The truth about the Mediterranean diet | ZOE Dailies with Christopher Gardner

A Brit living in Barcelona, Spain. The Catalans/Spanish understand their food better than most. Their knowledge of Fresh food, sleep and the way of life(Slow) is incredible. They fiercly defend their culture and love their food, fresh whole food. They do not snack, they rest and they make food a centre of their family, eat together and seem to be highly inteligent about their food and how to prepare it.. incredible to live here..

The great advantages with this diet as opposed to some of the bizarre ones examined is that we don't have to imagine and pretend or cut out entire food groups therefore it is more likely to be sane and possible to follow without doing mad stuff.

What hasn't been mentioned here is iodine.Being surrounded by the Med means inhaling the iodine filled sea air everyday. Omega 3 through eating fish and locally made pure virgin olive oil, vitamin D3 from the sun for 8 to 9 months of the year, swimming and generally family oriented. Not being alone.

It is quite simple…old world people were primarily agricultural. Got up with the sun & went to bed early (no electricity). Engaged in physical work, lots of walking (no cars, elevators or couch potato days). Fresh seasonal foods of all sorts (no ultra-processed). Lots of fermented foods (no artificial preservatives). Not a lot of expensive luxury candy, sweets, chocolates, alcohol.

I'm from Austria where I lived for the first 30 years of my life and I go back home once a year. I travelled all over the South of Europe and spend a lot of time there. One of the biggest differences when compared to the US is portion size and how much you walk every single day. And yes there is meat and cheese and coffee and pastry for breakfast, but all the food we buy is fresh, local and most families I know cook their own food every single day. Every meal has vegetables or a side salad if it is not mostly plant based anyway. Do not equate the food eaten here with what people eat in restaurants when they come for vacation. This is not how people in Europe eat every day. When I first come to live in the US I was shocked by the enormous heaps of food you get when you go to a restaurant. Supermarkets were a shock too, only 'plastic food' as my brother called it. Finding real bread and real cheese when I first travelled in the US in the 90s where impossible to find. Sandwiches you buy at a deli have an inch of meat in them and you eat them with a side of french fries and chips. Still baffles me to this day why this is a good combo.

I live on a small Greek island and I'm really sorry to have to be the one to say this but fish is not a big or even medium part of our diet. It is too expensive for most of us, the Aegean isn't full of fish, and most of us get our protein from other sources. Tourists here eat a lot of fish, but residents don't. The ACTUAL Mediterranean diet is the physical work that people have traditionally had to do in order to get adequate nutrition.

Not once is mentioned that the Mediterranean food is seasonal and grown locally! That's why it's tasty and full of nutrients. People mostly cook, hardly any consume very little highly processed food. Teenagers are fat because of the McDonald's and the like.

The Mediterranean is a big region with many, many food sources. I think it's wrong to think that meat (Especially goat and lamb) is not part of it cause it is. I came from that region and I can say unequivocally that meat, fish and poultry is big part of that diet. Shish Kabab, Shawarma, meat patties, all that is Mediterranean! Yes, people in that region walk much more than the average "westerner", but they also have much more satisfying social connection that help them live longer.

So here's the perspective from someone who actually lives in the South of France, close to the Mediterranean. I'm a genuine flexitarian by nature, having little taste for meat and eating it rarely. I do like fish more, but that would be only once a week or so. My workplace is remote, far from a town to go and buy any food, and we don't have a staff restaurant. That means that everyone brings in their own lunch from home every day. Certainly, there are vegetables eaten and fruit, but honestly, 90% of my colleagues eat meat as the main part of their meal, and this, every day. There will often be cheese, a glass of red wine, and a yogurt for dessert (or fruit). The only nuts I ever see eaten are if we are having drinks together and nuts are on the table as nibbles. No one, ever, ever, ever, brings seeds! Those who bring bread get it fresh from the bakery every morning on their way to work. There is little ultra-processed food, and we have an hour to eat, and everyone stops for the hour. It's a sacred moment. I've lived and worked with French people for 37 years, and this is what I have seen everywhere. It's as much the lifestyle that is beneficial as the food. As to the diet, I repeat, it is heavy on meat.

