Mediterranean Style Eating for Heart Health

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Julia Zumpano, RD, LD:

Hello, my name is Julia Zumpano. I'm a registered dietitian with the Department of Preventive Cardiology at Cleveland Clinic. My patients commonly ask me, What is the Mediterranean Diet? Well, it's the diet that I most prescribe for heart health. The diet consists of a style of eating that's associated with areas around the Mediterranean. The style of eating has been linked to lower levels of heart disease and has been shown to help decrease inflammation. It is ideal for heart health because of these reasons; not to mention, it's also naturally low in saturated fat, high in good fats called mono and polyunsaturated fats, and very high in fiber. It also includes a variety of different foods, including plant-based foods and animal foods. It's a nice combination of both, so you don't feel like you have to be deprived of any specific food group. The foundation, though, is focused on plant-based foods such as whole grains, fruits, vegetables, beans, nuts, seeds, and extra virgin olive oil.

Protein ideally comes mainly from fish. Fish that's high in omega-three, but also poultry, lean, skinless, boneless poultry, and a small amount of very lean red meats such as beef or pork. Dairy is also included on the Mediterranean Diet, but in moderation, specifically, limiting cheese. Cheese can be included, just not in high amounts every day. Other forms of dairy, such as Greek yogurt or cottage cheese, are also encouraged on a regular basis. It is not a very strict diet. You can certainly include some of your favorite foods. There's a lot of flexibility, but the foundation should be the foods that I had mentioned.

Now, there are ways that you can combine the Mediterranean Diet with the DASH diet, which is Dietary Approach to Stop Hypertension. This diet was designed to help with high blood pressure and is a low-sodium, whole foods, heavy plant-based diet as well. They're quite similar. The biggest difference is that the Mediterranean diet really encourages fish as a foundational source of protein, and the Mediterranean diet encourages more dairy, and they encourage more grains and slightly a little less fat, so slight modifications, but in general, the foods that are recommended are very similar.

Now, the Mediterranean Diet can aid in weight loss specifically if you are really focused on increasing those plant-based foods, primarily vegetables, fruits, grains and beans, limiting refined carbohydrates, limiting any added sugars, any sweets or desserts, and really limiting any other types of added oils or condiments other than extra virgin olive oil. Now, the Mediterranean Diet can seem overwhelming at first, but, really, it's basically a style of eating and can have a lot of varieties to it. So a great way to get started is just by looking at how often you're eating fruits and vegetables and just start there. Making sure you're getting at least a serving of a fruit or vegetable a day. If not, every meal or snack would be ideal. There's a lot of great resources on the Cleveland Clinic website that provides, of course, information on the Mediterranean Diet, but more importantly, recipes.

We also launched a new Cleveland Clinic diet app, and that's another great way to stay on track. It really has a great way to log your foods that you're eating. We have a HeartSmart program on the Cleveland Clinic diet app that is very Mediterranean-style driven, and it will help you meet all your health goals specific to heart health and provides great content, great recipes, and even some great videos that you can check out and really help you along your way on starting off the Mediterranean Diet.

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