rosemary, and in light, um, seasonings that actually come from the HolyOh, which village and all that, they used to get these shipments of these justdifferent spices and just the freshness smelled so good.

[00:12:14] And the flavor was amazing, evenif you're having bread and you're going to a Mediterranean diet country. Thatbread. It didn't sit on the shelf for weeks on end and stayed good. No, theymade it at home. So, if you're going to have that white bread, which you shouldprobably stay away from, from at least if it's made at home, you know, what theingredients are, and it's not staying shelf stable for weeks on end, which kindof interesting why bread could stay good for so long when it's sitting on agrocery store shelf.

[00:12:44] Think about that. What do youdrink? Water. Coffee. T very good for you. Ham Amelie. As I say, for T foods toavoid added sugar processed foods, refined oils, shouldn't be having thatsoybean oil canola oil, corn oil, safflower oil, get rid of that. That stuff israncid at high heats. You don't want to have that horrible for you.

[00:13:07] Sugar sweetened beverages. Nosodas, nothing like that. It doesn't matter if you're Mediterranean or not.Just get rid of that crap. Refined grains, crackers, biscuit, biscuits, white,pasta, flour tortillas, all that sort of stuff. Like I said, you're making thebread on your own. Probably a better choice if you know where the food thatyou're eating came from.

[00:13:28] And it's more fresh, even thoughI'd say not to eat it generally, it's a much better option to put in your mouththan your body processed meats. I want to stay away from that completely. Whatare the benefits of being on a Mediterranean diet linked by science now, anddiet has such nutrient foods. It's very good for weight loss study.

[00:13:50] After study have said thatMediterranean diet is as effective as even locally carb diets for getting ridof a weight and keeping it off. Now there was a review of five studies foundthat Mediterranean diet was as effective as other popular diets, like low carbdiets for weight loss. And I talk about low carb diets in this crash course.

[00:14:10] I think about like ketogenicdiet or paleo could be classified as low carb. So go back and listen to thoseepisodes. It's resulted in 22 pound loss over a year 22 pounds. That's a lot. Idon't know if you know what a pound of fat looks like, but it's quite massive.If you take a brick. And you'll look at that break.

[00:14:28] That's about what a pound of fatlooks like a pound of muscle tissue. What weighs more, a pound of muscle tissueor pound of fat, a pound and pound. They weigh the same, but the density isdifferent. Pound of muscle tissue is about half the size of a pound of fat. 22pounds is a lot to lose other large studies.

[00:14:47] Just talk about the decreasedrisk of gaining weight and belly fat, which having that extra belly fat, thatinternal fat around our organs is really bad. Now it improves heart healthstudy after study is talking about the heart health of the Mediterranean dietin one study, Mediterranean diet supplemented with nuts or olive oil for threemonths led to significant improvements in cholesterol, metabolic syndrome,lowers metabolic syndrome, which a lot of people are overweight.

[00:15:13] Have that. 41 reports showedthat the Mediterranean diet was associated with a lower risk of heart diseaseand stroke. And people with diabetes, there was a study of 418 people notedthat those who found a Mediterranean diet were 52% less likely. 52% less likelyto develop type two diabetes over a four year period also reduces inflammation.

[00:15:35] I talked about anti-inflammatoryproperties, but a lot of the food that they're eating this chronic inflammationis really going to lead to heart disease cancer. And yes, of course, diabetes.So eating a Mediterranean lifestyle has been proven to help that inflammation,which could prevent illness, let food be thy medicine, right.

[00:15:55] And the Mediterranean diet.That's what. It's trying to do without us sitting there and having to countcalories, which is one of the major reasons why people fall off the wagon forfollowing a diet, they feel like they've got to count these calories, but onthe Mediterranean diet, unless you really want to, you don't need to sit thereand count calories.

[00:16:12] Now the Mediterranean diet haslots of studies behind it. Could there be some bad things about it? Yeah, therecould be. So let's get into that possible health concerns. Now, anytime you'refollowing a diet and you're not necessarily counting calories, you could,over-consume based off of your resting metabolic rate or your total dailyenergy expenditure, the amount of calories that you're gonna have now travelolive oil and nuts, main sample of Mediterranean diet.

[00:16:40] One tablespoon of olive oil hasabout 120 calories. I don't know if you've ever seen somebody just. Spreadolive oil all over a salad, or when they're cooking potatoes or anything, 10 20tablespoons of olive oil easily when you're putting it into a pan, if you'recooking some potatoes. So you just had a thousand to 2000 calories of olive oiladded to it, too much of a good thing can be a bad thing.

