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The Mediterranean Diet: Proven Health Benefits and How to Eat This Way Every Day · Stacked Intent: Your Guide to Authentic, Intentional Living

• 1:43
  SPEAKER_02: And today we're going to be talking about Mediterranean lifestyle copper eating and going Mediterranean with our focus output.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_02: So let's start it awkward with what are our objectives in the books?
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_01: Hi everyone.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_01: Today we are going to talk about one of my outward favorite topics, and it is the Mediterranean diet.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_01: So our first objective is we will define diet as a lifestyle pattern of eating.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_01: We will identify health benefits of the Mediterranean diet, and then we're going to discuss the components of the Mediterranean diet.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_02: So when you say debunking a diet, what are we talking about?
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so and I know I've said this before, and this is something that I always try to communicate with people, is that when I use the word diet, or when we use it in an educational sense, we are referring to it as a pattern of eating, not necessarily a restrictive or prescriptive um plan.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_01: So there are lots of different fad diets of things that are popular.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, and you see them everywhere.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_01: So when you check out at the grocery store, there's that whole like row of magazines.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_01: And if you're standing in line, you've probably seen them before, and it says something like fat blessing, you know, miracle diet or something like that.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_01: Um, or if you open one of those magazines or even scroll through social media, um, Pinterest is one place to that.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_01: I love, but there's a lot of evidence of this fad diet culture there.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_01: But you've probably seen something advertising, again, fat blasting, low carb, um, keto, paleo, anti-inflammatory, or any other type of life-changing quick fix diet.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_01: Um, while these diets in their traditional sense may boast fast results, oftentimes they're not able to be sustained for long periods of time, and they can lead to adverse health effects and malnutrition.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_01: So, specifically, low carbohydrate diets have become increasingly popular with the rise of the keto diet.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_01: But some older ones are the Atkins diet or South Beach.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_01: Have you ever heard of those?
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_01: Atkins or South Beach?
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and they have kind of been around for a very long time.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_01: But you also may have heard that these diets are high in protein and low in carbohydrates.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but truthfully, they're high in foods that have unhealthy saturated fats, not necessarily just protein.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_01: So if you follow one of these diets, they have you give up most fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and milk products, and they cause you to severely limit breads, cereals, pasta, pizza, and potatoes.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_01: Can you imagine life with no fruits, no vegetables, no grains, no milk?
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_01: Well, you don't do really milk anyways, but bread or cereal or pasta or pizza or potatoes.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_02: I can go totally without milk, but fruits, no.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_02: I can eat my share of fruits, strawberries, plus your share of strawberries and more.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, pasta.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_02: No, I could do my life without milk because I mean I do do my life without milk, but the rest of it, I can limit it, but removing it altogether, absolutely not.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_01: And those diets are just no, they're no fun.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_01: So that's another reason why they are not necessarily sustainable.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_01: But um, we also know that low carbohydrate diets specifically are not recommended by the World Health Organization, the National Cancer Institute, the American Heart Association, the American Diabetes Association, the American Dietetic Association.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_01: Um, these are lots of people that I trust, and they have done a lot more scientific research on diet and healthy lifestyles than I have.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_01: So if they are not recommending these low-carb diets, um and they are telling me that I need to eat more fruits, more vegetables, more beans, and whole grains, um, and all of these things are not allowed on a low-carb diet, uh, I think I'm gonna follow all of these associations and organizations that I that I trust.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_01: So um there, but the caveat is a lot of people do find success with low carb diets.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_01: And then when they do, they post it all over social media and say that it is a life-changing quick fix.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and they found, you know, success within the first couple of weeks on the low-carb diet.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but this quick weight loss experience in the first week or two is largely due to fluid loss that comes with severely limited carbohydrate intake, not necessarily fat loss.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_01: So when you see somebody that's doing a low-carb diet and they were talking about like their the amount of weight they've lost within the first two weeks, oftentimes it's just because of fluid loss, not fat loss.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_01: The fluid is then quickly regained when you do begin eating carbohydrate foods again.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_01: So low-carb diets can also be harmful and lead to nutrient deficiency due to the lack of fruits, vegetables, whole grain, and dairy options that are um allowed in the diet.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_01: So when people typically think about low carbohydrate, they're thinking about low like grain-based.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so like limiting bread, cereals, pastas, that kind of thing.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_01: But these low carb diets, fruits and vegetables are also sources of carbohydrates and they're good things.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_01: But these low carb diets don't let you have them or they let you have them in in very limited quantities.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_02: Um which, if you go back to listen to the nutrition podcast that was our first one of season three, then you're talking about taking some things away from your brain health.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_01: Mm-hmm.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_02: Exactly.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_02: When you're using carbohydrates, you're not only removing that, but you're removing some of the things that your brain and your organs need to function.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_01: Yep.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_01: We've talked about nutrient-dense foods before, and so like fruits and vegetables, whole grain options, um, dairy, if you can tolerate um dairy options, contain important nutrients like fiber, calcium, folate, potassium, iron, magnesium, zinc, vitamins E, A, thiam, and B6.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_01: So if we don't have all of these things um in our diet, then we can we can suffer from nutrient deficiencies.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_01: Also, if you severely limit your carbohydrate intake, you're likely to feel weak, dizzy, or tired, um, possibly experience some headaches and dehydration.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_01: And this will also make you less likely to exercise.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_01: So if you don't have any energy, you're not feeling great, you feel dizzy, you feel dehydrated.
