Mediterranean Diet
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I'm confused -- did read if SDAs prefer to eat meat it's kosher w/no pork or shellfish (is this a new concept from the hardliner SDA?) and the SDA men (possibly old data?) outlive the Okinawa men but the Okinawan women about the same as SDA men. The Loma Linda community (so cal) was #1 for world longevity few yrs. ago and I read they aren't Vegan. My friend in Redlands (Loma Linda area) has quite a few SDA friends and eating meat (even fish) was shunned - nothing with a face. They are big on soy products - own the frozen food line, Morning Star. The Loma Linda area is quite interesting - lots of grains, vegetables and fruit and some SDAs eat dairy and eggs.
They also rest one day a week (their Sabbath) and this might be a healthy factor but it's their day of church/worship and social dinner afterward (or for some) so how is that a day of rest!
I'm Orthodox Jewish, not SDA, but when we talk about our day of rest, it's a day to refrain from creative activity and just enjoy the fruits of what was made during the week. So, we don't cook on the Sabbath, but we enjoy foods cooked in advance. We don't plow or plant (or do anything reminiscent, so moving a heavy bench over terrain in a way that it gouges up the earth is considered plowing, even if we wanted to move it from Point A to Point B and not actually plow to prepare for planting) because that's demonstrating Humanity's mastery over the world and Sabbath is a day to disconnect from that. No internet; no phones period, no TV. It's a chance to reconnect spiritually without the day-to-day noise.
(I'm probably over-simplifying, but honestly, when I talk about what we "don't" do, it feels less of a restriction and more of a "for one day of the week, I don't HAVE to deal with all that stuff." It's true that it's not by choice, but not having that choice sort of takes it out of my hands so I don't have to worry over 'should I X, should I Y?' One day a week, I'm just... beyond all that.)
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Am trying that with pomegranate syrup. Have turkish recipe for stuffed peppers that used in as a finishing sauce and trying to find other ways to use the bottle up. LolGottaBurnEmAll wrote: »Whenever I'm Googling recipes, I zero in on a particular ingredient plus cuisine type and go from there. So something like "Italian chickpea recipes" or "Greek fish recipes" might yield you results.
Local place makes fried brussels sprouts with pomegranate seeds and soft goat cheese: Delicious. Maybe roasted brussels sprouts (if you like them) would be good dressed with the syrup & also goat cheese (if you like that, too)?
Omg. YES!!! That sounds amazing!!!1 -
I think it's also important to note that Buettner is very clear that it is doubtful that the specifics of the diet each individual BZ is eating is the deciding factor. The general dynamics of their diets, along with their activity levels and social lifestyles all combine to influence their longevity. While it's fascinating to pick apart each food in a community's diet, doing so to determine what specifically YOU should eat is kind of missing the point
Otherwise you just end up in the same weeds every other "diet plan" ends up in.
It's quite possible that the SDA live longer due to some other lifestyle aspect that ties into their religious beliefs, rather than the dietary differences. Or maybe it's something about the geographic aspects of the place in the world they sit on. Heck, maybe it's their religious beliefs themselves.
I'm glad this thread headed in the BZ direction, because the beauty of the "Mediterranean Diet" whichever form you look at, and of the Blue Zones info, is that they are just a general guideline you can make your own. And I think if you tried to follow one, you would probably be at least pretty close to following the other as well. But the BZ also brings in other aspects of life, not just diet, which IMHO is probably just as (if not more) important!4 -
I'm confused -- did read if SDAs prefer to eat meat it's kosher w/no pork or shellfish (is this a new concept from the hardliner SDA?) and the SDA men (possibly old data?) outlive the Okinawa men but the Okinawan women about the same as SDA men. The Loma Linda community (so cal) was #1 for world longevity few yrs. ago and I read they aren't Vegan. My friend in Redlands (Loma Linda area) has quite a few SDA friends and eating meat (even fish) was shunned - nothing with a face. They are big on soy products - own the frozen food line, Morning Star. The Loma Linda area is quite interesting - lots of grains, vegetables and fruit and some SDAs eat dairy and eggs.
