Mediterranean diet

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Replies

  • SabAteNine
    SabAteNine Posts: 1,867 Member
    I find it so strange that one could dislike all vegetables. Please don't get me wrong, OP - I totally believe you. But for me there are so many totally different tastes in that food group (leafy greens, crucifers, marrows, roots, fungi, not to mention the „fruit vegetables” like avocados and tomatoes)... multiplied by a million different ways to combine and cook them! Endless possibilities to ultimately identify *something* that you feel okay with eating.

    I love them, but I very rarely eat them boiled or steamed because it feels like doing a disservice to perfectly good and tasty food. Roasted, raw, sauteed, grilled - these are my personal options.

    If ultimately you decide to try incorporating these nutrient-packed options into a healthy lifestyle, nobody says you will have to start eating salads by the bucket. You could... „insinuate” them into the diet by gradually replacing some of the ingredients in the foods you like. Feel like pizza? Why not try cauliflower crust! It tastes REALLY good. How about pasta? There are so many mouth-watering recipes for zucchini pasta! And so on! :smiley:
  • earlnabby
    earlnabby Posts: 8,171 Member
    Its_Haleeyyy wrote: »
    bpetrosky wrote: »
    Another vote for getting an immediate referral to an RD. Doctors usually give a recommendation for a generic diet plan and a handout if you're lucky, but since you're particularly picky about your food choices an RD can help tailor a more specific plan to your individual needs.

    A good RD may also have some recommendations about how to expand your food choices by suggesting ideas with different preparation methods or recipes that might be more appealing to you.

    Yeah I'm thinking in gonna look into it, that seems to be a common suggestion on this thread so far and I think it would definitely be helpful for me. Even before talking to my doctor I've always been a super picky water which definitely contributed to my weight gain and health issues

    Check with your insurance and your doctor first. If you are in the US, many insurance plans will pay for a certain number of RD consultations when there is an official diagnosis of something that can be managed with diet (obesity, diabetes, NAFLD, etc.) Usually they require a referral from your PCP or the specialist you saw.

    Make sure you see an actual Registered Dietician or Registered Dietician Nutritionist (the nomenclature is changing and you will see both used). Someone who just calls themselves a "Nutritionist" does not have the training.
  • Packerjohn
    Packerjohn Posts: 4,855 Member
    neugebauer52 wrote: »
    This is not about a "diet" but the Mediterranean lifestyle which includes home grown fruits and vegetables or at least locally produced items. Olive oil, olives, lots of fish and shell fish, but generally low(ish) on carbs, meat and diary products.

    Many people can't access locally produced items. They might be a bit better, but eating fruits, veggies, etc from any source will get most of benefits.
  • lemurcat2
    lemurcat2 Posts: 7,885 Member
    Packerjohn wrote: »
    neugebauer52 wrote: »
    This is not about a "diet" but the Mediterranean lifestyle which includes home grown fruits and vegetables or at least locally produced items. Olive oil, olives, lots of fish and shell fish, but generally low(ish) on carbs, meat and diary products.

    Many people can't access locally produced items. They might be a bit better, but eating fruits, veggies, etc from any source will get most of benefits.

    There's also the problem of seasons. I know what's for sale at the farmers market right now, and it's limited.

    (But clearly the Med lifestyle was not what her doctor was focusing on.)
  • r3488
    r3488 Posts: 77 Member
    Regarding vegetables:
    1. I told my cousin that I loved lima beans, so she made me some. They were awful (she cooked them to mush). Definitely experiment with different ways to cook vegetables. I personally enjoy the convenience of Birds Eye SteamFresh veggies and eat a half a bag at a time.
    2. Experiment with different spices and fats on your vegetables. I prefer olive oil on my green beans but butter on my peas. Steamed broccoli is awesome to me with garlic salt and butter. (Just be careful with the fats given your diagnosis.)
    3. Keep experimenting and trying; your tastes will change. I had friends keep telling me that my tastes would change, but I didn't believe them until I had to change my diet (also for health reasons) and after a while, I would actually crave some vegetables.
    Best wishes in your new way of eating!
  • Danp
    Danp Posts: 1,561 Member
    SabAteNine wrote: »
    I find it so strange that one could dislike all vegetables.

    It's odd but I was one for the whole 'I don't like vegetables' line, but when I really sat down and thought about it honestly It was much easier for me to list the vegetables that I genuinely really didn't like.

