Many studies have shown that the Mediterranean diet (“MD”) is one of the healthiest. Recently, a UK politician, Tom Watson lost a lot of weight by following a type of MD called The Pioppi Diet, named after a town in southern Italy with a very healthy population.
Although there is no universal diet for the whole Mediterranean area, there are some common ingredients which might make a MD healthy. Maybe it’s the olive oil with it’s “anti-inflammatory” properties. Or all that fibre from fruit, vegetables, legumes and whole grains? Or maybe the polyphenols in red wine? These probably all play a part but that’s not the whole story.
Interestingly, Wikipedia has entries for Mediterranean “Diet” and Mediterranean “Cuisine”. One is a (US nutritionist centric) definition of a diet, and the other is what the people living around the Mediterranean actually eat. They’re not quite the same. It turns out that the definition of what constitutes a MD has been hacked.
Take meat for example. The British National Health Service (“NHS”) website says the MD “includes a low intake of meat.” (https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/eat-well/what-is-a-mediterranean-diet/) Really? According to the UN FAO (2009) Spain, Italy, Portugal and Israel all consume MORE meat per person per year than the UK (97kg, 91kg, 93kg and 96kg, respectively, compared to just 84kg in the UK). And the Greeks consume a similar amount of meat to the UK.
The NHS also says the MD has a “low intake of dairy foods.” Wrong again. According to the International Dairy Federation (2016), Cyprus consumes more cheese per person every year (27kg) than Switzerland (22kg). France also consumes the same as Cyprus and even Italy (22kg) consumes more than Austria (21kg) and TWICE the amount than the UK (11kg).
As for yogurt, according to Datamonitor (2014) Portugal consumes more per person per year (20kg) than Denmark (17kg), Switzerland (13kg), and Germany (12kg). Turkey consumes 13kg and Greece 9kg, both more than New Zealand and Australia. Even liquid milk consumption (CDIC 2013) is higher in Spain (81 litres per person a year) than Germany (52) and Netherlands (48) for example. Italy and France (both 52) are about the same as Germany. In total, Italy and Spain spend more on dairy products per person than the UK.
Another myth about the MD is that it’s very low in saturated fat. This is based on the fact that olive oil is the primary source of fat in the MD and olive oil consists mainly of monounsaturated fat. But that’s not the whole story.
- Olive oil also contains about 15% saturated fat. That’s about 150g per litre. The Greeks, Italians, and Spanish, annually consume over 13 litres of olive oil per person compared to about 1 litre in the UK.
- As the figures above show, the people of the Mediterranean also eat a lot of saturated fat via dairy products, especially cheese. The Greeks consume more cheese than any country in Europe, even more than the French. Feta, for example, is about 13% saturated fat.
- Then there’s the fish. Sardines — probably what most people would think of as typically Mediterranean — have about 3g per 100g saturated fat. That’s about 50% more than a sirloin steak of the same weight (USDA Database).
- Finally, there’s the saturated fat in all that meat.
So from where do these misconceptions about the MD come? It looks like the UK authorities are making the MD fit their dietary advice rather than the other way round. And that’s because the UK nutritional guidelines are not based on robust evidence in the first place (see my summary here https://medium.com/@antonwelly/whats-a-healthy-diet-26ed20db0e2f).
