A What I Ate Monday?

I'm just going to come out and say it. Reading a lot of blogs I've found people claiming this diet to be healthy or this food to be healthy. Yet, when you do a quick pubmed (NOT GOOGLE) search there's absolutely no literature about it. Honestly, why are you claiming something to be healthy when there's no research done on it??? Now there is research done on the vegetarian and vegan diets that show positive results. There's pretty much nil with regards to the paleolithic diet and the studies that do exist ask questions like "Are diets from paleolithic times relevant today?" If you follow it and it makes feel good, then whatever do your thing. However, don't go around bashing vegans or trying to convert other people because there's no concrete proof that says that it's healthy or will prevent chronic diseases. Hello, most cavemen didn't live past their 30-40s so NO SHIT they had no chronic diseases. I will not start on the raw vegan diet...

Now I'm not trying to convert anyone, I've just had previous requests to write about this. The thing is I've never actually "went on" this diet. It's more like once I started reading more about diets for a naturopathy course I took last year and I realized that I was already kind of following it. Maybe it's because I grew up in South Europe by the Black Sea... Anyways, the Mediterranean diet is highly researched. So if you're curious watch the video bellow and I've provided a link to a few studies that were published in the last few months. Just last few months! One of them in from New England Journal of Medicine. Big Reputable Journal. When I searched "Mediterranean Diet" in PubMed there were over 2000 articles that came up!!!

Estruch, R. et al. (2013) Primary Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease with a Mediterranean Diet. New England Journal of Medicine.

Konstantinidou, V. et al. (2013) Up-to date knowledge on the in vivo transcriptomic effect of the Mediterranean diet in humans.Mol Nutr Food Res.

Bouchenak, M, Lamri-Senhadji, M (2013) Nutritional quality of legumes, and their role in cardiometabolic risk prevention: a review. J Med Food;16(3):185-98.

Martin-Palaez, S. et al. (2013) Health effects of olive oil polyphenols: Recent advances and possibilities for the use of health claims.Mol Nutr Food Res

Chatzipavlou, M. et al. (2013) Mediterranean diet intervention for patients with hyperuricemia: a pilot study. Rheumatol Int.

Couto, E. et al. (2013) Mediterranean dietary pattern and risk of breast cancer. PLoS One;8(2):e55374.

Anyways!!! What does the Mediterranean Diet look like?

Veggies!!! I surely enjoyed the food in Nice, France. I wish every grocery store looked like this one right downtown of Nice.

This Monday, I actually took pictures of whatever I've eaten that day. I was gone out of the house form 7am-11pm so that's why all of my meals are in tupperwear. 

Breakfast- yogurt + mashed banana+ cocoa+ granola, low fat cottage cheese + strawberries

Lunch- orzo (should've been a whole grain but oh well!) + chick peas+ tomato sauce+ mushrooms+ peas+ onions + carrots

Dinner- half of a cauliflower pizza, there're two slices in that container ;)

Snacks- carrots+ peppers, cucumbers, apple x2, handful of walnuts+ a bit of raisins

Unpictured- cup of pomegranate juice (treat from the lab) and some baked chips (treat for a student club)

This is somewhat of a typical day for me maybe minus the cauliflower pizza because it was the first time I've tried making it (thanx Michelle!). Here are some other variations of the meals I eat...

Breakfast

This meal is generally some sort of a whole grain (oatmeal, wheat berries, muesli!!!) with nut butter, tonnes of fruits, and some low fat/ high protein dairy.

Lunch

Lunch is something that is easy to pack. It's usually some sort of a whole grain, preferably high protein like buckwheat, millet, quinoa along with veggies and something high in protein.

Snack (1-2 depending on day)

Fruits and nuts, cut up veggies, granola, sometimes an egg or high protein dairy like quark.

Dinner

Lots of veggies along with something more high in protein like legumes or fish. Of course my salads have some extra virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar all over them! Sorry for the cheesy fish picture but I don't take pictures of my fish except this one stuffed fish dish at a dinner party. In terms of fish my favorites are mackerel, herring, tilapia, salmon, carp, anchovies, bass, tuna, sardines and (shrimp). This is supplemented with carbs if I'm hungry and I'll usually have citrus fruit like grapefruit alongside.

Unpictured ;)

Dark Chocolate (in  moderation)!!! Some treats from the lab :P A cookie or a slice of bread here and there :P 

Note: A lot of these are just examples of what I eat, often times I come back for seconds ;) There're also days when I don't eat healthy (eating a Tim Horton's sandwich as I type because I ran out of veggies, just came back from yoga, it's 8:30pm and I haven't had dinner yet and my mom brought one from work). I'm not perfect, c'est la vie. It's all about that 80/20 ;) I do eat meat but I never cook it. My diet is nowhere near perfect and what works for me might not work for you as we all need different amount of calories/ macronutrients. 

Hope you found it useful :D