{"id":1311725,"date":"2019-06-23T21:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-06-24T03:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/doctors-tip-what-about-the-mediterranean-diet\/"},"modified":"2019-06-23T21:00:00","modified_gmt":"2019-06-24T03:00:00","slug":"doctors-tip-what-about-the-mediterranean-diet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/local-news\/doctors-tip-what-about-the-mediterranean-diet\/","title":{"rendered":"Doctor\u2019s Tip: What about the Mediterranean diet?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The subject of this column two weeks ago was the evidence that supports a plant-based, unprocessed food diet with no salt, sugar or added oil as being the healthiest. Last week\u2019s column was about how best to transition to this diet. But what about the Mediterranean diet, which is touted by several experts as being the diet we should be eating?<\/p>\n

The S.A.D. (standard American diet) contributes to most of the chronic diseases we suffer and die from: obesity, hypertension, high cholesterol, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, dementia, inflammatory and autoimmune diseases, osteoporosis, and many types of cancer. Dr. Fuhrman, author of several books including \u201cEat to Live,\u201d jokingly says that the S.A.D. was designed by ISIS (in reality it was designed by the food industry to hook people on salt, sugar, fat and refined foods and thereby increase their profits).<\/p>\n

There are many countries that border the Mediterranean Sea \u2014 from Spain, Greece and southern Italy to Lebanon and Morocco \u2014 and therefore many Mediterranean diets. As we export the S.A.D., the diets in Mediterranean countries are becoming less healthy. However, the term \u201cMediterranean Diet\u201d usually refers to diets that have the following characteristics:<\/p>\n

\u2022 High in fruits, vegetables, bread and cereals, potatoes, legumes (beans, lentils, chickpeas), nuts and seeds<\/p>\n

\u2022 Olive and canola oil<\/p>\n

\u2022 Low to moderate amounts of dairy products, poultry, and fish, with minimal red meat (beef, pork and lamb)<\/p>\n

\u2022 One to four eggs a week<\/p>\n

\u2022 Wine consumed in low to moderate amounts<\/p>\n

There have been studies that show that the Mediterranean diet can modestly reduce the risk of strokes and possibly heart attacks, diabetes, cancer and dementia. However, some of these studies were not good studies, and the results were debatable. In his new book \u201cUnDo It!, How Simple Lifestyle Changes Can Reverse Most Chronic Diseases,\u201d Dr. Dean Ornish \u2014 the first person to show that heart disease can be reversed with a plant-based, unprocessed food diet with no salt, sugar or added oil \u2014 concludes that \u201ca Mediterranean diet is better than what most people are consuming, but doesn\u2019t go far enough to reverse heart disease.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dr. Ornish founded the non-profit Preventive Medicine Research Institute, where he and his colleagues have shown that lifestyle modification (diet, exercise, stress reduction) can turn genes on and off \u2014 so you\u2019re not necessarily a victim of your genes. They have proven that lifestyle changes can reverse heart disease, diabetes, early prostate cancer, hypertension, elevated cholesterol, arthritis, and telomere shortening (i.e. cell aging). In 2007 Dr. Ornish published \u201cThe Spectrum,\u201d a book that explains a spectrum of diets that people could eat, depending on their situation. If, for example, a person has heart disease or diabetes or obesity \u2014 or a family history of these maladies or other ones like cancer or Alzheimer\u2019s \u2014 they should go all the way towards the plant-based, whole food, oil\/sugar\/salt-free end of the spectrum. If they are in perfect health and everyone in their family lived into their 90s with good quality of life, maybe a \u201cmoderation diet\u201d like the Mediterranean diet would be fine.<\/p>\n

In \u201cUndo,\u201d though, Dr. Ornish encourages everyone to go all the way, because then they will feel better due primarily to a plant-based diet being anti-inflammatory. And he points out that feeling better is a better long-term motivator than fear. He says, \u201cWhen you make really big changes in your diet and lifestyle, you are likely to feel so much better (usually within days) that it reframes the reason for making these changes from fear of dying (which is not sustainable) to joy in living (which is).\u201d<\/p>\n

Why, then, don\u2019t all health experts recommend a plant-based diet instead of the less healthy Mediterranean diet? This goes back to the paternalism that frequently occurs in the medical field. The experts on the panels that make these decisions feel that most patients won\u2019t stick to a plant-based diet (which of course they won\u2019t if their doctors have this attitude), so instead they recommend a \u201cmoderation diet\u201d like the Mediterranean. This is wrong in the opinion of many of us \u2014 the public needs to be told the truth, and then let them make up their own minds.<\/p>\n

Retired physician Greg Feinsinger, M.D., is author of new book \u201cEnjoy Optimal Health, 98 Health Tips From a Family Doctor,\u201d available on Amazon and in local bookstores. Profits go towards an endowment to the University of Colorado School of Medicine to add prevention and nutrition to the curriculum. He is available for free consultations about heart attack prevention, diabetes reversal, nutrition, and other health issues. Call 379-5718 for an appointment. For questions about his column, email gfeinsinger@comcast.net<\/a>.<\/p>\n

via:: Post Independent<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The subject of this column two weeks ago was the evidence that supports a plant-based, unprocessed food diet with no salt, sugar or added oil as being the healthiest. Last week\u2019s column was about how best to transition to this diet. But what about the Mediterranean diet, which is touted by several experts as being […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[160],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1311725","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-19 13:26:24","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSKE Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1311725","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1311725"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1311725\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1311725"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1311725"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1311725"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}