I saw this article today about how people could reduce the risk of stroke by 33% to 46% if they followed a Mediterranean diet. This made me laugh since we are in the middle of the Mediterranean and I haven’t seen a whole lot of health nuts around! The diet around here doesn’t really fall into the rules of the “Mediterranean diet”, when they enjoy humungous plates of pasta as a starter eventually leading to a round of cannoli as a finisher at midnight. Nowhere is this more apparent than at the beaches during the summer when everyone shamelessly bares it all in their banana hammocks and bikinis. 🙂 At least they are proud of themselves!
In fairness… the non pasta or pizza dishes are healthier around here. A lot of raw fruits & veggies. Also seafood is a mainstay in the diet. The biggest change that I have noticed is the primary use of olive oil over butter. The news article does touch upon this fact about olive oil being an important part of the equation. I have noticed that I have been eating a lot more of the foods that I note above… but this also includes the foods in the “bad” paragraph. Overall I would say its tough to keep on a healthy regiment here, with the choices at restaurants and the irresistible desserts! Luckily I have hockey and surfing to keep things in balance.
Should the name of this diet be changed?? Maybe if it was called the “Italian diet”… then I would definitely have to throw a red flag on that!