Let’s talk about the perfect diet: Pesco Mediterranean Diet .
It is the ideal diet that should allow us to prolong life and not get sick. Modern people rush to extremes. Either they don’t follow any diets, or they hit the keto diets in the paleo diets on the one hand. On the other hand, these are vegans and various options for vegetarianism.
It can all lead to a lack of various vitamins, trace elements, and protein. If we are talking about veganism. On the other hand, this is an extra burden on the:
- Digestive system.
- Increases in low-density lipoproteins.
- Various complications from the kidneys.
- And also the difficulty of following a diet.
All these are extremes that supporters of specific diets support. Some people talk enthusiastically about keto diets. Some people talk enthusiastically about vegetarianism.
But from the point of view of evidence-based medicine, the main thing is one thing. These are statistically significant large-scale clinical trials. Suppose any food strategy pays off. Then it should be reproduced on many thousands of people and lead to the same result. It is why randomized clinical trials are conducting, as well as large-scale epidemiological studies.
Pesco Mediterranean Diet
In September 2020. The American College of Cardiology journal published a review dedicated to the traditional Mediterranean diet combined with intermittent fasting. This review is based on several large-scale studies of many thousands conducted from 5 to 18 years. And the conclusion of the authors of this review: The Mediterranean diet with intermittent fasting is ideal for maintaining cardiovascular health.
Why is cardiovascular health so important? Because cardiovascular diseases are the number one cause of death in the world. And they also lead to various disabling diseases. Which seriously affects the quality of a person’s life.
Basic principles of the Pesco Mediterranean diet
What is the traditional Mediterranean diet? It is a combination of two diets. There is such a direction pescetarianism is vegetarianism plus the use of fish and seafood. Well, the Mediterranean diet, in principle, this phenomenon is familiar to many.
The main food sources in the Mediterranean diet are:
- vegetables and fresh fruits.
- Wholegrain cereals.
- Nuts.
- A large amount of unrefined cold-pressed olive oil.
- Protein from fish and seafood.
- In limited quantities, the use of fermented dairy foods (such as yogurt and kefir).
- Soft cheeses are also acceptable in small quantities.
- You can have a little white meat.
- Limit on Red meat.
- And it is also permissible to drink wine in small quantities. (for women up to 100 grams per day for men up to 200 grams per day).
Drinks:
- water
- coffee
- tea
The results of thousands of studies proving the effectiveness of the Mediterranean diet
Indicative results of the study, which is name PREDIMED, were held in Spain for 4.8 years. The number of participants is 7447 people. These are older adults, randomly divided into 3 groups:
- the first group with a low-fat diet
- the second group was simply a Mediterranean diet.
- and the third group was also sharply Mediterranean diet. But they used more nuts instead of butter.
And the third group was also sharply Mediterranean diet, but they used more nuts instead of butter.
And the indicators were very impressive. Compared to the low-fat control group. Both groups, those who consumed large amounts of unrefined oil. And a group who consumed nuts against the background of the sand of the Mediterranean diet. They had 29% less mortality from all causes. There is also a 29% lower mortality rate from cardiovascular diseases. The number of strokes in general dramatically decreased by 42% less.
Research: The Adventist Health Study
Interesting data were also obtained in the course of a study called The Adventist Health Study. The duration of This study has six years. And the number of participants there was 73,000 people.
The control group had no diet at all. And there was also a group of vegetarians. And, interestingly, vegetarians split into subgroups, were:
- pure vegetarians
- Ovo Lacto vegetarians
- Pesco vegetarians, that is, those who used fish.
And the biggest percentage of the decline in mortality was among young vegetarians. Also, this group had a lower percentage of lesions from cardiovascular diseases and stroke.
Research: EPIC
The next large-scale study: EPIC (European Prospective Investigation into Cance and Nutrition) Oxford study.
It was held in Europe and included 44,000 people for 18 years.
There were also results obtained from those people who followed the Mediterranean diet. Dramatically reduced the number of cardiovascular diseases. They had fewer deaths from common causes. And they also had fewer strokes. The percentages were everywhere more than 20-30.
