Mediterranean Diet Craze

The Mediterranean Diet calls for plenty of fruits and veggies every day.
Image from runtothefinish.com

It seems like all I’ve been reading about in the past few days are the Oscars and the Mediterranean diet. I didn’t watch the Oscars, but I’ll admit I jealously perused all the gorgeous gowns afterwards. And of course once I was done with that, I could move on to reading about the Mediterranean diet.

Of course, I’d heard of it before, but I had never looked into the specifics. Now it’s all the craze. That’s because a recent study confirmed that eating a Mediterranean diet can help reduce the risk of developing heart disease. A survey of about 1.5 million healthy adults showed that those who ate Mediterranean diets had a reduced incidence of not just heart disease, but also cancer, cancer mortality, Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s diseases.

These are the key components of the Mediterranean diet, according to the Mayo Clinic (information taken directly from their site):

The Mediterranean Hierarchy
Image from diet-blog.com

• Getting plenty of exercise
• Eating primarily plant-based foods, such as fruits and vegetables, whole grains, legumes and nuts
• Replacing butter with healthy fats such as olive oil and canola oil
• Using herbs and spices instead of salt to flavor foods
• Limiting red meat to no more than a few times a month
• Eating fish and poultry at least twice a week
• Drinking red wine in moderation (optional)

Part of what makes the diet so great is that it is very low in LDL cholesterol, which we call “bad” cholesterol. It also has a good amount of healthy fats in it, which come mostly from nuts and fish. Grains are not avoided in this diet; rather, whole grains are eaten in moderation.

Mediterranean cookbook, Cook Yourself Sexy
Image from candicekumai.com

The hierarchy of foods is laid out like this: on the first tier (largest) are olive oil, fruit, nuts, vegetables, and whole grains; on the second tier (middle) are fish and poultry; and on the third (smallest) tier are red meats, dairy, processed meats, and sweets.

“The fear of fat is so 1980s,” said Candice Kumai, author of Cook Yourself Sexy. “That’s not what’s making you fat. It’s the overconsumption of grains, heavy meats, the wrong type of fats, refined sugar and processed foods.” Kumai’s new book features Mediterranean recipes like Lox, Caper and Rocket Salad; Roasted Tomatoes with Barley; Clams in White Wine Sauce Over Linguine; and Cherry-Pistachio Biscotti—all full of nutrients and omega-3s. Yum!

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Vegetarians Have Healthier Hearts

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Eating meat could affect your heart health.

It’s easy to assume that a diet full of lots of meat (protein) is healthy. In fact, many people feel a meal isn’t quite complete without at least a small serving of meat. But the truth is, meat’s not all it’s cracked up to be. No question about it, meat is a great source of protein—but it’s also a big source of saturated fat and sodium.

When it comes to ischemic heart disease, two of the main risk factors are high blood pressure and high cholesterol. Saturated fat is the biggest dietary factor that contributes to the production of cholesterol. As for sodium, it’s the biggest dietary determinant of high blood pressure, according to Dr. Peter McCullough, cardiologist for St. John Providence Health System.

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Vegetarian diets had a lower risk of heart disease.

Because a vegetarian diet leaves out meat, which can be full of sodium and saturated fat, vegetarians are 32% less likely to develop heart disease than meat eaters. This is according to a British study published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. The study surveyed over 44,000 people, 34% of which were vegetarians.

Of course, one doesn’t necessarily need to become a vegetarian to cut saturated fat and sodium from their diets. It certainly makes it easier, but vegetarianism can also come with problems like not getting enough protein and consuming too many sugars. Cheese, which vegetarians tend to consume in larger amounts, is also a big source of saturated fat.

Image from acanaturalmeats.com
Beef is the unhealthiest source of protein.

Being choosy about meat products can go a long way in lowering the chance of heart disease. Fish is the healthiest source of protein, followed by beans and nuts. The least healthy source of protein is beef, since it’s usually quite fatty. McCullough recommends staying away from the “three s-es:” sugars, starches, and saturated fats to lower health risks.

I generally eat about half my main courses vegetarian and the other half with a serving of meat. Do you eat meat, or are you a vegetarian? I’d love to hear your input in the comments below!

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15 Cleanest Foods to Buy

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Onions are the least likely to be contaminated with pesticides

In my last post, I talked about foods that were best when bought organic because of the high occurrence of pesticides found in them. That list included popular fruits and veggies like apples, strawberries, and spinach (read the full article here!). Pesticide contamination for apples was around 98%, and some other food items were likely to be contaminated with dozens of chemicals and pesticides of varying toxicity. On celery and strawberries, one sample revealed the presence thirteen different pesticides on each. Yikes!