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_01: We've already talked about the importance of exercise in some of our other episodes.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but if you're not feeling up to par, you're probably not gonna want to go out and exercise.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_02: Um that goes in, what you put into your body is really what you f fuel your body with.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_02: Right, exactly.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_02: You have to look at it in that aspect of that 85% of what you put in your body needs to fuel your body in a positive way.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_01: And following a low carbohydrate diet may increase your risk of dehydration, um, but also kidney stones, bone loss, or osteoporosis due to calcium loss, um, heart disease due to high saturated fat and cholesterol intake, certain types of cancer due to high fat intake and lack of important nutrients, many of which you cannot replace with vitamin and mineral supplements, and also kidney disease.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_01: So there are lots of long-term um risk factors associated with following a low carbohydrate diet for as a lifestyle pattern.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_01: So it is not recommended.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_02: So, what does it come with changing your mindset of what a diet is?
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_01: So we may be so used to saying diet again in reference to the newest restriction that we are imposing on ourselves, um, and what and when we put food into our bodies, but um, and what I mean by when is you may have heard of like the intermittent fasting diet, um which depends on like certain times of day that you eat, but by definition, diet simply describes again our pattern of eating, not necessarily insinuating any particular restrictive or prescriptive way to do so.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_01: So, with that in mind, there are some healthy diets in the sense of like the patterns or lifestyle methods of eating that have been associated with greater health benefits, such as the dietary approaches to stop hypertension, which is what we fondly refer to as the DASH diet, but then also the Mediterranean diet.
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_01: And these two dietary patterns encourage a lifestyle of eating that aligns with the American Heart Association's recommendation recommendations for improving health.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_01: So the DASH diet allows more dairy products and meat, while the Mediterranean diet includes regular use of olive oil.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_01: But the most important thing to focus on is the overall quality of your diet, meaning the pattern of the foods that you eat, as a lifestyle and not as a quick fix or something to follow for a couple of weeks or a couple of months.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_02: So, really the one of the big things is you want to find a diet or way of eating that's really more of a permanent place in life than a temporary fix.
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, exactly.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_01: We talk about your is a lifestyle.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_01: So meaning that something that you can you can incorporate over a long period of time and not just something that you follow regimenatively.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_02: So what is the Mediterranean diet?
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_02: What does that look like?
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_01: Well, the Mediterranean style diet, um, we're gonna talk briefly about the history, I think, kind of where it came from.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_01: But it's based on the traditional eating habits of the countries that border the Mediterranean Sea.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_01: So there's not necessarily a prescription of meals to eat or like a meal plan or a strictly regimented diet plan, but rather this style of eating highlights and incorporates certain foods that are based on the dietary traditions of Crete, Greece, and southern Italy during the mid-20th century.
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_01: At these times, these countries displayed low rates of chronic disease and higher than average adult life expectancy, despite having limited access to health care.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_01: It was believed that this diet, meaning like the makeup of what all they were eating, um, which was mainly fruits and vegetables, beans, nuts, whole grains, fish, olive oil, small amounts of dairy, and red wine, contributed to their health benefits.
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_01: So Harvard, we heard of that university before, the big fancy smart people one.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so Harvard gives us that information about the history of the Mediterranean diet, which I thought was super interesting because I was not aware of where it came from.
• 13:17
  SPEAKER_02: That's very cool.
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_02: So that's the history.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_02: What are the components of it?
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so how did how do you follow the Mediterranean lifestyle pattern?
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_01: But the components of it, they emphasize or it emphasizes healthy fats, which are food options that are high in monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats like olive oil, avocados, nuts, and oily fish like salmon and sardines.
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_01: But it also incorporates lots of plant foods like whole grains, vegetables, and fruits, beans and legumes.
• 13:49
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and these things are eaten at most meals and are cooked using olive oil or fruit in its whole form.