They also rest one day a week (their Sabbath) and this might be a healthy factor but it's their day of church/worship and social dinner afterward (or for some) so how is that a day of rest!
We're very involved in our faith community (not SDA), we also do a Sabbath/'Day of Rest', but that means something a bit different for each family in our congregation. We do gather in the morning (Sunday school for all ages) and then service, with times of fellowship mixed in (and potlucks quarterly).
For my family the rest of the day is spent eating dinner with extended family, nap time for us 'old' people with kids reading, doing puzzles, board games etc, and then we try and do something as a family at night (summertime we usually go to the beach or park for walks, wintertime we play games, watch movies etc). The dinner is with extended family but the evening is usually just me/husband and the kids. For us it's a day to slow down a bit and refocus and it's my favorite day of the week
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"Rated #1" by current popular ooh shiny!
Any varied diet that meets your nutritional requirements and hopefully makes you feel well having eaten it is the #1 diet.1 -
snowflake954 wrote: »As for the above, it's not a question of one being healthier because it was cooked in the Mediterranean. If the Indian woman presented the dish to her family saying "Look what I made today, a Mediterranean specialty!" Her family would think she was nuts. Indians are proud of their dishes and should be. As the Moroccan wife would not present her dish as an Indian specialty. Ingredients can be similar in different parts of the world, but they are cooked differently--especially different fats. The Med dish would have surely used olive oil, would the Indian dish have done the same?
And most importantly.... where are the cooking husbands??
We're around. I probably cook 95% of the meals eaten in my home - and have for a long while.3 -
MelanieCN77 wrote: »"Rated #1" by current popular ooh shiny!
Any varied diet that meets your nutritional requirements and hopefully makes you feel well having eaten it is the #1 diet.
You're making the assumption the people know how to eat in a way that meets their nutritional needs/requirements though. There's so much diet/food/nutrition nonsense being thrown at us and it's very hard to work through it all. Even on these forums, which has a large group of people who dedicate the time to research, there's still misinformation/woo being presented.
When a plan, like the Mediterranean, gets publicity/main stream attention I think it's a good thing, because it showcases a way of eating that's nutritionally sound and may get some people to take a closer look at what they're doing (as this thread demonstrates).
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zj3 -- sounds like a beautiful, family, day. I do think some religions are beneficial to health and it can't hurt to slow down and appreciate life.
There are so many nutritional/eating plans it's confusing. Clearly, some well-founded evidence to help us today. I try to eat healthy but must OD on carbos/starches - can't follow the Dr. John McDougal or Dean Ornish but I'm trying to figure out a modified plan. Unfortunately, I have to eat chicken breast and the low fat ham (not a good choice) to balance my healthy grains/beans, etc. Old age and strange happens. It's so hard to find protein replacements that will take their place. Greek yogurt has some carbos and tofu low in carbos but doesn't help the sugar sickness like meat does. I obviously can't deal with that much sugar anymore - even steel-cut oatmeal, nuts, etc., in excess throw me over the edge. I'm determined to kick this meat issue. Have issues with milk product (itching/small bumps) but I'm going to try cottage cheese today - it is what it is.
Appreciate all the great advice and research on this site - incredible.0 -
Esther's day of rest sounds good, too. Faith probably a contributing factor unless it's one of the toxic, dangerous, ones.0
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zj3 -- sounds like a beautiful, family, day. I do think some religions are beneficial to health and it can't hurt to slow down and appreciate life.
There are so many nutritional/eating plans it's confusing. Clearly, some well-founded evidence to help us today. I try to eat healthy but must OD on carbos/starches - can't follow the Dr. John McDougal or Dean Ornish but I'm trying to figure out a modified plan. Unfortunately, I have to eat chicken breast and the low fat ham (not a good choice) to balance my healthy grains/beans, etc. Old age and strange happens. It's so hard to find protein replacements that will take their place. Greek yogurt has some carbos and tofu low in carbos but doesn't help the sugar sickness like meat does. I obviously can't deal with that much sugar anymore - even steel-cut oatmeal, nuts, etc., in excess throw me over the edge. I'm determined to kick this meat issue. Have issues with milk product (itching/small bumps) but I'm going to try cottage cheese today - it is what it is.
