“Mealstake centrestage around conversation with family and friends”
There is always a lot of talk about whether fat or sugar is the worst offender when it comes to our eating habits, but by focusing on individual dietary components, it’s easy to miss the bigger picture. While it’s important to understand how different foods and nutrients affect our health, a whole diet approach offers a much more helpful way of assessing the choices we make about what we eat.
With this in mind, few whole diet approaches have won as much acclaim as the Mediterranean diet (or ‘MedDiet’). Victoria Taylor, senior dietitian at the British Heart Foundation, and registered nutritionist Kerry Torrens review the evidence.
What exactly is a Mediterranean diet?
The MedDiet encourages an eating pattern that includes staples from the countries around the Mediterranean, such as Spain, Greece, Italy and France. The diet is primarily plant-based with contributions from animal-based products being largely fish and poultry with a limited quantity of dairy products.
