If you like olive oil, nuts and wine you’re in luck. If you like eating fish and legumes at least three times a week that’s even better. Love your veggies? You’re on your way. Nutrition researchers have been touting the possible health benefits of eating foods popular in Mediterranean cultures for decades. Food lovers celebrate how enjoyable these dishes can be too. The vegetable plate at The National in Athens is a state of the art example of how plant focused cuisine can meet state of the science advice. Case in point: Carolina Plantation rice with black lentils, fried cauliflower with yogurt and harissa, beets with kumquats and fennel fronds, cabbage and caraway slaw, marinated carrots with fennel, watercress.
Heart Attack Preventing Plates
Now the first major clinical trail on the Meditteranean diet shows that eating this way can prevent thirty percent of heart attacks, strokes and deaths from heart disease. The results of the University of Barcelona study, published in The New England Journal of Medicine, reveal that people at high risk for heart disease because they were overweight, smoked or had diabetes were able to cut their heart attack risk by eating a diet rich in olive oil, nuts, beans, fish, fruits and vegetables. They even got to drink wine with their meals.
Easier to Follow than Low Fat
The nearly seventy five hundred study participants were divided into two groups; consuming either the Mediterranean or a low-fat plan. The low-fat group had a hard time sticking with the diet because it wasn’t as palatable as the Mediterranean menu. In fact the five-year study actually ended early because it was evident the low-fat group might be at higher risk for heart disease.
What to Eat
How much of the healthy stuff is enough to make a dietary difference? The Mediterranean daily diet regime included: at least 4 tablespoons of olive oil, a quarter cup of nuts, a glass of wine, at least three servings fruit, and at least two servings of vegetables. Weekly they were to eat fish and legumes (peas, beans and lentils) at least three times a week, choose poultry instead of red meats and to avoid sugary desserts. But you don’t have to go all the way to the Med to follow the diet.
Med Style Plates from Georgia’s dining scene.
Black rice with berries and peanuts, seared red kale with cumin and chili flake, carrot salad, broccoli with radishes and Dijon vinaigrette, pineapple with almonds and pomegranates - The National, Athens
Arugula Salad, Red Wine Vinaigrette, Candied Pecans, Asher Blue Cheese - The Shed at Glenwood
Falafel Salad with ground chickpea patties served with tahini sauce -Café Agora
Grilled Salmon with a Spicy Pepper Relish with Kalamata Vinaigrette – Eclipse di Luna
Fresco Pizza of roma tomatoes, fresh basil, house mozzarella, extra virgin olive oil, cracked peppercorns – Ammazza
Minestrone with Sea Island Red Peas – JCT Kitchen
Black-eyed peas – The Colonnade
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