Appreciate all the great advice and research on this site - incredible.
I've played around with them all-from Nutritarian (Dr Fuhrman) all the way to 'primal' and then back again
Where I've landed is a mostly whole foods woe that focuses heavily on plants, with 3 servings of fish a week (pretty much cut out other meat at this point). It's a mesh between DASH/Blue Zones/the newer '10 a Day' recommendations/my own eating preferences, which have evolved quite a bit over the past few years. I do eat a high carb woe (usually 200+ grams a day), but that hasn't hindered my weight goals-I manage my weight by my calorie intake 0 -
GottaBurnEmAll wrote: »The thing is one can eat in a Med-style and cook Indian inspired dishes using olive oil instead of ghee.
We're not aiming to be purists here.
I like lemurcat's idea of calling this all blue zone eating rather than Med.
I do, too (although then we'll be discussing whether some healthy recipe a true blue-zoner never made is truly BZ so legit, or not ).
But, sadly, no one put us in charge of the naming. It's been named. The popularized term "Mediterranean Diet" is out there. If that's what someone calls it here, and I'm sure that that's what they're talking about (vs. cultural heritage per se), I'm going to fall in line on that thread, and use the term, for purposes of getting on with communication . . . and probably push back on the idea (if it comes up) that other healthy, consistent foods the OP enjoys should be omitted for some reason of purity and traditionalism. It's not like I'm advocating "junk food Mediterranean" here.
I assume some of what's behind that choice of popular term is that many people have at least some intuitive understanding of what it might mean in the traditional sense (UNESCO version), and that it carries a certain aura of history and romance with it. "Blue Zones" doesn't. In practice, any of this is pretty much following sensible thinking about food and nutrition, but "healthy diet" and "nutritious, balanced diet" were muddled up a long time ago.
I used to argue with people doing "HIIT", too, about whether it was really HIIT. It's profitless. So I try to figure out what they're actually talking about, and give advice accordingly, with at most a side comment on "traditional definitions".
Words and phrases don't have unitary fixed, immutable definitions. Believing they do, IMO, is like believing everyone named Susie Smith is the same person. What's important is communicating with the person(s) one is talking to, and that's messier.6 -
snowflake954 wrote: »As for the above, it's not a question of one being healthier because it was cooked in the Mediterranean. If the Indian woman presented the dish to her family saying "Look what I made today, a Mediterranean specialty!" Her family would think she was nuts. Indians are proud of their dishes and should be. As the Moroccan wife would not present her dish as an Indian specialty. Ingredients can be similar in different parts of the world, but they are cooked differently--especially different fats. The Med dish would have surely used olive oil, would the Indian dish have done the same?
And most importantly.... where are the cooking husbands??
I prefer that he stay out until it's time for him to do the dinner dishes
And if he wants the potatoes to be peeled, he's free to do that 1 -
GottaBurnEmAll wrote: »The thing is one can eat in a Med-style and cook Indian inspired dishes using olive oil instead of ghee.
We're not aiming to be purists here.
I like lemurcat's idea of calling this all blue zone eating rather than Med.
I do, too (although then we'll be discussing whether some healthy recipe a true blue-zoner never made is truly BZ so legit, or not ).
But, sadly, no one put us in charge of the naming. It's been named. The popularized term "Mediterranean Diet" is out there. If that's what someone calls it here, and I'm sure that that's what they're talking about (vs. cultural heritage per se), I'm going to fall in line on that thread, and use the term, for purposes of getting on with communication . . . and probably push back on the idea (if it comes up) that other healthy, consistent foods the OP enjoys should be omitted for some reason of purity and traditionalism. It's not like I'm advocating "junk food Mediterranean" here.
I assume some of what's behind that choice of popular term is that many people have at least some intuitive understanding of what it might mean in the traditional sense (UNESCO version), and that it carries a certain aura of history and romance with it. "Blue Zones" doesn't. In practice, any of this is pretty much following sensible thinking about food and nutrition, but "healthy diet" and "nutritious, balanced diet" were muddled up a long time ago.
