How to Get Started with the Mediterranean Diet

The Mediterranean Diet is the new “gold standard” in heart disease prevention. This diet emphasizes healthy fats and healthy carbs. For a complete downloadable and printable PDF list of approved Mediterranean foods, refer to this sheet written by Oldways Cultural Food Traditions.

Eat a Lot of Fruit

The Mediterranean Diet calls for a high intake of fruits. Balancing meals with tons of fruit helps prevent heart disease, cancer, and diabetes. More so, they contain an abundance of important vitamins, minerals, and plant chemicals.

Dried fruits and fresh fruits are both great options for getting your daily dose. You can throw some into salads, eat an orange or avocado (which is a double-whammy due to the healthy fats avocados possess) by itself, mix a little into some Greek yogurt, or enjoy them sliced for dessert.

Carbs Get to Stay

There’s no need to count your carbohydrate intake with this diet. Simply just choose the most whole, intact carbs for your meals and you’ll be fine. Bananas, potatoes, beets, oranges, blueberries, beans, chickpeas, milk, and corn all contain carbs, but these are some examples of the kinds you should eat regularly. The Mediterranean Diet suggests you should consume fruits, vegetables, beans, legumes, and whole grains with every single meal.

Breads, cereals, oatmeal, grains, and pastas are suggested to be eaten daily when following the Mediterranean Diet. You can even find most of your favorite pasta noodles made with whole grains or plant-based ingredients. An interesting option to try out is this gnocchi made with quinoa.

Your best choices for oatmeals and cereals should provide at least 3 grams of fiber, no more than 8 grams of sugar, and list the first ingredient as whole grain.

The all-or-nothing no-carb/low-carb diet craze that swept through the United States in the early 2000s suggested that carbs (like bread, rice, and potatoes) should be eliminated in order to lose weight. This all gave pasta a bad rap. Like all crappy trends, this has been proven to be a fallacy.

Newsflash: You Can Eat Pasta Whenever You Want

The key to a healthy pasta is in the pairing with vegetables, cheeses, or meats and the portion you put on your plate. A proper serving is one-half to two-thirds cup of cooked pasta, which is much less than what you’re typically served in restaurants. Instead, simply fill the rest of your bowl or plate with extra veggies, beans, fish, or other lean proteins. Just because you need to watch the portion of pasta you consume doesn’t mean you need to starve yourself on nights you choose to eat it.

Opt for Whole Grains

Substituting whole wheat flour for baking and cooking is a small, yet essential adjustment you can make right away. When cooking soups, stews, pastas, and side dishes, choose traditional Mediterranean grains like barley, farro, quinoa, lentils, and brown rice. You can also find most of your favorite pasta noodles made with whole grains at your local grocery store. Plus, the extra fiber in whole wheat and grains keeps your hunger curbed for longer.

You Don’t Have to Leave Dairy Behind

Cheese and yogurt are to be eaten regularly, but in low to moderate amounts. The calcium that’s derived from these foods is crucial for bone and heart health. Don’t worry about limiting your dairy intake, though! There are plenty of plant-based sources for calcium, such as collard greens, sesame seeds, and almonds. If you really love your dairy products, just choose low-fat or non-fat options at the grocery store.

Plenty of followers of the Mediterranean Diet drink regular milk. Choosing unsweetened almond milk as a substitute is beneficial, but not required.

Eggs have always been an important part of Mediterranean cuisine. For a fantastic breakfast idea, try preparing kayiana, which is a traditional Greek version of scrambled eggs.

Greek Yogurt, Greek Yogurt, Greek Yogurt!

Greek yogurt contains probiotic cultures, is lower in lactose, has less sugar, and has twice the protein content of other yogurts. The extra whey is also strained out, causing it to be thicker and creamier than regular yogurt. This combination of extra protein and thicker texture can also help you feel fuller more quickly, which can assist in weight loss.

There are tons of methods to integrate Greek yogurt into your meal plan. You can enjoy it by itself for a quick breakfast with drizzles of honey or even make tzatziki and other sauces and dips with it.

Learn to Love Your Veggies

The largest component of the Mediterranean Diet is eating vegetables multiple times a day. You get so many beneficial nutrients from consuming vegetables; dietary fiber, folic acid, potassium, and vitamins A and C, to name a few. The fiber in vegetables helps give you that feeling of fullness more quickly with fewer calories consumed, thereby assisting in weight loss. An added bonus of cooking your veggies regularly is that you’ll be drizzling them with olive oil, so you’re amplifying the benefits with healthy fats simultaneously.

There are plenty of ways to incorporate vegetables in every meal of the day. From salads, soups, stews, roasted medleys, casseroles, and side dishes, there is no excuse not to eat them. You can easily put together a quick lunch with raw veggies and hummus or a salad. If you’re not a fan of raw vegetables, throw them into a pot with vegetable stock for a quick soup. You can also elect to drink your vegetables by juicing them.