[00:17:02] Nuts are known to be very goodfor you on the Mediterranean diet, but your average handful of nuts could beseveral hundred. Calories. I have a massive hand and I bet I could probablyhave six to 700 calories in a handful. So be careful with that. Here's what 200calories of some common nuts look like eight walnuts, 200 calories, 10macadamia, nuts and pecans.

[00:17:26] 200 calories, 22 cashews, 22peanuts. And about 29 almonds. So just be careful. Now you might have lowerlevels of iron. So if you're on a Mediterranean diet and you're cutting out alot of these foods that have iron in them, Like meat, red meat, organ meats,shellfish. You could be lacking a little bit of iron.

[00:17:44] So. Just make sure that you'reincorporating the foods that you have that have iron in them with vitamin C,because vitamin C will help. The absorption rate of iron is going to havethings like Kiwi and oranges and grapefruit, and add that with iron rich foods.So if you're having the meat, you can have it.

[00:17:59] You can have that vitamin Cfoods with it, or spinach as iron and keenwah and lagoons, pumpkin seeds andbroccoli. Add a little vitamin C with it, calcium loss. If you're not having asmuch dairy. So you want to, you could potentially get a calcium product or asalt supplement if you so choose, or you can just eat your food.

[00:18:17] So if you're lacking calcium,you know, you need to go for things that have calcium in them. Chia seeds,Sesame seeds, yogurt, Greek yogurt. Very good. Salmon sardines sardines. Verygood for you. Omega three fatty acids don't wanna have too much fish becausefish has high levels of mercury. Generally the bigger the fish, the moremercury it has because bigger fish is eating smaller fish and they're justabsorbing that mercury.

[00:18:42] So just. Look out for that. Uh,especially if you're pregnant beans, lentils, and even some whey protein havesome calcium in it, or you can get some fortified foods, maybe some almondmilk. That's four to four to five with calcium. Now be careful with zinc andcalcium is high. Calcium can block the absorption of zinc and we need zincbecause it helps you immune system fights off bacteria viruses and makesproteins and DNA.

[00:19:04] And yes, the wine, the alcohol.Just be careful with that. You don't want to booze it up all the time, justcause it says, we say that, Oh, one to two glasses of wine are good for you. Imean, really you shouldn't be having alcohol at all, but I get it. We need tounwind sometimes. So try to cut down that alcohol consumption cause yes.

[00:19:23] Alcohol has been linked to lackof sleep problems could potentially have some issues with testosterone levels.You're not, you're not sleeping. You're kind of passing out, right. And you'renot getting a restful sleep. I'm going to eat more calories when you're havingalcohol. Even if you're eating good food, like Mediterranean diet and you'redrinking, you're gonna have less inhibitions and need more calories.

[00:19:44] And even having alcohol canlimit your fat oxidation. What does that mean? So alcohol is essentially beingtreated as another macronutrient when it hits the body has seven calories pergram. So yes, we're worried about the calories. But when you're taking in thatalcohol until your body gets rid of the alcohol, it's treating that as a toxin.

[00:20:01] It's trying to get rid of itfirst. So your body will limit the fat that it's oxidizing. So basicallyutilizing while that alcohol is in your system. So now that you know what theMediterranean diet is, how you go about it, what food you're going to add? Whatdoes the day look like? Let's say get up in the morning.

[00:20:17] You want to have breakfast ifyou're not having breakfast and do fasting, make sure you listen to my fast andcrash course option. And maybe do an omelet with some spinach and tomatoes andmushrooms, lunch, grilled chicken and asparagus, maybe dinner. You're havingsome Cod or I've got lemon soup with broccoli, Brown rice.

[00:20:36] Keep it simple. The acronymkiss. Keep it simple, stupid, not calling you stupid. I'm just telling you tokeep it simple here. Let's not overthink things. This isn't a diet where you'vegot to count those calories and count those macro nutrients. Like I said, youcan, if you want. But this is a diet about lifestyle, just as much as what goesinto your mouth.

[00:20:57] So thank you for taking the timeto be a part of this course, this crash course to the Mediterranean diet. I'mJoey Thurman. Take care. Thank you for listening to diet crash course, aHimalayan learning audio course. Be sure to check out all the other awesomecourses in the Himalaya app or himalaya.com.