The 'Mediterranean Diet' again

[Mich the Tester]

Apparently it helps prevent dementia.

Mediterranean diet key to dementia battle, PM told - Telegraph

Now OK, I'm pretty sure that a good variety of fruit and veg along with your meat and/or fish and a glass or two of wine is a pretty good thing for health and general good cheer, and probably much better than deep fried Mars bars or fast food every day. But I just wonder, when doctors talk of the 'Mediterranean Diet' whether they've actually any visited Mediterranean countries and seen the large amounts of cake with whipped cream and chocolate that get eaten every afternoon in Italy and Spain, the salty, fatty hams, the cured sausages with blobs of fat in them and lots of salt, the goose and duck liver pâtés, the extremely sweet snacks in the Islamic countries of the Med, the fatty chops of lamb so beloved in the same places, the considerable amounts of beer, wine and spirits that are consumed in the northern Med countries, the thick, caffeine rich coffee all around the Med, and so on and so forth.

If we're all supposed to have a Mediterranean diet, does this mean I'm free to pig out on cakes, cream, booze, marzipan, goose liver and so on? Or are the docs talking bollocks?

[original PM]

well the article I listened to then went on to say a medditeraean (sp cannot be bothered!) diet is

Veg, Fruit a few other things oh and some Olive Oil.

So it seems that the med diet is like an healthy diet with Olive Oil

[Mich the Tester]

well the article I listened to then went on to say a medditeraean (sp cannot be bothered!) diet is

Veg, Fruit a few other things oh and some Olive Oil.

So it seems that the med diet is like an healthy diet with Olive Oil

Oh, right, whoever said that needs to visit the Med a bit more!

[eek]

My inkling is that the recent research that shows dementia is related to late onset diabetes and toxins not being washed out the brain is probably related to this.

Mind you given how pesticide ridden many vegatables are and how many chemicals have been added to fish due to toxic dumping its probably not the best diet if toxins are an issue...

[original PM]

it's just popular medja

the med people are tanned fit, sexy into their sixties and only eat Fruit, veg, olive oil, Bertoli and Dolmio

english people are fat, pasty, stop having sex by the time they are 25 and only eat Special brew and fried mars bars

[VectraMan]

The picture on that Telegraph article seems to be bacon and cheese (and olives which I don't like much). So bacon and cheese it is from now on.

[Mich the Tester]

The picture on that Telegraph article seems to be bacon and cheese (and olives which I don't like much). So bacon and cheese it is from now on.

Don't forget the basil leaves.

[Old Greg]

And Mediterrannean cuisine can be economical as well as healthy.

Iceland Deep Pan Doner Kebab Pizza 432g | Deep Pan & Rising Dough Pizzas | Pizza & Garlic Bread | Frozen | Iceland

[darmstadt]

2 bottles of Ouzo, 1 of Retsina and a carafe of Arak. Does that count as a Mittelmeer (can't spell the English way) diet?

[russell]

Apparently it helps prevent dementia.

Mediterranean diet key to dementia battle, PM told - Telegraph

Now OK, I'm pretty sure that a good variety of fruit and veg along with your meat and/or fish and a glass or two of wine is a pretty good thing for health and general good cheer, and probably much better than deep fried Mars bars or fast food every day. But I just wonder, when doctors talk of the 'Mediterranean Diet' whether they've actually any visited Mediterranean countries and seen the large amounts of cake with whipped cream and chocolate that get eaten every afternoon in Italy and Spain, the salty, fatty hams, the cured sausages with blobs of fat in them and lots of salt, the goose and duck liver pâtés, the extremely sweet snacks in the Islamic countries of the Med, the fatty chops of lamb so beloved in the same places, the considerable amounts of beer, wine and spirits that are consumed in the northern Med countries, the thick, caffeine rich coffee all around the Med, and so on and so forth.

If we're all supposed to have a Mediterranean diet, does this mean I'm free to pig out on cakes, cream, booze, marzipan, goose liver and so on? Or are the docs talking bollocks?

The Mediterranean diet isn't what you see when you visit Ibiza or other typical tourist spots, it's the small villages on the coasts of Greece for example. My wife's family are Greek and own a hotel on the coast in a small village, we go every summer and they eat freshly caught seafood, salad, feta cheese, locally grown fruit/veg etc.