    Sure there are a lot of vegetables that I don't go out of my way to eat but will happily consume them if they're on my plate but vegetables that I genuinely just cannot stand are pretty few and far between. I mean off the top of my head the only two I can think of that I'll actively avoid and go to the lengths of picking out of my food to avoid are celery and green/string beans.
  • CharlieBeansmomTracey
    CharlieBeansmomTracey Posts: 7,682 Member
    edited November 2018
    modusoperandi1412 wrote: »
    nvmomketo wrote: »
    LivingtheLeanDream wrote: »
    Fats and sugars are what you mostly need to cut down - they affect the liver. So its all about finding foods you like which are better for you and thats probably why your dr suggested the Mediterranean diet. The thing is a fatty liver can be cured by eating right so perhaps its now time to think of your health and keep trying different foods knowing they will benefit you. Our tastebuds can adapt and learn to enjoy a host of different foods.

    IR and NAFLD go hand in hand. Cutting back on carbs in general, especially those that are refined or sugary, will tend to help independent of weight loss. Sugars and fats together tend to be a metabolic mess for most people.

    I find it kinda funny you say that literally one post below someone who HAS a liver issue who says the exact opposite.

    yep No IR here at all(but I dont have NAFLD ,but I do have a liver issue)
    and I eat more than 200g of carbs a day and have no issues
  • CharlieBeansmomTracey
    CharlieBeansmomTracey Posts: 7,682 Member
    SabAteNine wrote: »
    I find it so strange that one could dislike all vegetables. Please don't get me wrong, OP - I totally believe you. But for me there are so many totally different tastes in that food group (leafy greens, crucifers, marrows, roots, fungi, not to mention the „fruit vegetables” like avocados and tomatoes)... multiplied by a million different ways to combine and cook them! Endless possibilities to ultimately identify *something* that you feel okay with eating.

    I love them, but I very rarely eat them boiled or steamed because it feels like doing a disservice to perfectly good and tasty food. Roasted, raw, sauteed, grilled - these are my personal options.

    If ultimately you decide to try incorporating these nutrient-packed options into a healthy lifestyle, nobody says you will have to start eating salads by the bucket. You could... „insinuate” them into the diet by gradually replacing some of the ingredients in the foods you like. Feel like pizza? Why not try cauliflower crust! It tastes REALLY good. How about pasta? There are so many mouth-watering recipes for zucchini pasta! And so on! :smiley:

    my daugher hates all veggies except for potatoes. no matter how you make other veggies she wont eat them shes 23. she will try other veggies too to see if she likes them and nope
  • CharlieBeansmomTracey
    CharlieBeansmomTracey Posts: 7,682 Member
    also my sister had NAFLD and the dr told her to A-lose weight and to B-cut out the fatty and fried foods and watch her fat intake,she did that and hasnt had any issues since and she has gained all her weight back too yet no issues with her liver. so for someone who had NAFLD she was told to watch and limit her fat intake.
  • CharlieBeansmomTracey
    CharlieBeansmomTracey Posts: 7,682 Member
    nvmomketo wrote: »
    johnwelk wrote: »
    nvmomketo wrote: »
    LivingtheLeanDream wrote: »
    Fats and sugars are what you mostly need to cut down - they affect the liver. So its all about finding foods you like which are better for you and thats probably why your dr suggested the Mediterranean diet. The thing is a fatty liver can be cured by eating right so perhaps its now time to think of your health and keep trying different foods knowing they will benefit you. Our tastebuds can adapt and learn to enjoy a host of different foods.

    Cutting back on carbs in general, especially those that are refined or sugary, will tend to help independent of weight loss.
    You repeatedly make the same baseless claims and never ever provide evidence to back it up. So please stop saying it because it just isn't true. Based on all available evidence to date, lifestyle modifications including weight loss is standard treatment for NAFLD.

    Sugars and fats together tend to be a metabolic mess for most people.
    Evidence for this is what? And what exactly is a "metabolic mess"?

    https://www.cell.com/cell-metabolism/fulltext/S1550-4131(18)30054-8

    "Summary
    A carbohydrate-restricted diet is a widely recommended intervention for non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), but a systematic perspective on the multiple benefits of this diet is lacking. Here, we performed a short-term intervention with an isocaloric low-carbohydrate diet with increased protein content in obese subjects with NAFLD and characterized the resulting alterations in metabolism and the gut microbiota using a multi-omics approach. We observed rapid and dramatic reductions of liver fat and other cardiometabolic risk factors paralleled by (1) marked decreases in hepatic de novo lipogenesis; (2) large increases in serum β-hydroxybutyrate concentrations, reflecting increased mitochondrial β-oxidation; and (3) rapid increases in folate-producing Streptococcus and serum folate concentrations. Liver transcriptomic analysis on biopsy samples from a second cohort revealed downregulation of the fatty acid synthesis pathway and upregulation of folate-mediated one-carbon metabolism and fatty acid oxidation pathways...    "

    Exercise and weight loss will eventually help many of those with NAFLD too. My point was that dietary changes can help independently from weight loss, which is a boon for some patients.

