Up Close And Personal With The Mediterranean Diet.

I just returned from an international trip where I visited Lithuania, Latvia, Slovenia and Turkey. I had several reasons for visiting those particular countries but one was definitely not to evaluate the Mediterranean Diet. However, I couldn’t help but observe some commonalities between each country I visited (even though technically I was first in the Baltic region). Europe often gets lumped into the “Mediterranean Diet” culture so I thought I would share some of my experiences with the food I tasted, from my three week escapade. Here are seven things that stuck out to me as I explored the different cuisines of Eastern Europe.

Number one—each meal was often served with bread or potatoes (cabbage too).

Number two—Pork was a very common item on the menu (not so much in Turkey—lamb was #1).

Number three—I smelled cigarette smoke much more often than I do when I am in Seattle, Los Angeles, New York or Chicago.

Number four—people seemed to have coffee, tea or beer at any time of the day (including a casual beer at 10am at the farmer’s market).

Number five—dinner was often eaten later, after 7pm or 8pm.

Number six—people gathered socially in the afternoon as well as the evening and took their time to enjoy their time (this could have appeared to be a larger custom than normal due to peak tourist season).

Number seven— treats, or sweet things, were very much treasured as a post-meal experience or a snack.

So what does this have to do with the Mediterranean Diet? Well, people are up in arms across the U.S. about many a ting, but especially about the “solution” to our health problems. Mainstream media is either touting “Go Vegan!” or “Go Mediterranean.” As a food-first personal trainer and metabolic health coach (and a former vegan), I must conclude that the “D” word—Diet—is full of contradictions and misinformation. And to lay it out all at once—I do NOT subscribe to or suggest one dietary lifestyle or eating regimen for myself or anyone else. Despite the so-called facts or the longevity stats, we must also consider other factors impacting our health, like lifestyle, family dynamics, culture and economics when we are talking about food habits and food culture. Let’s not conclude that any one, singular dietary pattern is the answer for every single one of us.

The customs I observed and tasted abroad definitely had some similarities to U.S. food culture. One glaringly obvious difference however was portion size. Food was generally served in smaller portions, as well as beverages. However, when I was in Turkey, one man admitted to me that on average, he drank ten cups of black tea per day. I happened to have the same exact glass at home that everyone seemed to be using for tea in Istanbul so I measured it: four ounces (or 30 ml). So that is 40 ounces of black tea a day for that man. Is that more than you drink in coffee? I was offered tea in nearly every shop I stopped at, so I tasted many a tea and overall, it was not strong or very dark. So the caffeine content—who knows! But it certainly was a dominant traditiona all around the city of Istanbul.

So the question still burns: Are Americans’ food and beverage patterns really that different than those of Mediterranean patterns? If you want to know about sweets, one thing is for sure—ice cream and gelato were very popular in all four of the countries I visited. There was an impressive amount of shops that offered frozen treats, or for example, in Lithuania, single serve ice cream products were placed in large quantities in a chest freezer, right in front of the check out line in grocery stores (in case you forgot to get it in the freezer section?). My friend observed that the Lithuanian ice cream habit was as rampant as the American soda habit.

Each European country situated near the Mediterranean, that eats a substantial amount of salads, olive oil, bread, pork and sweets, vary in their longevity stats. I found this chart online that breaks it down:

Although five of the countries listed are non-European (the list is actually much longer if you click on the link), you can clearly see the trends. Ultimately, 15 out of 44 countries in Europe lead the top 20 chronically ill countries, globally (if you look at the next 20 countries following those, you’ll see that 12 of the those 20 are also European so, that’s 27 out of 44 that are the illest). Yet we are still proudly and perhaps recklessly concluding, that Mediterranean dietary lifestyles are superior to all else. Hmm…

As you reflect on the chart, I would like to add four things to consider: One, let’s call these the “bad” habits for sake of this conversation. Smoking rates are significantly higher in Europe and the Middle East than in the U.S. so we must factor that in to chronic disease numbers. Daily caffeine consumption, whether it’s coffee or tea, appeared to be a multiple times per day thing (like the U.S.) As for alcohol, I did notice there were people casually drinking beer in restaurants at 10 or 11am (this could have appeared more prominent due to the high tourist season). Two, I wholeheartedly admit that I thoroughly enjoyed my diverse set of “Mediterranean” meals during my travels and in general, I felt good after I ate. And three, personally, I ate many more sweets than normal because I wanted to try things I had never tried before (or I wanted to compare the differences to the American versions I was used to). It was never hard to find a sweet. And dessert was definitely a thing. Four, I did eat smaller portions overall, except for the lunch of lamb ribs I had in Istanbul where I quite literally cried while I ate them because the flavor was more or less, divine. And I ordered a second plate, because…of course I did! Additionally, I do not eat like the average American so to compare what I eat in the U.S. to what I ate abroad, is hard to do since I chose to prioritize eating a lot of salads and animal protein the way I do here. And overall, it wasn’t that different of a food lifestyle for those three weeks except for the addition of many more carbs. I didn’t eat McDonald’s or many french fries or even that much ice cream (which I noticed is often a daily indulgence in the places I visited). Did I gain weight? No. Did I lose weight? Maybe two pounds? How is my mental health? Well, vacation may be the perfect placebo for many of us…so yes, I feel great! And, important to mention—I am on hour 27 of a 36 hour fast, to help me reset after all of my Mediterranean food adventures. I chose to do this fast in order to get my sugary-carby palette wiped clean so-to-speak, as I definitely developed more of a taste for those things the more I ate them. And now I plan to get back into my home habits of cooking for myself and not eating out as much.

What turned me on to write this piece was a brief conversation I had with a Turkish man. He told me that they are the most obese country in all of Europe…and when I fact checked that, it seemed correct (hence, the chart above that I found). But, you may protest—”all the olives and olive oil! And the tomatoes and salads and fruit—they eat so much healthy stuff! And that show, Secrets of the Blue Zones!! The proof is in the pudding!” Well, I ate Turkish pudding, and it was loaded with sugar (one was chicken breast pudding called Tavukgöğsü and the other Asure). So why is Turkey so unhealthy on the charts of chronic illness if they are eating a Mediterranean diet? Is it the smoking? The drinking? All the baklava? I’m just not sure. But my guess is—yes, the carbs.

I could dive deeper into statistics but this blog piece is more about my observational data (which admittedly, is quite weak). The moral of my travel story may not be surprising to you: every culture and every dietary lifestyle has its nuances. Some may have more beneficial, metabolically ideal foods and others may not. The bottom line is this: you have to figure out what works for your body and your mind. I hope none of us fall into the trap of any dietary pattern or trend until you try it yourself and have the proof in your own proverbial pudding. As a recovering vegan (I will elaborate on that in another blog post), if you feel good, think good, sleep good, poop good and your blood panels are good, then you are onto something great! Keep eating what you’re eating!

The bottom line: if you struggle with optimizing your eating, remember to be gentle with yourself, wherever you may roam or dine. The world is a giant place and sometimes, “when in Rome” is just what you do. Since I love to travel, I do dare to try things that are out of my norm. And I also have an abundance of opportunity to consume those things without excessiveness. A taste for me, is often, good enough.

I’ll close this piece with one question for you: when you do indulge or venture into a food territory that challenges your “ideal” habits, what do you do to reset afterwards? And how do you know when it is time to reset? What sort of symptoms does your body tell you (or scream at you), when its had enough? And what is your mental body telling you? Are you feeling guilt? Shame? Dread? These signs are way more important than the title of your diet. So listen up! Your body is the one thing that you can’t escape, for now at least.