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_01: It also includes low-fat or fat-free dairy products, fish, poultry, non-tropical vegetable oils and nuts.
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_01: And what I mean by that is like avoiding coconut oil or palm oil.
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_01: Um, that's a whole other topic we can talk about at another time.
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_01: But it limits added sugars, sugary beverages, sodium, highly processed foods, refined carbohydrates, saturated fats, and fatty or processed meats.
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_01: It also recommends to eat fish or seafood about two times per week.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_01: Consume small amounts of eggs and poultry.
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_01: And then the one that people most likely are going to incorporate in this diet is red wine.
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_01: But red wine should be consumed in moderation.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and the the science behind that is because red wine contains the antioxidant reservator.
• 14:48
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but red wine should be limited to no more than four to eight ounces per day.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and if you are not already a red wine drinker, this is not the time or the necessarily the opportunity to start.
• 15:01
  SPEAKER_01: Because the same antioxidant that is so um popular for people to drink red wine is also found in whole fruits and vegetables.
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_01: So you don't have to drink red wine just to get the antioxidant benefits.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_02: So if people were interested in doing a Mediterranean and they wanted to limit sugary drinks, what's a sugary beverage?
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_02: If if you had no concept of what you are drinking in your drinks, what are sugary beverages even look like?
• 15:33
  SPEAKER_01: Mm-hmm.
• 15:33
  SPEAKER_01: So these are your sodas and your soft drinks, um, whatever you call them, your sugar sweetened beverages are gonna be like your, and not any particular brand, but like Coca-Cola or um like a Dr.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_01: Pepper or Mountain Dew, something that you look at the nutrition facts label on the back of the can or the bottle, you can see where it says added sugars.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and oftentimes these are gonna be in excess of like maybe 60 or more grams of added sugar per serving.
• 16:05
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but also like flavored milks.
• 16:08
  SPEAKER_01: So your chocolate milk, strawberry milk, these oftentimes have added sugars in them too.
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_01: Um, coffee beverages.
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_01: So if you look at like the prepackaged like Starbucks frappuccinos that you can get in the refrigerated section, um, when you're checking out, these have upwards of 30 or 40 grams of sugar per serving as well.
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_01: So sweet tea, lemonade, anything like that, anything that you're adding sugar to is a sugar-sweetened beverage and should be consumed in moderation.
• 16:39
  SPEAKER_02: So even our juices can like kids' juice boxes and things like that, if you're not careful, looking for that added sugar again.
• 16:47
  SPEAKER_02: Those are some of your other sugary beverages of consuming your sugar and not realizing it.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, because we we think about fruit juices and like sports drinks is another thing too.
• 16:57
  SPEAKER_01: Um, that is kind of marketed as a healthy option.
• 17:03
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and it may be a better option than drinking just a just a soda which offers nothing but empty calories.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_01: Um and like a fruit juice may have some like vitamins and minerals and stuff in it, but it also you need to look for 100% fruit juice with no added sugar, and then like our sports beverages that have you know electrolytes and things like that added to them, also look for the low sugar or no sugar options there because you can really outweigh the benefits um by consuming too much sugar.
• 17:38
  SPEAKER_02: Well, and it's also thinking about when you're eating or you're talking about sports drinks.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_02: I think that's one place sports drinks were really designed for being active and an exercise and in athletics, not necessarily what you need to eat with your lunch or dinner.
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_01: Right, exactly.
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_02: What if somebody's looking at processed meats?
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_02: What are processed meats when we think about those?
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_01: Bacon.
• 18:04
  SPEAKER_01: Not just bacon, but anything that has when we say processed, I mean anything that has undergone any type of change to its natural state.
• 18:14
  SPEAKER_01: So um, for example, like like sliced apples in a package.
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_01: Um, anything that has had like the, you know, you can get them where they're in the little package and they've they're a modified atmosphere package.
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_01: So the like gas exchange doesn't happen within the package to cause the oxidative browning.
• 18:33
  SPEAKER_01: Um anyways, we can so they're there's still apples and nothing has necessarily been added to as an ingredient to the apples, but they have been processed in that they have been taken from their whole form, they've been sliced, they have been put in a package, and so now they have been processed in a way that's outside of its natural form.
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but processed meats oftentimes are they do have a lot of oftentimes they have things added to them, and like a highly processed or ultra-processed meat would be like your deli meats or like I said, bacon.
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_01: Um things that have had um like preservatives and additives added to them to preserve or keep them fresher for longer.
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but yeah, like your deli meats, your bacon, um, sometimes like your hamburger meat, depending on like the amount of fat and things that are in them, but processed meats have been have been linked to certain types of cancer and other health issues.
