Sitting in the airport terminal on my way back from our Italian beach holiday, I’m eating traditional Sardinian cheeses, a selection of nuts, fresh fruit and some dried apricots. All ingredients of the much-lauded Mediterranean diet, which is the moststudied diet in the world. Research shows that following it is linked to a reduced risk of every chronic health condition and associated with better health outcomes for patients who are already sick, and improves fertility and pregnancy outcomes.
The diet involves eating an abundance of plants: vegetables, pulses, nuts and seeds, herbs and spices, beans, whole grains and fruits, with extra virgin olive oil on tap; with portions of oily fish, eggs, dairy (fermented as cheese or yoghurt) and, less frequently, meat. You may have just been to Italy, Spain, France or Greece and found it easy to eat in this way, feasting on succulent, inexpensive sun-ripened tomatoes and vegetables, feta cheese and fresh fish. But it can feel harder to keep this up in the UK.
My solution is to see the Mediterranean diet as an approach to eating, simply by adding in its key elements to every meal you consume.
Your focus should be on the five food groups most of us don’t get enough of, which form the Med diet’s core: whole grains (barley, rye, spelt, buckwheat, quinoa, oats); legumes (peas, beans, lentils, chickpeas); nuts and seeds; omega-3 rich foods (oily fish such as anchovies, mackerel and sardines); fresh whole fruit and berries. Also include foods that are high in flavanols such as dark chocolate, coffee, herbal tea and matcha.
Taste and provenance is important too. As Franco Fubini, the chief executive of the food supplier Natoora and author of In Search of the Perfect Peach, puts it, “It’s not necessarily just about eating more olive oil or tomatoes, but about choosing the right ones. Understanding how to identify quality in fresh ingredients is a huge part of it.” His advice is to buy seasonal fruit and veg from farmers’ markets or farm-based veg boxes.
When it comes to other ingredients, there are plenty of supermarket items that can quickly transform your eating habits into a Mediterranean diet.
Merchant Gourmet wholegrain spelt
£2.15, 250g, Sainsbury’s
These handy parboiled packets make it easy to add crucial whole grains to your diet — simply microwave in a bowl for two minutes, then add fresh herbs, some of your favourite cheese, fresh tomatoes and some chickpeas. A second bonus is that if you partially cook grains like these or other starchy foods, then cool and reheat them, it increases the resistant starch content, which gives your gut microbes more to feast on and reduces the glycaemic index of the grains.
Frozen soffritto mix
£1.50, 500g, Waitrose (Asda, Sainsbury’s, Morrisons and M&S also have a version)
This mix of diced carrots, celery and onions is the base of many Med diet dishes and will help increase the diversity of plants you consume.
There is no chopping involved: fry lightly in olive oil before adding tomatoes, veg, pulses, fish. Cooking this way creates healthy bioactive compounds that are not present in the vegetables alone, giving the soffritto a unique nutritional profile. It also increases your fibre intake.
Mutti passata
£2, 400g, Tesco
This particular passata is made with Italian tomatoes that have been sunripened and are higher in bioactive compounds, which makes them taste great and provides your gut microbes and immune system with additional goodness. Cooking tomatoes helps to make lycopene (an antioxidant) easier to absorb, which is particularly protective for heart health and has potential benefits in preventing cancer.
Raw tomatoes have less available lycopene, but they’re higher in vitamin C and other compounds, so add some fresh tomatoes to your dish at the end too. Some passata brands contain additives — this version is just tomatoes and a pinch of salt.
Duchy Original four bean salad in water
85p, 252g, Waitrose
Pulses are fantastic for you thanks to a combination of plenty of fibre, high-quality plant protein and powerful bioactives that help to lower inflammation. However, many people aren’t sure how to cook them. This mix of four different types of beans in water — organic chickpeas, flageolet, red kidney and borlotti beans — makes it super simple to add to salad, curries and sauces. Simply drain and dress with herbs, extra virgin olive oil, and some salt and pepper with a squeeze of lemon.
John West sardines in olive oil
£1.20, 90g, Morrisons
Tinned or jarred sardines, sprats, anchovies or mackerel are an excellent way to add oily fish and omega-3s to your diet. I often opt for them over tuna. I buy MSC-certified (sustainably fished) ones where I can, in extra virgin olive oil or olive oil.
