The Mediterranean Diet In My Experience!

Read with great interest recently that the amazing Meditteranean Diet is now been credited with helping combat depression. So now this wonder diet not only protects you from cancer and heart disease, it also makes you a happier person as well.

Well I can’t argue that as a general rule the Spainiards are a happy noisy fun loving bunch, but I think I would argue with the articles features of the Mediterranean Diet which they claim:

1. contains a high intake of monounsaturated fatty acides like olive oil.
2. a moderate intake of alcohol and dairy products
3. a low intake of meat
4. a high intake of legumes, fruit and nuts, cereals, vegetables and fish.

Can’t argue with points 1 and 4, although I had no idea what a legume was (see below) and I know many would argue that the Spaniards don’t really eat as much vegetables as you would have thought. Many English people ether living the expat life in Spain or enjoying a holiday in places like Almerimar often complain that a meal out in Spain doesn’t involve as many vegetables as a meal in the UK.

I really can’t agree with points 2 and 3 at all though!!! The Spaniards drink a LOT. Don’t get me wrong, they are not the binge drinkers that we see back in the UK, but they drink like cows i.e. they graze their way through the day with a steady intake of beer, wines and especially spirits later at night. I could not in all honesty say that the Spanish that I know and have known or seen out and about, drink moderately at all. They drink with style, control and discipline, but they do like a good drink for sure.

As for dairy products, this country loves it’s cheeses, amd although you get a lot of goats cheese, you get a lot of dairy cheese as well, I mean a plate of queso y jamon is a traditional Spanish starter in basically every restaurant in Spain. The queso y atún tostada a staple breakfast for thousands every day ….

And then there is the meat!!! Try getting a vegetarian meal in Spain!!!! They eat more parts of an animal than I would care to mention, and I have tried a few parts I would never have thought I would. After a salad, and a few starters a Spaniard loves a plate of meat – lamb, pork, steak, rabbit you name it. I really don’t agree that they have a low intake of meat at all.

Legume

A ‘legume’ fruit is a simple dry fruit that develops from a simple carpel and usually dehisces (opens along a seam) on two sides. A common name for this type of fruit is a pod, although “pod” is also applied to a few other fruit types, such as vanilla. Well-known legumes include alfalfa, clover, peas, beans, lentils, lupins, mesquite, carob, soy, and peanuts.

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