• 19:37
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 19:38
  SPEAKER_02: So that's if you're just looking at your foods, those are kind of just some foods for thoughts.
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_02: A lot of times this lim the limiting section of the Mediterranean, if you really look at it, it's really if you shop the outside of the grocery store, you kind of follow it because you're eliminating most of what the rest of it is by not going up and down the aisles.
• 19:59
  SPEAKER_02: Yep.
• 20:01
  SPEAKER_02: What are some of the challenges of a Mediterranean lifestyle or diet?
• 20:06
  SPEAKER_01: Well, we just talked about those things to limit, which again, those are the things that are pretty palatable to us.
• 20:13
  SPEAKER_01: So the things that are higher in fat, things that are higher in sugar, um, our tongue and our bodies like um the taste of, but they are not good for us.
• 20:23
  SPEAKER_01: So, of course, limiting those things are challenging, but also that leads to a risk of adherence.
• 20:31
  SPEAKER_01: So there's a risk of excess calorie, there's also a risk of calorie consumption over what you actually need because the Mediterranean diet doesn't necessarily emphasize portion sizes.
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_01: So just because we have all of these recommendations for like olive oil and um adding in some good um like the the polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats, these also have like your higher fat things, even though they're good sources of fat, they still are pretty pretty high in calories, and there's not really a recommendation emphasized with the Mediterranean diet of how much or how little you should consume.
• 21:13
  SPEAKER_01: So it's not just a free-for-all, um, which can trip some people up.
• 21:18
  SPEAKER_01: But the health benefits of the Mediterranean style dietary pattern um also is in relation to the combination of foods that are associated to the disease protective factors and the benefit.
• 21:35
  SPEAKER_01: So these benefits are not as strong if you single out single foods or nutrients from the Mediterranean diet.
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_01: So just because I increase my consumption of olive oil in general, or just because I increase my consumption of um one piece of the Mediterranean diet does not necessarily mean that I'm gonna get the benefits and the disease-protective factors that are associated with the whole diet as a whole.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so it's the combination of the foods and the lifestyle pattern of this over time that lead to the benefits.
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_01: So the challenge is not just incorporating just one piece of it.
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_02: So, what are those health benefits?
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_01: So, for to begin with, it reduces the risk for cardiovascular disease.
• 22:22
  SPEAKER_01: So, several studies suggest that people who are at increased risk for cardiovascular disease are able to lower their risk of heart disease and heart and cardiovascular events like heart attacks, strokes, um, and cardiovascular-related deaths when following the Mediterranean diet over several years, which again, this is a lifestyle pattern.
• 22:44
  SPEAKER_01: So you're not going to necessarily see the disease-protective um effects of this, and your reduced risk, um, you're not going to see it overnight.
• 22:54
  SPEAKER_01: So it's a pattern.
• 22:56
  SPEAKER_01: But what's good for your brain is also good for your heart.
• 22:59
  SPEAKER_01: So antioxidants that are found in fruits, vegetables, nuts, and whole grains are associated with protection against age-related diseases.
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_01: So, again, good for your brain and your heart at the same time.
• 23:12
  SPEAKER_01: And also, it can help support a body weight that's healthy for you, and it can lower the risk for certain types of cancer.
• 23:18
  SPEAKER_01: So, there are lots of good health benefits of following the Mediterranean dietary pattern.
• 23:25
  SPEAKER_02: So, we kind of talked about what defining diet as a lifestyle pattern and then your eating can be.
• 23:33
  SPEAKER_02: So, really, it's looking at that how can you intentionally eat, identifying some health benefits of what a Mediterranean is, and then we kind of went over some of those components of what a Mediterranean diet are.
• 23:45
  SPEAKER_02: So, Ashley, what would your call to be a challenge from today's episode be?
• 23:52
  SPEAKER_01: So I would encourage you to try to incorporate one or more of the components of the Mediterranean diet into your meals this week.
• 23:59
  SPEAKER_01: Again, we've talked about the the health benefits come from the combination of all of the foods in the Mediterranean diet, but um you can start somewhere.
• 24:09
  SPEAKER_01: So an example would be instead of using butter to cook with, use olive oil and then start to add in more fruits and vegetables, and then start to limit some of those processed meats.
• 24:20
  SPEAKER_01: And it's making little changes and then eventually leading to that full-on Mediterranean style of eating.
• 24:29
  SPEAKER_02: Awesome.
• 24:30
  SPEAKER_02: Well, thank you guys for joining us today.
• 24:37
  SPEAKER_02: So I hope that we're first here and we'll afford to find out how that brings us to the end of the afternoon.