The Mediterranean Diet has been lauded as ‘the’ healthy diet, and chances are you may have been recommended it by your doctor or nutritionist if you have a chronic condition like high blood pressure or heart disease. It is a popular dietary suggestion for many chronic health problems such as heart disease, diabetes, depression and even dementia.

The Mediterranean Diet is a way of eating based on traditional eating patterns seen in areas of Crete, Greece and southern Italy which, during the middle of the twentieth century, showed better life expectancy and lower rates of chronic health conditions than other areas with the same levels of healthcare. In 1993, the World Health Organisation, along with some other organisations, brought in the Mediterranean Diet Pyramid to help people recognise the balance of food they might try eating to mimic the traditional diets seen in these areas of longevity. It included plenty of fruits and vegetables, nuts, pulses, legumes and wholegrains, fish and lots of olive oil and other healthy fats, drinking plenty of fresh water, with smaller amounts of dairy, red wine and low red meat. It also proposed that fresh air, socialising and regular movement should be part of the daily plan and way of life as well.

But apart from the association between those areas and their traditional diets and longer living, where is the evidence that the Mediterranean Diet is good for us? How can we be certain that these dietary changes are beneficial to us?

Research shows that the Mediterranean Diet (MD) may be effective in reducing the risk of heart diseases and overall mortality. A women’s health study found that those following the MD had 25% less chance of heart disease over the 12-year study, and surmised that changes in levels of inflammation, blood sugar and obesity levels may have contributed to this.

In terms of aging and cognitive benefits, research shows that a diet high in antioxidants, such as the MD with its emphasis on fruits and vegetables and whole foods, may be protective against age-related diseases. In fact, an American study on Nurses’ Health found that women following the MD were 46% more likely to age healthily.

Finally, research into the MD has helped to dispel the myth that fat is bad for you and that we need to eat a low-fat diet to be healthy. The MD positively encourages consumption of extra virgin olive oil, oily fish and nuts, and other sources of healthy fats. One study that looked at a large group of people with diabetes and other heart disease risk factors found that following the MD with added extra virgin olive oil or nuts reduced the rates of deaths from stroke by almost 30%. Check out my newsletter later this month for information on healthy fats and how to incorporate them into our diets.

Some things to bear in mind, however, when incorporating the MD into our lives. It’s still important to think about the balance of foods and how we put together our plates to ensure that we are getting everything we need – BANT’s Healthy Eating Puzzle is a great place to start here.

Plus, it’s the eating pattern, variety and lifestyle considerations that may support the health benefits of the MD. Just eating extra nuts or more olive oil won’t cut the mustard. We need to think of this as an overhaul of the way we live – food, movement, sleep and stress reduction – and that way we can really reap the rewards.

When I encourage clients to eat a variety of fruits and vegetables, I often ask them to “eat the rainbow". Most people know that they should be trying to eat fruits and vegetables, but why is it so important, what do the colours even mean, and does it truly benefit your health?
 

Put simply, eating the rainbow basically involves eating fruits and vegetables of different colours every day. This means not sticking to the same three or four veg that we usually have.

Plants contain different pigments which give them their individual colour.  Interestingly, these pigments are actually phytonutrients, which can be defined as chemicals produced by plants. However, the term is generally used to describe chemicals from plants that may be beneficial to health, but are not essential nutrients.  

From an evolutionary perspective, the noxious properties of such phytochemicals play an important role in dissuading insects and other pests from eating the plants. However, at the relatively tiny doses ingested by us as we eat the plant, the phytochemicals are not toxic and induce a mild cellular stress response. A stress response to a small toxic stress allows us to produce an anti-inflammatory response and so the body kicks into action.

Each different-coloured plant is linked to different phytonutrients, from which we in turn can derive different health benefits. See the list below which defines which benefits may be derived from which colours.

While increasing the amount of fruit and veg is always a good idea, focusing on eating a variety of colours will increase your intake of different nutrients, and consequently may help to improve your health.

While there are many purported benefits of phytonutrients, it’s difficult to perform scientific trials to prove how effective they are. Therefore, most research into phytonutrients has been based on the intakes at population-level and relative disease risk, therefore eating well and widely is not a replacement for healthcare for specific ailments. However, almost all research has shown benefits from regularly eating colourful fruits and vegetableswith virtually no downsides at all. So pop those veggies on your plate.

