What Is the “Mediterranean Diet” (and What Research Really Says About It)
The Mediterranean Diet is back on that stupid “best diets” list , which always makes me wonder: Has anyone ever “done” the Mediterranean Diet? Like, something that you can take on and see through? There is no easy app to track this, and no easy-to-read book that gives simplified rules for saying yes or no to a particular dish.
For that matter, do any of us know what the Mediterranean diet actually consists of? Of course there is olive oil and fish. But what then? “My understanding is based almost entirely on the stock images for these articles,” said a Lifehacker employee who will remain nameless, but he was saying what we were all thinking.
So let’s dive in. First, I’ll tell you how to follow the Mediterranean diet – which is probably what you came here for. But then I’d like to discuss some important caveats regarding this diet’s status as the “best” or science-based diet.
What to eat every day to follow the Mediterranean diet
However, the Mediterranean diet seems like a great way to eat. If you want to try it, do it. The vagueness of the diet description is both a plus and a minus. The good news is that no food groups are excluded and nothing is officially banned. Unfortunately, without strict rules and definitions, it’s difficult to know exactly what to eat next if you want to stay on your diet.
The score chart above is not the only way to evaluate the Mediterranean diet, but it is as good a starting point as any other. This is what the daily diet would look like:
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Vegetables : It’s still difficult to measure out 250 grams of vegetables in different sizes and shapes, but the familiar American recommendation of 3 cups of vegetables will help point you in the right direction.
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Fruits and nuts . Two pieces of fresh fruit, such as an apple and an orange, will easily reach the 300 gram goal. Substitute other fruits as you see fit, and try to eat a handful of nuts somewhere in the day—maybe as a topping on a salad or other dish, or maybe just a handful on their own.
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Legumes : 140 grams per week is just 20 grams per day on average. One can of chickpeas or black beans will satisfy this need for a week.
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Grains : The daily requirement of 195 grams can be met with a cup of cooked brown rice. If you think of it as two 100-gram servings, you could eat one meal with a half cup of rice or farro and another with a 2-ounce serving of pasta. According to the scorecard, more is good, but you definitely need to leave room for everything else.
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Fish : 250 grams per week means a quarter pound portion twice a week, but this is the minimum. You can have more.
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Meat : On average, 80 grams per day is just under three ounces (the famous “palm-sized” or “deck of cards” portion). This is the size of a quarter pound patty or half a chicken breast. Unlike fish, this implies a maximum, so you can have a fast day every week to reduce your daily average.
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Dairy : 180 grams is about six ounces. Thus, a five to six ounce container of yogurt will be sufficient for the day. Or add feta or mozzarella to your meal.
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Alcohol : The recommended amount is one to two drinks per day. A glass of wine with dinner would be recommended.
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Olive oil can be used as needed for cooking.
Put it all together and a day’s meals might include a breakfast of yogurt and fruit; lunch salad with fish and vegetables; and dinner with meat, rice and vegetables; and some hummus and whole grain bread for snacks.
For recipe inspiration, Oldways (an organization that promotes traditional eating patterns, including but not limited to the Mediterranean diet) has a recipe database here that you can filter by diet. OliveTomato has a printable shopping list (outlining typical “Mediterranean” foods you might want to stock up on) and a sample 5-day meal plan. There is also a Mediterranean Diet subreddit where people post meal ideas and recipes.
What you need to know about the research that inspired the Mediterranean diet
First, a little background on where the definition of the Mediterranean diet comes from. Scientists used the term to describe the typical diet of people in some Mediterranean communities and then expanded the definition to include similar diets in other places. But it’s important to know that many studies on the effects of the Mediterranean diet on diabetes, cancer, heart disease, dementia and other health conditions are observational .
In other words, when you see a headline about the Mediterranean diet, it’s not necessarily related to a study in which one group of people followed a Mediterranean diet and another group followed a different diet (although such studies do exist). Most often, studies ask people (sometimes living in the Mediterranean region, sometimes not) about what they usually eat. Their answers are used to calculate points (for example, 2 points if you eat more than 250 grams of vegetables on average per day), and people with the highest scores are compared to people with the lowest scores.
Where do these estimates come from? Here is an article describing one of the common systems. The figures were determined by analyzing dozens of studies, each with their own definitions of diet, that looked at people in different regions – some in the Mediterranean, others in other parts of Europe, and sometimes on other continents.
You can view the evaluation criteria here . Some goals are for the week and others are for the day, so read carefully. You receive two points for each of the following:
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At least 250 grams (about half a pound) of vegetables per day (1 point per 100-250)
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At least 300 grams of fruits and nuts per day (1 point for 150-300)
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At least 140 grams of legumes (beans and lentils) per week (1 point for 70-140)
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At least 195 grams of cereals (i.e. cereal) per day (1 point for 130-195)
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At least 250 grams of fish per week (1 point for 100-250)
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Less than 80 grams of meat per day (1 point for 81-120)
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Less than 180 grams of dairy products (1 point for 181-270)
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Alcohol between 12 and 24 grams per day, which is about 1 to 2 standard drinks (1 point if you weigh less than 12 grams, no points if you’re over 24).
You also get one extra point if you cook with olive oil.
As you can see, using this system to measure your diet is not entirely straightforward. Cheese and skim milk are both dairy products, but their weights vary. The same goes for fruits and nuts: are we talking about a fresh apple or a bag of pistachios? You’ll also have to convert units of measurement if you’re not used to grams: 250 grams of fish is half a pound, easy to ask for at the fish counter, but 250 grams of vegetables can look very different depending on what kind of vegetable it is. For example, this could be two and a half cups of broccoli or one large onion.
With alcohol it’s a little simpler: the standard dose is 12 grams, that is, about one or two servings per day, depending on the alcohol content. A 12-ounce beer at 5% ABV contains 14 grams of alcohol.
I think all of these calculations are a fun counterpoint to US News’ description of the diet as a set of “general recommendations.” In previous years, they wrote that “not counting carbs, points, or calories” is a plus of the Mediterranean diet. You’ll have to count a hell of a lot of things to figure out if you’re even following the Mediterranean diet. I think what they’re trying to say is that you can adopt general guidelines like “more vegetables” and “less meat” to make your diet more Mediterranean. But this is so vague that it’s difficult to call it a diet at all.
A few more caveats
Before you douse your first fish fillet in olive oil, you should know that a group of epidemiologists wrote in 2019 that while observational studies seem to make a good case for the Mediterranean diet, the trial evidence comes from studies of people following the diet. , which has not been followed before, is only “promising (though not convincing)” when it comes to reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease.
It is also important to remember that the scientific understanding of the Mediterranean diet is based on foods that are considered traditional in Greece, Italy and neighboring regions. Foods are included or not included depending on how typical they are considered to be for this traditional diet.
This means that when people say the Mediterranean diet is scientifically based, they are talking about studies done on people who generally follow it. This doesn’t mean that scientists created it from scratch, identifying olive oil because they thought it was healthier than other oils, or determined that more than 250 grams of vegetables was the ideal amount of vegetables for any specific reason.