My take on this is that you are what you eat.
I am surprized that no one really mentioned most important food component - the
number of ingredients and their quality. The folks around the
Mediteranian are considered healthy eaters, because they consume food
from large variety of sources. For example, even the simplest dish
consists of minimum of four vegetables.
Cooking takes a little longer and cooking methods that preserve the properties
of the ingredients are preferred. I always cringe at the sight of a sizzling
pan if you know what I mean.
Ingredients found in the grocery store are designed for shelf life and not for
human consumption. They do taste slightly better and have a tad more
nutritional value than the plastic wrap or cardboard they come in. I
love tomatoes, but this is the vegetable that has suffered the most of
the indignities of capitalism. Needles to say, they all do look picture
perfect, neatly stacked on the shelves.
Another angle on the nutritional value of the ingredients found in the Western
countries is their total sterility. Modern methods of food processing
seem to have completely bypassed the healthy bacteria that we need and depend
on. Yogurt, one of the "foods from the gods" in my book is a prime example. I
take that back, plain Dannon is good stuff, although some argue if it should be
called yogurt. Actually, yogurt is a bad example as despite of modern
technology, it is a still somewhat bacteria-involved process.
Speaking of cultural differences, alcohol (I hate this word, I mean the usage
of it) is used as a method to get intoxicated. Not so in the countries
around the Mediteranian Sea where it is mostly consumed in limited
quantities with food. At most meals. Moderate wine drinkers are much
better off than tea totalers. Modern methods of winemaking have done to
wine what modern agriculture developments have do the tomato. Four
biggest offenders are California, Spain, Chile and South Africa. I am
yet to drink decent wine from these countries. I dislike their products
for two reasons: taste is sterile and also the western market demands
high alchohol, thick syrupy concoctions that smell like anything but
grape and only reason to drink is really to get drunk.
Dont let me get started on nuts and their efficient methods of drying...
No matter where you are from, if you come to US you will gain weight, even if
you follow the same diet that you previously had abroad, because of
the lack of nutritional value of ingredients.
On he other hand, I am a 47 year old male, completely healthy, but feel that my
lifestyle has become more sedentary (I think I am a
closet workaholic, but would never admit it out loud). I got a different
approach to getting more exercise: Told my wife that despite the tight
budget, my health is more important and I am going to build during the
following couple of weekends my own parallel bars and a separate bar in
order to start doing gymnastics in addition to the running, biking and
rollerblading I already do. For the past fifteen years there was always
something more important to spend money on, but now I feel that due to
my age, it would be pointless if I get these things later. I
extensively used such equipment up until early thirties and enjoy this
type of exercise, as opposed to weight training. I have the drawings
already, just waiting for my next paycheck as it would cost me about
$500. The plan is to see how far I can get back into this at my age and
if everything goes well, to add rings and a mushroom. If you dont hear me
bragging about it, you know what happened - I got too old for this stuff...:)
Best
Boris
On Jul 28, 2013, at 4:29 AM, Chuck Norcutt wrote: >So culture, life styles and
siestas play no part? > >Chuck Norcutt > > >On 7/27/2013 4:58 PM, Nathan
Wajsman wrote: >> The European countries around the Mediterranean--Italy,
Greece, >> Spain--tend to have a lower incidence of obesity, heart disease, and
>> other lifestyle diseases than the northern countries. They also have >> good
life expectancy statistics, especially considering that the >> average income
per capita is much lower (30% or so) here than in >> Scandinavia or the US.
Since people here smoke at least as much as >> people in the north, and
exercise less, the only remaining variable >> is the food they eat. This is not
a "beyond reasonable doubt" kind of >> thing--you will never get that when
dealing with complex phenomena >> like this. But surely common sense has a part
to play too. >> >> Cheers, Nathan >> >> On 27 Jul 2013, at 20:22, Chuck
Norcutt wrote: >> >>> So you've defined the
Spanish Mediterranean diet. What about the >>> French, Italian, Croatian,
Albanian, Greek and Turkish, etc. >>> versions? And how is it that there is *no
doubt* which is >>> healthier? Can you remove all doubt about removing the
confounding >>> variables that plague all dietary research? >>> >>> ps: I
happen to agree that whatever a Mediterranean diet is it's >>> *likely* more
healthy than a full English breakfast. On the other >>> hand I'm very far from
agreeing that there's *no doubt* about it. >>> >>> Chuck Norcutt >>> >>> >>>
On 7/27/2013 1:45 PM, Nathan Wajsman wrote: >>>> It is easy enough to define it
when you live here. Compared to >>>> Northern Europe (and the US), the diet
here in Spain contains >>>> much more seafood, more vegetables and less red
meat. A >>>> traditional breakfast food, for example, is a toasted baguette
>>>> with ground-up chunky tomato and some salt and pepper and a bit >>>> of
olive oil to taste. I very much enjoy
my full English >>>> breakfasts when I am in the UK, but there is no doubt
which is >>>> the healthier diet. >>>> >>>> Cheers, Nathan >>>> >>>> Nathan
Wajsman Alicante, Spain http://www.frozenlight.eu >>>> http://www.greatpix.eu
PICTURE OF THE WEEK: >>>> http://www.fotocycle.dk/paws Blog: >>>>
http://nathansmusings.wordpress.com/ >>>> >>>> YNWA >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>>
>>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> On Jul 27, 2013, at 4:31 PM, Chuck Norcutt
wrote: >>>> >>>>> I don't have any objections to a Mediterranean diet but I
have >>>>> never recommended it since I don't believe it can be well >>>>>
defined. >>>> >>> -- >>>
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