I Drastically Changed my Mind on the Mediterranean Diet after Living in Europe for a Month

I'm Greek and I've asked my grandparents and older relatives about this. This is what they say: There is the Mediterranean diet of today and the Mediterranean diet of the past. The people back then ate a much more frugal diet, mainly due to poverty. They might have raised a pig and lambs, but 6 people ate from that one small pig from Christmas till February. And the lambs were either sold or eaten in big religious festivals (2-3 times a year at most). They did eat lots of eggs, cheese and yogurt though, that part is accurate. Greek orthodox fasting (which is basically vegan eating with a few pescatarian days) was supposed to be followed for about half the year. Obviously some people did not fast but fasting was the cultural norm. Also, all old people lived through the 1940s and endured severe famine during the German occupation and later the civil war. Meat became an affordable staple for most people only after the mid 60s. So much of research takes an ahistorical view of their eating patterns or entirely ignores cultural or religious practices. Today's eating patterns have become very westernised and it's been affecting longevity for some time now.

Lots of walking, socializing and low stress has the most impact on longevity

I'm a southern european. I gained 4 kg when I stayed in the USA for a month.

The fastest killer is stress, and the secret to our Mediterranean longevity is not to stress about things, we really enjoy good food, take time with it, socialize with good food. We love our cured meet, olive oil,... Nothing better than a rustic baguette just dunked in olive oil on a plate with San Marciano tomatoes that ripened in the summer, the best ones are from Mount Vesuvius, the volcanic soil is awesome,.. I think the biggest life extending thing is enjoying life and don't stress yourself :)

I live in Greece and I grew it up in an island with people living to their 90s and more. We eat meat once or twice a month only on special days. Once per week we had fish and the other days beans, cheakpeas, lentils etc. We had raw goat milk yoghurt and sour milk almost every day. Also eggs and a tone of olive oil. Our bread was fermented with local wheat and our “pasta” was handmade with eggs and goat milk. When I was 9 I remember the first fancy products (margarine , cookies etc). Today’s Mediterranean diet is not the diet that gave people longevity … Old people never had vegetable oils and they ate a lot of plants, plant and dairy protein and good fat. Our fruits were only seasonal , small sized and not very sweet. We also had a lot of tea from local aromatic plants and coffee quite often. Sweets were handmade with sugar but they always had fat and protein (nuts, butter). I remember as a kid eating olives , raw milk , tea and my grandma’s bread for breakfast 😊

As an Italian who lives in Sicily (which is a region of Italy) I can definitely say that from north to south there are huge difference like: north tend to eat dinner earlier like 6 to 8 pm, in south we dinner from 8 to even 10 pm. Food is also different, south is more carb dominant like pasta and bread, where North is more rice and meats. South Italy has bigger portions than north. We also in south tend to eat more fried typical things, which many of then are healthy where north is more balanced, infact you can see the different BMI of population, where south people tend to be more obese to morbidly obese than north. So it changes a lot. Also, in South especially Sicily we have way more lands and farms with very good dirt quality, which helps us prodoce amazing quality fruits and vegetables. We ship them to the rest of Italy.

Dude I'm Finnish lived in Spain as a kid and I'm here right now.. I see people don't necessarily eat for more than twice a day but before all they have fun eating - it's as if everyday was supposed to be a small feast. I think that joyful attitude towards living might reflect in their health here besides eating lots of olives, olive oil, vinegar.. seafood and also red wine in moderation and almonds.. lots of very fresh fruit available. Besides that quite a lot of sugar too in desserts... They're delicious by the way. But people are active moving and walking a lot and they for sure get their vitamin D from the sun. For some reason being here makes me think enjoying life will make you healthier.. people are having fun living their lives.. everyone's socially active and the communities are very tight.. people treat others like family and friendliness is a way of life. I'm enjoying it a lot.. I hope it's healthy too!! 🙂

My theory for a long time has been that America's primary problem with our diet is not just how much processed food we eat, but all the ingredients and pesticides only America allows in our food products.

My “whole food” meal plan is FREE. Teaches how to eat for fat loss, muscle building and longevity. http://www.thomasdelauer.com/eatrealfood - consider it my “thank you” for subscribing to my channel and newsletter!

I was raised on a mediterranean diet in a spanish/french family from North Africa and Southern France. One point that everybody misses is that it was very seasonal. My mon will not buy food if it was not of the season. The only fruit we had in the winter were oranges for example. Some treats were dedicated to only one day of the year like crepes on Chandeleur (Frebruary 2nd) or Mouna brioche on Easter day. Capon chicken for Christmas day. Fish on Friday. Meat mostly on the weekend. Lots of tomato salads with olives in the summer. So our diet could be very different from one season to the next.