List of food of the Pesco Mediterranean Diet
What is technically an excellent Mediterranean diet? Since in this diet, it is permissible to consume a large amount of unrefined cold-pressed olive oil and nuts. The percentage of energy that a person receives from vegetable fats is 40%.
What foods can we eat following the Pesco Mediterranean Diet?
recommended for use:
Fish more than three times a week. The upper limit is not established in principle. One serving of fish is 100 grams. It is advisable to eat fish that does not accumulate mercury. The least of it is in:
- celery
- sardines
- salmon
- trout
- Anchovies.
- The daily consumption of vegetables should be at least 225 grams a day.
- Fresh fruit should be consumed in an amount of at least 300 grams per day.
- Legumes should be consumed more than three times a week. one serving of legumes is 150 grams.
- Wholegrain cereals should be consumed no more than 3 times a day for 120 grams. These are:
- whole oatmeal
- Rye
- Barley
- Bulgur
- Millet
- Quinoa
- corn
- and wild rice
- Nuts are more than or equal to 30 grams per day. Nuts here we mean:
- almonds
- hazelnuts
- and walnuts
- Finally, it is recommended to use cold-pressed olive oil—more than or equal to four tablespoons per day.
Caution with these foods
Foods that should be treated with caution are:
- Lean red meat is permissible to eat only once a week. At the same time, the portion is 112 grams.
- White meat is allowed to be consumed no more than twice a week. That is, twice for 112 grams.
- Eggs should preferably be consumed up to 5 yolks per week. The number of proteins is not limited.
- very carefully and little should be consumed:
- soft cheeses
- dark chocolate with a percentage of more than 50
- What a wine. I have already said no more than 100 milliliters of women and no more than 200 milliliters of men. This means dry red wine.
- and avoid:
- red, processed meat
- confectionery
- butter and margarine
- refined carbohydrates
- sweet drinks
Drink as we have already said:
- water
- tea
- coffee
Intermittent Fasting
Naturally, it is very good if this style of nutrition is combined with intermittent fasting. Let me remind you that during intermittent fasting, a person observes a break between meals. They are starting from 12 to 18-20 and ending with hours. That is, the period when a person eats is called the food window.
For example, you start eating at 10 am and finish at 6 pm. Your food window will be 8 hours, the other 16 hours you are fasting.
To find out more:
Intermittent fasting 6:18 How time is important?
You can also make this food window even smaller.
as a result of periodic fasting, it is achieved:
- normalization of metabolism
- improves sensitivity to insulin
- decreases the level of sugar
- and atherogenic lipoproteins
- the body fights thus with atherosclerosis with chronic inflammation and also starts the processes of autophagy
That is, such periodic fasting is a very healthy and safe method to improve your health.
How to follow the Pesco Mediterranean Diet for people with high physical activity
Thus, we see that the combination of this traditional Mediterranean diet plus intermittent fasting. It is, in principle, quite simple to follow. I certainly anticipate the objections of those people who will say. That we carry bags of cement to the twenty-fifth floor. Or we run an ultramarathon every day. Like this power, the scheme is not good.
But you can take it for the basis. And if you spend a lot of energy, then increase your food intake proportionally. I gave the proportions approximately how much you need to eat. And it is possible to increase everything proportionally by one and a half times.
If you increase your intake of whole grains. You can also increase the same number of times your intake of meat or dairy foods.
Interestingly, pasta (that is, pasta made from durum wheat) can also be considered whole-grain foods. Those people who have a calorie deficit have an intensely physical job. You can make up for this deficit with the help of durum pasta. But it is natural not to use butter.
Why is the Pesco Mediterranean diet ideal?
I want to conclude that I find the voiced style of eating feasibly plausible by the mechanism of action. And most importantly, proven by thousands of studies. No other style of eating, from the keto diet to the paleo and simply vegan diets. Does not have such a huge amount of research evidence of effectiveness on the one hand. And evidence of complete safety.
Leave in the comments what kind of diet you use. What advantages did you find in it? It will be very interesting.
Source: A Pesco-Mediterranean Diet With Intermittent Fasting: JACC Review Topic of the Week