Vanguard Neurologist

From RevolutionHealth

If you’re looking for a once-in-a-lifetime meal, you’re likely to find it at El Bulli, a restaurant on the Spanish coast in Catalonia that’s been called the best in the world by Restaurant Magazine. Though the dishes are wildly inventive, the ingredients are definitely salt of the earth: fresh fish, olive oil, garden-warm fruits and vegetables. In other words, foods commonly eaten in sun-drenched Mediterranean countries.

In recent years, these same foods have been hailed as a way to prevent illness and promote overall good health, leading many experts to conclude that the Mediterranean diet can benefit people across the globe.

Gifts from the Greeks

Mediterranean food first attracted scientific attention 50 years ago, when researchers noticed that people throughout Crete and southern Italy often lived well into their 80s and 90s without any sign of heart disease, cancer or other chronic ailments.

Since then, hundreds of studies have confirmed that a traditional Mediterranean menu

lots of dense, whole grain peasant bread and pasta, seasonal vegetables and some cheese and fruit, all spiked with olive oil and washed down with red wine

can indeed substantially lower your risk of heart attack and stroke.

This way of eating may also help prevent Alzheimer’s disease and diabetes and cut your chances of developing emphysema, asthma and hay fever. In addition, recent research suggests that it may ward off some cancers.

What seems to make the Mediterranean menu so healthful isn’t any one food, but the whole eating-low-on-the-food-chain package, says Jennifer Nelson, a registered dietitian and director of clinical dietetics at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. “All ethnic eating is plant-based and unprocessed. It’s a wonderful, fresh way of looking at things that goes beyond the usual fast-paced, put-it-in-boiling-water, nuke-it way of eating.”

The specifics

A food pyramid is designed so the foods that make up most of your diet are at the base, and those that should be eaten in smaller quantities and less often are at the top. In the Mediterranean scheme, an abundance of whole grains, fruits, vegetables, beans and nuts, olive oil and dairy foods are daily fare. Fish, chicken, eggs and sweets are recommended just a few times a week, and red meat is limited to no more than 12 to 16 ounces per month.

Here’s a closer look at how this all stacks up:

Whole grains and potatoes. Wonder Bread may have been a staple of 1950s America, but unrefined grains have always been the starch of choice in most of the rest of the world. Whole grains including breads, pasta, rice, couscous and polenta, have more complex taste and texture, and have been shown to cut your risk of heart disease and diabetes. While starchy, white potatoes have come under fire lately for their high carb content, in the Mediterranean they’re often eaten in small portions or used sparingly in a larger dish.

Fruits, vegetables, beans, nuts, seeds. There’s simply no downside to fruits and vegetables

they’re low in calories and fat and high in the fiber and nutrients that stop high blood pressure, heart disease, some types of cancer and age-related eye disease. Can’t get past the boiled broccoli of your youth? The Mediterranean plan features options like grilled artichoke hearts and sun-dried tomatoes. Dry beans such as garbanzos (aka chickpeas

think hummus) and small amounts of nuts add quality protein.

Extra virgin olive oil. Experts used to think that a low-fat diet equaled a healthy heart. But it’s now clear that the kind of fat you eat is important, too. That’s where extra virgin olive oil comes in. Walter Willet, M.D., a professor of epidemiology and nutrition and the chair of the Department of Nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health, says that unlike saturated or trans fats, olive oil lowers bad cholesterol and encourages good cholesterol, making it a fat that actually helps your heart. Still, olive oil is loaded with calories. Six teaspoons a day will give you all the benefits without expanding your waistline.

Cheese and yogurt. Cultured dairy foods like Greek yogurt and feta cheese are a big part of most Mediterranean cultures and may help intestinal health as well as provide calcium and protein. They’re often eaten every day but in modest amounts.

Fresh fish, poultry, eggs. It takes just 6 ounces of fish a week to knock points off your blood pressure and improve brain function in growing children. Seafood is even more important when it comes to your heart

cutting your risk of heart disease by as much as a third and halving your chances of sudden cardiac death. Chicken and eggs (no more than four a week, including those used in baking) play a supporting role.

Sweets. Desserts like gelato, baklava and French pastries should be eaten sparingly. Fruit is the most common dessert in the Mediterranean.

Red meat. Most of the arches in the Mediterranean date back thousands of years and definitely aren’t golden! Because it’s high in saturated fat and has been linked to some kinds of cancer, limit red meat (such as hamburgers) to a few times a month or avoid it completely.

Red wine (optional). A glass of vino a day, sipped slowly with your meal, can help ward off heart attacks. Because the benefit is in the fruit, not the alcohol, grape juice packs the same punch.

To help you spot Mediterranean-style foods, Oldways, a Boston-based nonprofit organization that promotes healthful eating, has designed a logo featuring an amphora

a traditional Mediterranean jug or vase

that will appear on some supermarket products. Look for it starting in late summer 2007.