By getting a variety of colour in your diet, you’re not only giving your body an array of vitamins and minerals, but different phytochemicals to boot which may benefit your health.

Rainbow Breakfast Smoothie

Following on from the newsletter this week, here’s a great way to incorporate rainbow foods into your day.

Ingredients

1 cup mixed frozen berries – raspberries, blueberries, blackberries, blackcurrants - Red Blue Purple

Couple handfuls of spinach - Green

1 satsuma, peeled - Orange 

1 inch ginger root, peeled and grated - Yellow 

200ml almond milk - White 

1 tbsp ground flaxseed - Tan / Brown

1 tbsp chia seeds - Black

200ml filtered water (and more, if thinner consistency desired

Method

Put all of the ingredients in a high-speed blender and blitz until thick and smooth.

Pour into two glasses and add extra water until it’s the consistency you desire. Serve and enjoy!

"Men are rather reasoning than reasonable animals for the most part governed by the impulse of passion"

- Alexander Hamilton, 1802

It's January. Everywhere you go you'll see images and messages about change. Changes in diets. Changes in exercise patterns. New challenges to try - dry January, Veganuary, walking challenges, drawing challenges. It's a great time of year to start working on these new things - a time to re-assess our lives and see what we'd like to tweak. But how can we make these changes stick? How do we know we're not going to be popping those new watercolour paints into the bottom drawer with last year's hobby?

To begin with we often try to rely on willpower. Willpower can be defined as the ability to delay gratification, resisting short-term temptations in order to meet long-term goals, or what could otherwise be called resolve. Secondly, it can be defined as the capacity to override an unwanted thought, feeling, or impulse, or what could be termed suppression. For example, when you find yourself heading towards that leftover box of Christmas chocolates, you resolve not to eat it so you can have the reward of not gaining weight, and you also suppress the urge to eat them all because they are delicious.

This combination of resolve and urge suppression requires a great deal of self-control. However, research shows us that when we use willpower to resist temptation, this can leave us with less self-control to tackle other challenges. In a recent report, the American Psychological Association stated "A growing body of research shows that resisting repeated temptations takes a mental toll. Some experts liken willpower to a muscle that can get fatigued from overuse". So by resisting eating those chocolates, you may find yourself reaching for a burger later on, rather than the salad that you had planned to have.  In a world where we have so many distractions competing for our attention - social media, one-click shopping, online streaming - the ability to resist tempation may get sapped quite early on.  And additionally, it may have a knock-on effect on our ability to control our emotions, behaviours, or thoughts.

However, this doesn't mean we should give up! What can help us to ensure we keep going with that early morning yoga practice?  Recent research has shown us that building habits may help maintain an activity indefinitely. A habit may be defined as responses that develop over time when people do the same thing in the same context. Habit building can be encouraged by including some or all of the following:

• Creat a behaviour chain or trigger - for example, if I regularly leave my yoga mat next to my bed along with my yoga clothes, when that alarm bell goes at 7am I'm ready to get dressed and get going, without the thought of having to coerce myself into doing it.
• Narrow down your options - this stops willpower being involved too much! And allows you to focus on what you really want to change.
• Make it daily - and mark that time out on your calendar. Consistency is key in laying down new habits. 
• Keep going for 66 days - research shows that's the magic number to make it stick! 
• Start simple - don't try and change everything at once. Rather than throwing everything out on day 1, make a plan to simplify and make small changes each week. If it's a new way of eating you're after, start with your breakfasts - build this habit. Then move on to lunch, and so on. This way it will really stick.

So maybe if you're looking to tweak how you eat, exercise, or live your life, rather than relying on willpower and self-control to keep it going, have a look at how you can build it into a habit. Then it may last a lifetime.