But enough about the contaminated foods. You can read aboutthat in the other post. Here I wanted to talk about the 15 cleanest foods to buy. These are the foods that, if you can’t afford to buy everything organic, are much less likely to be contaminated with pesticides in their non-organic forms. Here are the “Clean 15” as provided by the Environmental Working Group (EWG):

Image from iloveorganicgirl.com
Some non-organic foods are cleaner than others

1. Onions
2. Sweet Corn
3. Pineapples
4. Avocado
5. Cabbage
6. Sweet Peas
7. Asparagus
8. Mangoes
9. Eggplant
10. Kiwi
11. Cantaloupe (domestic)
12. Sweet Potatoes
13. Grapefruit
14. Watermelon
15. Mushrooms

Image from alwatermelon.org
Watermelon is among the cleanest of produce

If you can’t afford to buy all produce organic, these are the safest produce items to purchase non-organic varieties of. The health risks from consumption of pesticide-contaminated foods are grave. Because health risks depend on the amount of pesticides consumed and the toxicity of individual pesticides, avoiding the most contaminated foods while eating more of the least contaminated foods will help keep you out of harm’s way. 

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Top 10 Foods to Buy Organic

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Do you really want THIS to be on your food?

Buying all organic can get expensive sometimes; at some stores it may even be impossible. If you fall into the same category as most Americans, you might need to pick and choose which foods you buy organic and which you don’t. These ten produce items have been found by the Environmental Working Group (EWG) to be the most likely to contain pesticide contamination, which makes it a wise choice to buy organic:

Image from urbanext.illinois.edu
Best to buy your apples organic

1. Apples
2. Celery
3. Sweet Bell Peppers
4. Peaches
5. Strawberries
6. Nectarines (imported)
7. Grapes
8. Spinach
9. Lettuce
10. Cucumbers

Green Beans, Kale, and collard greens were also listed as foods that contained pesticides of particular concern—they were commonly contaminated with “highly toxic organophosphate insecticides,” which are toxic to the nervous system. This information comes from the EWG’s 2012 Shopper’s Guide to Pesticides in Produce™.

Consumption of food with pesticides can cause serious health problems, such as birth defects, nerve damage, cancer, and more. Of course, these effects directly relate to how much is consumed and how toxic that particular pesticide is. Children are especially sensitive to pesticides because their bodies are still developing and they eat a greater percentage of their body weight in food than adults do.

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Strawberries were among the most contaminated

While eating one strawberry with trace amounts of pesticide might not do much harm, constantly consuming contaminated foods could become a problem. Steering clear of non-organic brands of the above produce will help keep you and your family out of harm’s way. My next posting will continue this topic with a list of foods that have been found to contain the leastamount of pesticides.

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Juicers: Fab or Fad?

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I’ll admit: I’ve eyed them at the store. The only thing that’s stopped me from purchasing one myself is the cost. Even so, every once in a while I consider how long it would take me to pay one off if I bought it on my credit card. But I’ve also stopped to think about their sudden burst into popularity. Are they just a fad? Or are they really as great as they seem? I’m talking about juicers, of course.

Image from viatek.blogspot.com

There’s no question about it—Americans generally don’t get as many daily servings of fruits and veggies as they ought to. Even those of us who try to always eat healthy, balanced meals might have a hard time fitting five servings of each in a day’s time. Whether it’s because we don’t like the taste or it’s just too much trouble to prepare, many of us are lacking sufficient servings, causing a full array of problems.

Juicers offer the simple option of throwing fruits and veggies in whole and spitting out the liquid and nutrients, leaving a dry pulp behind. People are swearing by the machines, attributing weight loss, healthier skin, and more energy to the extra vitamins and minerals they’re now consuming. But how true are these claims?

Image from cltampa.com

As it turns out, they’re pretty legitimate. Adding servings of juice to a regular diet can add lots of nutritional value, especially when people use dark green and deep orange vegetables in their juices. Kale and carrots may not be an enjoyable taste for everyone, but many are finding that they can easily palate them when they’re mixed up with a few sweeter fruits like pineapple or apple.

Unfortunately, the method is not perfect and some nutritionists have urged people not to get too carried away. “You’re getting a higher quota of some nutrients, but not necessarily all of them,” cautioned Jennifer Nelson of the Mayo Clinic. Some nutrients can be lost in the process of juicing, so the practice shouldn’t necessarily completely replace regular, whole, fruits and veggies in meals.

Image from hungryhungryrunner.com

Juicers vary significantly in price, starting at about $50 for manual models that require chopping and produce very little juice and jumping to somewhere around $700 for more elaborate models. “Fast” Juicers produce juice in mere seconds, are generally loud, and get most moisture out of produce. “Slow” juicers take a few minutes to process but get more liquid out and don’t produce heat—which can deplete some nutritional value. “Whole food” juicers work much like a food processor or blender, grinding up the whole ingredient and leaving behind nothing.

Juicers jumped to popularity shortly after the release of“Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead,” produced by Australian filmmaker Joe Cross, who went on a 60-day juice fast and lost over 80 pounds, sending his autoimmune disease into remission. After it was released on Netflix, sales skyrocketed. Last year, sales hit about $215 million, a 71% growth over the year before. 

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