    High sugar and fat diets tend to correlate strongly with obesity and other metabolic health issues (NAFLD, PCOS, prediabetes, T2D, CAD, dementia) are all associated with obesity and metabolic problems or "metabolic messes". By metabolic mess I was glibly referring to problems associated with the metabolically unhealthy.
    https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4807647/

    Plus sugar and fat together are foods that are commonly associated with overeating. Those foods tend to be low protein which results in a lower thermogenic effect and possibly lower satiety.

    yet the first time I became overweight was from eating too many fruits and veggies.and my metabolic issues are hereditary caused by a genetic defect.I have no NAFLD,PCOS,prediabetes,type 2,CAD or dementia. not saying I wont get one or a few of those things though.
  • CharlieBeansmomTracey
    CharlieBeansmomTracey Posts: 7,682 Member
    Seffell wrote: »
    I'm almost sure that you don't like veggetables because you don't know how to cook them. I'm from a Med diet region originally and noone there eats veggetables steamed and semi raw and underseasoned on the side of a steak. But this is how many people from the west think about them.

    Veggies are instead incorporated in the meals. Stews. Ratatuilles. Casseroles. Stuffed veggetables. Soups. Bakes. Pastries. With lots of herbs, spices and oil. Bursting of flavour.

    just because someone doesnt like veggies doesnt mean that they dont know how to cook them. thats a blanket statement if I ever heard one. my daughter likes nothing BUT potatoes veggie wise. and she doesnt like a lot of fruits either. shes like her dad. while her brother and I love many veggies and most fruits. she also an issue with certain food textures,
  • nowine4me
    nowine4me Posts: 3,985 Member
    There is a VERY wide variety of foods that would be Mediterranean diet approved. Check out the website oldways.com, there are many great resources. There has to be one staple starch you like that you can use to build on
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 28,052 Member
    rsclause wrote: »
    amy19355 wrote: »
    OP, I have two ideas that might be worth trying, about all the foods that you DON'T like.
    1. everything that you currently do NOT like to eat - make a conscious decision to try one bite of each of them every six to twelve months, just to see if it is a matter of becoming accustomed to an unfamiliar flavor. some stuff you may never ever develop a liking for, but you might be surprised at some of the results. (i'll probably never purchase eggplant for myself but I can tolerate it now and don't have to pick it out of a dish).
    2. experiment with different cooking methods or sauces/herbs/spices = especially vegetables can be really unpleasant when overcooked. But veggies done right are some of the most satisfying foods on the planet (for me anyhow!).

    This is a great idea. I never really liked fresh veggies when they were boiled or steamed to death. When I started roasting them with olive oil it changed the taste completely. I probably have asparagus or brussel sprouts twice a week now and both were strictly prohibited in the past. It is also possible I grew up too along with my taste buds.

    OP lots of posters here didn't like veggies because they grew up with canned vegetables or veggies boiled to death but found roasting fresh veggies was a game changer.

    Try roasting sweet potatoes and cauliflower in a little oil and salt and see how that goes.

    Do also get a referral to a dietitian.
  • amberellen12
    amberellen12 Posts: 248 Member
    The people that don’t like vegetables and some fruits maybe Super Taster. I’m one and have to hide vegetables... smoothies, stews, soups etc... where they are cut finely or something covers their flavour. Spices and herbs. I also take a multi vitamin to cover for the micro nutrients I don’t get from food.
  • maureenkhilde
    maureenkhilde Posts: 849 Member
    For the OP, not sure if this is available where you are or not. But I remember that V-8 has a large line up of drinks that also come in light versions that are full of multiple fruits and veges at same time. Or low sodium V-8, that you can even use when cooking other things to consume. Or some of the smoothies have both veges and fruits in them and not tons of sugar. I have a good friend that had the whole fatty liver disease and had to really change her diet up. And she is the one that told me she did much with smoothies and the V-8 drinks.