Photo by Drew Beamer on Unsplash

References:

Ainslie G (2020) Willpower Without Effort Behavioural and Brain Sciences 1-81 DOI: 10.1017/S0140525X20000357

American Psychological Association (2021) What You Need to Know About Willpower: The Psychological Science of Self-Control last accessed online 08.01.2021 at https://www.apa.org/topics/willpower

Duckworth AL Milkman KL Laibson D (2018) Beyond Willpower: Strategies for Reducing Failures of Self Control Association for Psychological Sciences 19 (3) 102-129

Neal DT Wood W Drolet A (2013) How Do People Adhere to Goals When Willpower is Low? The Profits (and Pitfalls) of Strong Habits American Psychological Association 104 (6) 959-975

So, how do you get started with mindful eating? Well, here are my six top tips for incorporating mindful eating into your daily life:

1. Have a list - by preparing in advance what we need, this will help stop any impulse purchases at the shop. We know what we need and what we are looking for, so armed with our shopping list we can stick to this. Being aware of the food choices we are making and what we are bringing home is an excellent start to the process. This also ensures that what we reach for at home is what we want to eat.

2. Avoid extreme hunger - It's good to be hungry when sitting down to eat a meal, but not so much so that we're compelled to make the wrong choices as we're in a massive hurry and feeling famished. Being ravenously hungry and going past the point of when we should have eaten may make us panic and reach for foods that we wouldn't normally go for purely out of convenience.

3. Make a conscious decision to eat - by planning our meals in advance this allows us to know when we are eating and what we will be eating. This helps us avoid the pitfall of ravenous hunger, but also helps us avoid absent-mindedly picking as we don't know what to eat. Particularly at this time of year, you might like to indulge in festive treats, by making a conscious decision to do so, this will allow you to determine how much and what you have.

4. Take time to appreciate your food - start with a small pause to smell and admire the food are eating. Hey, you or someone else has gone to some effort to provide this for you! The digestive process starts in the brain, so taking some time to smell, see and acknowledge your meal can also help improve digestion, as well as allowing you to enjoy the process.

5. Take your time over eating your food - I grew up in a house where it was always a race to see who could finish dinner first and get down from the table. This is not what we should be doing! By eating more slowly and chewing thoroughly we help get the digestive processes working effectively, but we also allow the brain to sense when our bodies are full. And you get a chance to savour the foods as you eat them.

6. Eat without distractions - turn off the telly, shut the laptop, sit down at the table. By eating with no external distractions, we can turn our full attention to what we are eating - which, in turn, allows us to be more in tune with our bodies, appetites and sense of fullness. 
 

As well as providing nutrients and energy, food should be a source of fun and enjoyment. And this is particularly true as we approach the festive season. Sharing food with our families is such an integral part of this time of year and we should take the time to enjoy it guilt-free.

By following these six simple steps hopefully we can taken some of the absent-minded eating away, leaving us with the foods we have consciously chosen, eaten in a way that enables us to enjoy them, and thereby we can thoroughly appreciate our celebrations.

Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash

This is a real family favourite, and one we come back to time and again. It's largely made from store cupboard items and common veg that I usually have in the fridge.  This is also a good recipe to make if you have veggie or vegan friends popping over, or to add in to your repertoire if you are thinking of trying out Veganuary.

Do have a look at my article 'Six Simple Steps for a Health Veganuary' if you are thinking of taking part next month.

You can adjust the spice level to whatever you prefer. My kids are just venturing in to more spicy foods, so we've moved to adding cayenne pepper.  But you can adjust as you see fit or leave it out entirely if you're not keen on hot foods - the cumin and paprika give it a lovely flavour.

Serves 4

2 onions, finely chopped

1 tbsp olive oil

2 cloves garlic, crushed

1 stick celery, finely chopped

3 carrots, chopped

1 large courgette, chopped

2 tsp ground cumin

1 tbsp sweet smoked paprika

1 tsp chilli powder, whichever heat you prefer

2 tins chopped tomatoes

1 tin kidney beans, drained

1 tin black beans, drained

1 tin aduki beans, drained 

1 tbsp tomato puree

Seasoning to taste

• Heat the oil gently in a large heavy based pan. Add the onions and sauté until soft.

• Add the chopped carrots, courgette and celery. Stir to combine and cook gently.

• Add the dried spices and crushed garlic, stir to combine well and heat until fragrant.

• Add the chopped tomatoes and stir to combine. Add the drained beans and tomato puree, mix well.

• Add seasoning to taste and let it simmer gently for 25-30 minutes. Keep stirring regularly so it doesn’t stick at the base.

• Serve with wholegrain rice or quinoa.