Mediterranean diet and heart health is more than olive oil and nuts.
The “Mediterranean diet” has been popular since the 1990s when Harvard did a health presentation based on the diet of Greece and Southern Italy. This olive oil, tomato and wine diet is what we now refer to as the Mediterranean diet, which many authors have cashed in on with books and kitschy programs.
It popped up again recently after another cohort study came out in the New England Journal of Medicine. The study done in Spain followed 7,000-plus people (about half men, half women, ages 55-80) and monitored over the course of about five years how many of those people had a “cardiovascular event.”
Some ate a Mediterranean diet supplemented with olive oil. Some ate a diet supplemented with nuts. The others were just advised to lower their fat intake. In the end, there were a total of 288 cardio events (heart attacks) that occurred out of all the participants.
The group eating the Mediterranean diet plus nuts had 83 events. The group eating the diet plus extra virgin olive oil had 96 events. The last group had 109 events.
They confirmed what other studies had shown and what experts have thought for a while now. Eating a Mediterranean diet lowers your risk of cardio trouble.
When an NPR reporter asked some Spaniards about the study, they agreed – their food is excellent. But, they also said that even more than the types of food they eat, it’s the climate. They put more emphasis on following the climate – eating local foods that grow in season. They stated that growing or importing food out of season loses nutrient content and people were originally designed to eat according to their own climates. They stressed slowing down to enjoy your food, eating locally and getting out in the sunshine and salt water.
For us Seattleites, we may not have the sun and salt water as much as the Spaniards, but we could do a better job of embracing our climate and eating according to it.
The weather is now cold and the sun is just starting to peek out more often. The ground is starting to warm a bit, tulips are blooming and rain is becoming less frequent. Ideally for us, we need to eat cauliflower, finish up apple season, enjoy leeks and onions for a couple more months and start looking forward to asparagus, kale, rhubarb and baby spinach that will be ready for April.
PCC has a great interactive seasonal produce calendar so you can check out what else is fresh: www.pccnaturalmarkets.com/products/produce/inseason. So eat your tomatoes, dress with your olive oil, pop a few nuts and drink your wine, but don’t forget to stand in the sunshine and remember that foods, like flowers, have a season.
Ashley Besecker owns Crave Health in Kirkland. Visit crave-health.com.
