The Mediterranean Paleo diet is a diverse and nourishing way to eat that promotes longstanding heart, brain, and anti-inflammatory benefits. It supplies a variety of fruits and vegetables; lean proteins and fish; and plant-based fats, nuts, and seeds. This long-term lifestyle combines two popular approaches into one plan that can be tailored to your personal needs and goals.
Eating the Mediterranean Paleo Way
The Mediterranean Paleo diet seamlessly merges the overlapping foods of both plans into one inarguably beneficial approach to eating. The excessive red meat and saturated animal fats of the Paleo diet that can cause long-term heart problems are eliminated, along with the grains and legumes that can cause inflammation on the Mediterranean diet. The primary components then shift to focus on the foods proven to promote long-term benefits—fruits, vegetables, fish, lean proteins, and healthy fats.
High-quality foods are key to this diet approach, so you’re encouraged to eat fresh, local, seasonal, chemical-free foods whenever possible. This means looking for quality pasture-raised meats and eggs without additives, antibiotics, or preservatives, and avoiding prepackaged foods that often contain added sugars, stabilizers, or modifiers. This book provides a general guide that can be modified for individual calorie, nutrient, and weight-loss needs, according to what your personal medical professional recommends.
The Mediterranean Diet
Years of research and numerous medical studies have supported the Mediterranean-style diet as an optimally healthy way to eat. However, this approach relies heavily on grains (such as wheat and rice) and legumes (such as beans, lentils, and soy). Most grains are refined in a modern diet and no longer provide the same nutritional benefits as whole-grain versions. Consuming grains and legumes has been linked to an increased inflammatory response that can lead to further digestive and autoimmune problems.
While these foods do provide an important source of complex carbohydrates, similar nutrients can also be consumed through starchy tubers and root vegetables, nuts, and seeds.
The Paleo Diet
The Paleo diet relies heavily on animal-based foods. While leaner cuts of meat are emphasized, many who follow this diet consume the majority of their daily calories from meat—including wild game, grass-fed beef, pork and bacon, chicken, and seafood, along with ample amounts of lard and tallow. When you factor in the high price of quality meat, this approach becomes expensive for the consumer. The fact that the Paleo diet also limits or eliminates carbohydrates of all forms (such as whole grains and legumes) makes following the plan difficult in the long term.
Why Should I Eat This Way?
Everyone is motivated differently when it comes to dieting. Whether it’s for long-term health benefits, weight loss, or relief from inflammatory conditions and allergies, following the components of the Mediterranean Paleo diet can help you meet your personal goals.
A HEALTHIER BODY
Along with moderate daily physical exercise, diets high in fruits and vegetables, nuts and seeds, fish, and olive oil, with minimal dairy and red meat—such as the Mediterranean Paleo diet—have been proven to help prevent type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and stroke. Followers of this eating style have also benefitted from a reduced risk of Alzheimer’s disease, dementia, and Parkinson’s disease.
REDUCED INFLAMMATION
Inflammation can wreak havoc on major body systems. While it’s a primary immune response that’s critical to healing, prolonged inflammation may play a part in joint pain, chronic fatigue, obesity, and even cancer. This diet is overflowing with omega-3 fatty acids, fiber-rich vegetables, and dark leafy greens—foods that have been shown to reduce systemic inflammation.
INCREASED ENERGY
Eliminating processed foods can lead to increased energy, as your body no longer has to process and detoxify from these products. Many Paleo diet followers report an increase in focus and concentration—along with a tremendous increase in energy—when consuming cleaner, unrefined, and unprocessed foods. Fresh, ripe, in-season fruits and vegetables are also the most nutrient dense, supplying an immediate source of energy for your body to use.
A LEANER BODY
While diet sodas, nonfat dressings, and low-fat potato chips may seem like waist-reducing choices, they’re loaded with refined sugars that can actually have the opposite effect. Refined grains, sugars, and processed oils have been shown to be major factors in weight gain. By eliminating these common offenders, the Mediterranean Paleo diet offers an alternative that is high in fiber and natural plant-based fats that can help you shed extra pounds.
Choosing the Right Foods
As with any diet change, you set yourself up for success by having an understanding of the appropriate foods for it, as well as the ones you should limit or avoid. The following categories can get you started on the right path.
Sourcing Your Ingredients Responsibly
Fruits and Vegetables
Because fruits and vegetables make up so much of the Mediterranean Paleo diet, it’s especially important to ask several questions before buying these goods: Has this produce come into contact with chemicals that could transfer to you? How far did it have to travel to get to your table? Is it from a farm that’s mindful of sustainable farming practices and fair wages? Is there something else you can use that’s local or in season?
While it’s difficult and unrealistic to follow all of these practices for every fruit and vegetable purchase, it’s possible to keep them in mind while shopping, and to make every responsible choice given the circumstances. Determine what the most important factors are to you, do some local research, and shop accordingly.
Meats
Meat production has a tremendous environmental impact globally. Large-scale meat production is one of the biggest contributors to greenhouse gas emissions; it uses heavy amounts of fossil fuels, water, land, and antibiotics. But meat is also an important part of the food chain and offers many vital nutrients to its consumers. Keeping all of this in mind, it’s important to eat meat responsibly. Always look for meat that’s antibiotic free, pastured or grass-fed, and humanely raised. Avoid meat that has been injected with brines or sugar water, has added nitrites, or has been highly processed. And as a respectful practice, try to find ways you can incorporate lesser-known cuts or organ meats into your diet to encourage consumption of the entire animal.
Fats and Oils
Extra-virgin olive oil is a staple ingredient for Mediterranean Paleo eaters, so stocking up on a good supply of decent-quality oil will go a long way in the success of these recipes. Many of the cheapest brands are not 100 percent pure pressed olive oil, so make sure to do a little research before heading to the store to see which brands are suitable and available. You may wish to have a more economical olive oil for general cooking and a more flavorful oil to drizzle over salads and fresh vegetables.
Some recipes in this book call for coconut oil. As a saturated fat, it can be a controversial ingredient. However, its ability to act as a dairy substitute is beneficial, so it has been included.
Seafood
As the world population increases, so does the demand for sustainable supplies of seafood. Years of irresponsible fishing and other harvesting practices have destroyed many of the once-thriving ocean and river habitats necessary to support fish populations. The good news is that every region still has seafood resources that are abundant or appropriately farmed. Ask your grocer how they promote sustainable fishing practices, and purchase accordingly. Look for branzino, halibut, North Atlantic shrimp, or yellowfin tuna, and avoid red snapper, orange roughy, and swordfish.
Nuts and Seeds
Nuts and seeds are great resources for healthy omega-3 fats and are a quick and filling way to add extra calories to a plant-based meal. Always look for unsalted nuts to limit sodium intake. To get the most flavor, nuts can be lightly toasted. Simply place nuts in a small pan over medium-low heat, stirring constantly, for 3 to 5 minutes, or until fragrant. Once toasted, remove nuts from the hot pan to cool completely before storing them in an airtight container.
Written by Molly Pearl in "Idiot's Guides Mediterranean Paleo Cookbook", Alpha (A member of Penguin Random House LLC), USA, 2015, excerpts chapters 1 and 2. Digitized, adapted and illustrated to be posted by Leopoldo Costa