The main problem with ALL of these diets is the whole family has to be on it. It's no fun living in a house of 2 adults and 2 children but 1 person doing Keto/Mediterranean/Vegetarian etc

The people in Crete are Greek Orthodox and they did the fasting with their church. The church fasting seasons are essentially vegan plus no olive oil or wine, and the feast days everything including dairy and meat.

Always find Prof Gardner's knowledge so wonderful. His youthful energy and enthusiasm is contagious.

I can see the Mediterranean sea from my kitchen window, so I qualify! The main thing, I think, is that we tend to cook from scratch, and it's very varied. I would disagree with meats and fish not being the centre of a meal, they can be, and often are. But then there are lots of vegetable and legume stews and soups, and stuffed vegetables, and salads. It probably all evens out in the end. But fast-food culture is catching up with all Mediterranean countries, with the accompanying health issues.

I live in Bali and in the recent tourism madness / plague the thing that keeps me still here is the continuous availability of all kinds of vegetables and fruits imaginable. Fish and nuts are one the plate regularly and some pork and chicken occasionally. I shop in the wholesale market where the farmers from the mountains come every morning with their fresh produce. They sell from their small trucks. That's the closest I've ever been to whole natural food. Zero industrial farming.

Excellent talk on Mediterranean diet. I would also add that most of their food is locally sourced, that is in season, as well organically produced. If you live on the shore it’s local fish. If you are in the mountains it’s the meats, again available locally.

This has been an amazing series. Thank you so much 👍

I’d love Zoe to do a full review of the olive oils on offer to us in UK supermarkets. There’s a big range of prices and colours and shelf life of the oil inside the bottle. Surely UK has to import olive oil, so maybe it’s not as fresh as when eaten in the Mediterranean and may have oxidised by the time we put it in out cupboards.

Many good points in this one; the "Mediterranean Diet" is really not well defined, and in most cases does not correspond with what is actually eaten in any Med countries. I'm Italian-American, have lots of friends in Italy, and have traveled there extensively. Ditto for southern France, Spain, and Portugal. There is a lot of meat consumption in these countries! Lots of pork, and an almost religious worship of steak (Bistecca alla Fiorentina, anyone?) Not as much fish as most folks seem to assume (though tons of sardines and anchovies in Spain and Portugal.) And, of course, lots of refined grains. News flash---Italians eat a lot of pasta and bread and rice and polenta, and they're all highly refined grains. Vast quantities of (excellent) cheese, and lard spread directly on bread the way Dr. Gardner might use his tofu spread. There are none of these mythical "whole grains" to be found. Wheat berry salads do not exist in Italy. No one eats any kind of trendy fermented foods in Italy. Almost all Italians eat a diet comprise largely of what we would call processed foods (cold cuts, cheeses, sauces, etc.), but virtually no ultra-processed food. And they virtually all eat this way every day, with loads of coffee and wine for lunch and dinner. Then they go for a walk... One study I would like to see someone take on: as there are huge regional differences in diets within Italy (north vs. south, coastal vs Piedmont vs mountains), are there differences in health outcomes?

I appreciate the mention that this is an approach to lifestyle that includes improved exercise and sleep habits, in addition to nutrition. This syncs with Zoe's message that a short walk after a meal will lower blood glucose response (do I have that right?). Thanks, Zoe!

In Italy, pasta, pizza, bread (all white flour!) white rice (never brown), lots of meat and preserved meats like salami, all these things are forbidden by the American notion of the Mediterranean diet! Ancel Keys wrote about the Poppi diet, but the village of Poppi lives on white flour pasta. The US/UK ‘Mediterranean’ diet includes things like avocado and salmon, which were quite unknown in Italy until recently. You need a different name. Whole grains unheard of in Italy, except for trendy wholefood shops following US/UK diet recommendations!