Build Meals Around Beans, Whole Grains, & Vegetables

Following the Mediterranean Diet means choosing to have a vegetarian meal once or twice a week. Believe it or not, this is a pretty easy change to make when you add in delicious herbs and spices. A common misconception is that vegetarian foods are bland and underwhelming. Vegetarian burgers and quinoa bowls are fantastic ideas for quick weeknight dinners. If you’re looking for a little inspiration, these recipes are a good place to start.

Red Meat Has a Place at the Kitchen Table…

Think of red meat as a treat to be eaten on occasion, but certainly avoid processed meats like many sausages, jerky, or anything salted or smoked. Calories don’t matter in the Mediterranean Diet, so don’t worry about that when selecting your cuts. Instead, focus on the portion and frequency. When selecting your cuts, choose a lean, unprocessed red meat to ensure that it’s beneficial to the health of your heart.

Beef, lamb, goat, mutton, pork, and veal are all appropriate to be consumed when following the Mediterranean Diet. Interestingly, a three ounce serving of pork tenderloin only contains 3 grams of fat. Bison is also a fantastic alternative to beef. The taste is similar to your usual steak, but it has half the fat.

Meat from grass-fed animals contains less total fat and higher amounts of omega-3s than grain-fed animals, so choosing lamb and goat over beef can be very beneficial to your overall health.

… Just Eat it in Smaller Quantities

If you’re like me and can’t go without a steak every now and then, simply opt for smaller portions. The recommended amount of red meat is no more than three ounces twice per week. You can help yourself get used to this change by eating vegetarian for breakfast and lunch and reserving your dinners for your red meat consumption.

To be an over-achiever, you can try going vegetarian part-time to avoid frequent meat-eating pitfalls.

Choosing Your Cut of Beef

Top sirloin is a lean cut of beef that only has about 4 grams of saturated fat per serving, but boasts around 50 grams of protein.

Top round roast is a moderately-lean cut. It is tender and very flavorful, but doesn’t have the high fat content.

Bottom round roast is low in fat and full of muscle. This causes it to be chewier than other cuts of beef, but you can marinate it for a few hours to add flavor and texture.

The eye of steak has some of the lowest fat content available with cuts of beef and is extra-lean. This cut is also very affordable. It looks like a tenderloin without the tenderness, so marinate it to increase that texture.

… Or You Can Substitute Fish & Seafood

The Mediterranean Diet suggests consuming fish and seafood at least twice per week.

Fish like tuna, salmon, & sardines are rich in omega-3 fatty acids. These omega-3s help lower the risk of heart disease, depression, dementia, and arthritis. Your body doesn’t produce omega-3s on its own, so this way of eating helps you consume them regularly (especially if you don’t choose to take any supplements). If you’re a person who thinks sardines are gross, you can consume them in a Caesar dressing on your salad without having to look at their eyeballs.

Shellfish like mussels, oysters, and clams contain potassium, magnesium, and omega-3s to help keep your heart and brain healthy. Oysters are especially healthy because they are a great source of other essential nutrients like zinc, iron, calcium, selenium, and vitamins A, E, and C. Clams, on the other hand, are a lean source of protein, promote sexual health, and have been found to help prevent cancer.

Healthy Fats Are Your Best Friend…

You should be incorporating healthy fats in every meal of the day when following the Mediterranean Diet. Dietary fats supply your body with energy, help your body absorb nutrients, produce necessary hormones, and support cell growth. Monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats are the “good fats” that lower your risk of contracting diseases. Extra virgin olive oil, avocados, nuts, seeds, olives, and fish are all high in these good fats and should be integrated in breakfast, lunch, snacks, dinner, and even desserts.

You can find monounsaturated fats in olive oil, avocados, peanuts, and tree nuts like almonds, pecans, hazelnuts, and cashews.

The two main types of polyunsaturated fats are omega-6 fatty acids and omega-3 fatty acids. You’ll get a majority, if not all, of your omega-6s from olive oil. On the other hand, omega-3s can be found in oily fish like salmon, tuna, anchovies, sardines, mackerel, and cod. Smaller amounts of these fatty acids can also be found in walnuts, chia seeds, and hemp seeds.

The Mediterranean Diet suggests eating fish several times a week and adding walnuts to salads in order to consume more omega-3 fatty acids.

… Especially Extra Virgin Olive Oil

More olive oil, less butter.

The Mediterranean Diet includes a high intake of monounsaturated fats, which you get from a large consumption of olive oil. In fact, Greeks actually consume an average of roughly 4 tablespoons of olive oil a day (compared to a mere half teaspoon a day for Americans). It is true that EVOO is the core of the Mediterranean Diet way of eating.

Sauté your vegetables in olive oil instead of boiling them to keep the vegetables’ antioxidants intact. Additionally, the presence of olive oil has been found to increase the phenols of vegetables, which are health-promoting compounds.

Using fat-free salad dressings actually prevents your body from absorbing the fat-soluble vitamins you’re trying to feed it. Making your own vinaigrette with a little olive oil, vinegar, lemon juice, and oregano can help your body access those nutrients versus using a store-bought dressing.

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