    There could be veges you have not yet tried, or new ways to prepare them. Be a bit open minded. I have a list it is short but still a handful of veges that under no circumstances will I eat them, does not matter how cooked. Good Luck.
  • lynn_glenmont
    lynn_glenmont Posts: 10,097 Member
    amy19355 wrote: »
    OP, I have two ideas that might be worth trying, about all the foods that you DON'T like.
    1. everything that you currently do NOT like to eat - make a conscious decision to try one bite of each of them every six to twelve months, just to see if it is a matter of becoming accustomed to an unfamiliar flavor. some stuff you may never ever develop a liking for, but you might be surprised at some of the results. (i'll probably never purchase eggplant for myself but I can tolerate it now and don't have to pick it out of a dish).
    2. experiment with different cooking methods or sauces/herbs/spices = especially vegetables can be really unpleasant when overcooked. But veggies done right are some of the most satisfying foods on the planet (for me anyhow!).

    While I agree with the idea of seeing if one could become accustomed to a new food, I'm dubious that only exposing oneself to it once or twice a year would be frequent enough to become accustomed.

    I was one of those people to whom cilantro tastes like soap, but I love many Latin American and Eastern Asian dishes that usually feature cilantro. Well into my 20s, I would ask in restaurants if it could be left out, and would cook dishes myself without, and would avoid buying salsas and other ready-made foods in the grocery store if they had cilantro. But it got to be a pain, as dishes that had long-simmered sauces or stew-like dishes couldn't be ordered in a restaurant without cilantro, and sometimes even when they said they could leave it out, it would still come to the table with cilantro. Over time, I would just remove any large, recognizable pieces of cilantro and go ahead and eat it. I still don't add cilantro to anything I make myself, but I've reached a point that it's essentially "white noise" in dishes somebody else has made, and I can ignore it. I don't think that would have happened if I was only exposed to it once or twice a year.

    Maybe get one thing and try it several times a week for a few weeks, prepared different ways if you can. Don't force yourself to eat large amounts of it at one sitting. One or two bites, and if you don't like it, leave it be.
  • lynn_glenmont
    lynn_glenmont Posts: 10,097 Member
    SabAteNine wrote: »
    I find it so strange that one could dislike all vegetables. Please don't get me wrong, OP - I totally believe you. But for me there are so many totally different tastes in that food group (leafy greens, crucifers, marrows, roots, fungi, not to mention the „fruit vegetables” like avocados and tomatoes)... multiplied by a million different ways to combine and cook them! Endless possibilities to ultimately identify *something* that you feel okay with eating.

    I love them, but I very rarely eat them boiled or steamed because it feels like doing a disservice to perfectly good and tasty food. Roasted, raw, sauteed, grilled - these are my personal options.

    If ultimately you decide to try incorporating these nutrient-packed options into a healthy lifestyle, nobody says you will have to start eating salads by the bucket. You could... „insinuate” them into the diet by gradually replacing some of the ingredients in the foods you like. Feel like pizza? Why not try cauliflower crust! It tastes REALLY good. How about pasta? There are so many mouth-watering recipes for zucchini pasta! And so on! :smiley:

    I was right with you until the cauliflower "crust" and the zucchini "pasta". :smile:

    I like grilled (or pan-fried) cauliflower "steaks" (cut in planks and cooked until they start to brown a little). But ricing them and pretending that the result is "just like pizza crust" ... nope.

    And putting some tomato sauce and cheese on steamed zucchini seems like a great idea for hiding the fact that it's ... you know ... zucchini (sorry, child trauma of being fed zucchini every night stewed with tomatoes because my mother had planted them with the usual success excess of zucchini growers and never seemed to serve them any other way). But that doesn't make it pasta. I'll eat zucchini if someone serves it to me, or it's the veggie that shows up with my entree in a restaurant, but I don't buy them or -- shudder -- grow them.
  • jean133mjg
    jean133mjg Posts: 133 Member
    I, too, was diagnosed with a fatty liver years ago and my doctor sent me to a RD who turned out to be so helpful with a healthy food plan and even recipes. I went once a week for 2 months for weigh-ins and progress reports about my food plan. When the next blood test results came back, my fatty liver was no longer an issue and I lost weight through the process. Good luck.
  • vingogly
    vingogly Posts: 1,785 Member
    You can also sneak vegetables into recipes if you don't care for them. For example, if you like mashed potatoes but not cauliflower, mash some cauliflower in with the potatoes. Replace sugar as a sweetener with stevia. Use techniques to reduce fat in recipes: oven fry instead of frying with fat, for example.You might have a look at Evelyn Tribole's "Stealth Health" which gives ideas for how to sneak nutrition in:

    https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1600131.Stealth_Health
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