I used to argue with people doing "HIIT", too, about whether it was really HIIT. It's profitless. So I try to figure out what they're actually talking about, and give advice accordingly, with at most a side comment on "traditional definitions".
Words and phrases don't have unitary fixed, immutable definitions. Believing they do, IMO, is like believing everyone named Susie Smith is the same person. What's important is communicating with the person(s) one is talking to, and that's messier.
I mostly agree with this, but I think some people who read about the healthiness of the Med diet do confuse the two and come at it with the idea that "Med diet" even in the "healthy way to eat" sense means something like "eating Italian food." So I think it's important to clarify that you don't have to stick to foods eaten in the Mediterranean, and that actually a lot of foods associated with various Med cuisines would likely be foods you'd limit some.
That's why I usually clarify that it's a healthy eating pattern, not a cuisine.3 -
estherdragonbat wrote: »I'm confused -- did read if SDAs prefer to eat meat it's kosher w/no pork or shellfish (is this a new concept from the hardliner SDA?) and the SDA men (possibly old data?) outlive the Okinawa men but the Okinawan women about the same as SDA men. The Loma Linda community (so cal) was #1 for world longevity few yrs. ago and I read they aren't Vegan. My friend in Redlands (Loma Linda area) has quite a few SDA friends and eating meat (even fish) was shunned - nothing with a face. They are big on soy products - own the frozen food line, Morning Star. The Loma Linda area is quite interesting - lots of grains, vegetables and fruit and some SDAs eat dairy and eggs.
They also rest one day a week (their Sabbath) and this might be a healthy factor but it's their day of church/worship and social dinner afterward (or for some) so how is that a day of rest!
I'm Orthodox Jewish, not SDA, but when we talk about our day of rest, it's a day to refrain from creative activity and just enjoy the fruits of what was made during the week. So, we don't cook on the Sabbath, but we enjoy foods cooked in advance. We don't plow or plant (or do anything reminiscent, so moving a heavy bench over terrain in a way that it gouges up the earth is considered plowing, even if we wanted to move it from Point A to Point B and not actually plow to prepare for planting) because that's demonstrating Humanity's mastery over the world and Sabbath is a day to disconnect from that. No internet; no phones period, no TV. It's a chance to reconnect spiritually without the day-to-day noise.
(I'm probably over-simplifying, but honestly, when I talk about what we "don't" do, it feels less of a restriction and more of a "for one day of the week, I don't HAVE to deal with all that stuff." It's true that it's not by choice, but not having that choice sort of takes it out of my hands so I don't have to worry over 'should I X, should I Y?' One day a week, I'm just... beyond all that.)
As someone who grew up SDA and still has many SDA family members, I can clarify here. Most, not all follow a strict vegan diet that is almost 100% plant/grain based. Even staying clear of chocolate and substitute it with carob.
It is the health message dictated by Ellen White who was one of the churches founders.
Those who eat meat follow the leviticus message of fish with scales and fins, no pork or related products, animals who chew their cud and have split hoofs as well as birds without webbed feet.
The sabbath is sun down Friday night to sun down Saturday. That time is spent in church, with family and quiet reflection.
Studies have shown that the average strict vegan lives up to 10 years longer than most.
I practiced it for over 13 years strictly. However, that's not to say it's not without faults3 -
Hey, we're expecting to be hit with between 0 and 18" of snow this weekend here in the Midwest, so I was just planning a few recipes to cook while we are (maybe? maybe not?) snowed in. And it made me wonder, what is everyone else's favorite Mediterranean type recipe that might be helpful for beginners who are working on improving their diet and reducing their calories?
Here is one of my all-time favorites. I normally make it when I am swamped with summer veg, but it is sounding good to me right now. It kind of has a Mexican spin to it, but between the necessity for a baguette alongside and the fact that you can replace the Queso Blanco with Fromage Blanc---->hey presto, it's Mediterranean!