They are a brilliant cupboard staple for making sandwiches, adding to pasta or incorporating into a salad.
Bold Bean Co’s queen carlin peas
£3.25, 570g, Ocado
A tasty alternative to chickpeas, these nutty-tasting carlin peas are grown in collaboration with Hodmedod’s, which produces grains and legumes grown in healthy British soil, boosting their nutritional value. These are another way of quickly adding both variety and legumes into your diet.
Yeo Valley organic kefir natural yogurt
£1.86, 350g, Asda
Fermented dairy is one of the healthiest protein sources. It also offers helpful microbes and their metabolites, which are particularly beneficial for gut health and reducing the risk of colorectal cancer. Making your own or buying from a traditional small-batch manufacturer like Ki Kefir is brilliant, but supermarket options such as Yeo Valley are great too.
Parmareggio 30-month parmigiano reggiano
£7, 150g, Ocado
Another great fermented dairy product is parmesan cheese. A main character in Mediterranean diet recipes, parmesan — make sure you buy a brand like this, which is a non-processed version — is a great combination of flavour and nutrients such as calcium and protein, and one of the best food sources of creatine. Eat in chunks as a snack with some apple slices as well as grating it on pasta dishes.
Gaea pitted kalamata olives
£3.50, 290g, Waitrose
Olives are a great source of fibre, healthy fats and polyphenols. As long as you select a product without additives, you can’t go wrong. I like this brand of kalamata olives, which are particularly plump and delicious.
British rosemary
£1.70 a pot, Ocado
Rosemary is an essential herb to recreate those Mediterranean aromas. You can’t really go wrong when choosing rosemary. However, try to find one that’s grown in the UK if you want to minimise your food miles. Herbs and spices are a rich source of polyphenols — healthy plant compounds that feed your gut microbiome and act as antioxidants.
Rosemary specifically also contains unique bioactives such as rosmarinic acid, which is another powerful antioxidant.
Pack’d organic summer berries
£4.80, 300g, Ocado
Dark berries, such as blueberries, blackberries and raspberries, are filled with beneficial flavonoids and polyphenols, which are plant-based compounds with antioxidant and antiinflammatory properties. I buy Pack’d organic berries — they are delicious and come in paper packaging. British Frozen Fruits also offers a good selection and most supermarkets have their own ones too.
Clipper organic redbush infusion tea bags £5.10, 80 bags, Ocado
All teas from the Camellia sinensis plant (green, black and oolong) are great sources of flavonoids and polyphenols. If you want to avoid caffeine, hibiscus tea and rooibos/ redbush are also packed with them. Choose brands such as Pukka, Clipper and Dragonfly that don’t use plastic in their bags.
Olive oil
£4.85, 500ml, Tesco
Compared with other cooking oils, olive oil has higher levels of polyphenols, vitamin E and healthy fats. When cooking with olive oil, the heat reduces the levels of many of the bioactive compounds, so save your top-quality olive oil for dressing.
Il Casolare unfiltered extra virgin olive oil
£10, 500ml, Morrisons
Extra virgin olive oil is the first oil that comes from an olive during pressing, so it contains the highest levels of healthy compounds. As olives are squeezed of their last drops of oil, the quality slowly declines — it’s still healthy but just has fewer beneficial compounds. This brand is pure extra virgin olive oil, whereas some others may blend it with standard olive oils.
Extra virgin olive oil can be quite pricey, so save it for adding to fresh dishes or after cooking to keep as many of the active compounds in there as possible.
Mixed nuts and raisins
£4.99, 200g, Holland & Barrett
Nuts and seeds contain protein, healthy fats, fibre, vitamins and minerals. To increase your intake, I find the most cost-effective thing to do is buy packs of mixed nuts and raisins and store them in a Kilner jar. Add a handful of cranberries or dried apricots and sprinkle on salads, porridge and yoghurt.
Willie’s Cacao Venezuelan dark chocolate drops 72 per cent
£7.25, 150g, Ocado
Good-quality dark chocolate with 72 per cent cacao, making it rich in polyphenols, which helps to fight inflammation and has a protective effect on heart and brain health, even helping to keep blood pressure at healthy levels.
Fermented dairy is one of the healthiest protein sources
No comments:
Post a Comment