I have no idea what this business is on the Goya seasoning so I just leave it out; also, I always make this with homemade chicken stock with all the fat left in which is, to me, crucial for flavor. And it HAS to have the cheese and cilantro because those make the flavor profile sing; if cilantro tastes like soap to you, you might want to skip this recipe. It's fine without it, but the cilantro just brings it all together and makes it special.
https://www.justapinch.com/recipes/soup/vegetable-soup/eggplant-and-zucchini-soup-caldo-de-calabacitas.html
Here is a recipe for making your own easy farmstead cheese which is AMAZING with this soup (probably my cheesemaking activities are why Ann suggested I was a "disciplined gourmet"; also the fact that I don't post about the whole box of Froot Loops I ate in a day, true story).
https://modernfarmer.com/2015/10/how-to-make-farm-fresh-cheese-at-home/
What does anyone else recommend?
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GottaBurnEmAll wrote: »The thing is one can eat in a Med-style and cook Indian inspired dishes using olive oil instead of ghee.
We're not aiming to be purists here.
I like lemurcat's idea of calling this all blue zone eating rather than Med.
I do, too (although then we'll be discussing whether some healthy recipe a true blue-zoner never made is truly BZ so legit, or not ).
But, sadly, no one put us in charge of the naming. It's been named. The popularized term "Mediterranean Diet" is out there. If that's what someone calls it here, and I'm sure that that's what they're talking about (vs. cultural heritage per se), I'm going to fall in line on that thread, and use the term, for purposes of getting on with communication . . . and probably push back on the idea (if it comes up) that other healthy, consistent foods the OP enjoys should be omitted for some reason of purity and traditionalism. It's not like I'm advocating "junk food Mediterranean" here.
I assume some of what's behind that choice of popular term is that many people have at least some intuitive understanding of what it might mean in the traditional sense (UNESCO version), and that it carries a certain aura of history and romance with it. "Blue Zones" doesn't. In practice, any of this is pretty much following sensible thinking about food and nutrition, but "healthy diet" and "nutritious, balanced diet" were muddled up a long time ago.
I used to argue with people doing "HIIT", too, about whether it was really HIIT. It's profitless. So I try to figure out what they're actually talking about, and give advice accordingly, with at most a side comment on "traditional definitions".
Words and phrases don't have unitary fixed, immutable definitions. Believing they do, IMO, is like believing everyone named Susie Smith is the same person. What's important is communicating with the person(s) one is talking to, and that's messier.
I agree with you EXCEPT I will die on the hill of a calorie not being a term that in any way should be conflated with the nutrition in a food item and that other hill that CICO is not calorie counting or any specific diet. 2 -
Tagine recipes. I don't follow anything strictly, but something like this:
https://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/moroccan_chicken_with_lemon_and_olives/
Or maybe this: https://www.thekitchn.com/moroccan-recipe-chicken-tagine-with-apricots-almonds-chickpeas-recipes-from-the-kitchn-175757
I typically add some additional veg, like cauliflower or broccoli.2 -
What a fun idea! I just made this last week, and it was fabulous. I didn't use stewed tomatoes, I just used a can of whole peeled tomatoes since I already had them on hand. I added more kale than the recipe called for and used butternut, not pumpkin.
https://simple-veganista.com/moroccan-pumpkin-chickpea-stew/
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GottaBurnEmAll wrote: »What a fun idea! I just made this last week, and it was fabulous. I didn't use stewed tomatoes, I just used a can of whole peeled tomatoes since I already had them on hand. I added more kale than the recipe called for and used butternut, not pumpkin.
https://simple-veganista.com/moroccan-pumpkin-chickpea-stew/
I like the sound of that sans cinnamon. I am always looking for new vegan/vegetarian dishes for my meatless days.0 -
GottaBurnEmAll wrote: »What a fun idea! I just made this last week, and it was fabulous. I didn't use stewed tomatoes, I just used a can of whole peeled tomatoes since I already had them on hand. I added more kale than the recipe called for and used butternut, not pumpkin.
https://simple-veganista.com/moroccan-pumpkin-chickpea-stew/
I like the sound of that sans cinnamon. I am always looking for new vegan/vegetarian dishes for my meatless days.
Cinnamon is part of the Moroccan spice flavor profile, but if you have an allergy or just flat out hate it, just leave it out. It's not really the most prevalent taste in the dish. If you just don't like it, you could always cut the amount and let it fade more into the background but still do its work as part of the flavor base.0
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