Is the Mediterranean Diet the BEST Diet for a Healthy Heart? |
In an interview with the Health Channel, Lucette Talamas, a Registered Dietitian at Baptist Health South Florida, breaks down the benefits and risks associated with a variety of diets, including the Mediterranean diet, Keto, and plant-based diets. Talamas is passionate about using nutritional science to prevent and manage chronic illnesses and seeks to educate people on how to pick a diet that works for them.
Diets come in and out of popularity throughout the years and new fad diets often spring up. The interviewer asks Talamas, what is the craziest fad diet that she has seen? Talamas says the most recent strange diet she has heard about is the carnivore diet, in which you are only allowed to eat meat, no vegetables, no grains, no fruit. She continues, “Diets that I still hear a lot about are, the keto diet, intermittent fasting, and a lot of people wondering what plant-based diets are all about.”
For people who are at high risk for heart disease, Talamas says that the Mediterranean diet may help prevent it. “The Mediterranean diet is not the diet that people usually have in mind when they hear the word diet, like restriction. The Mediterranean diet is a healthy eating pattern,” Talamas explains. The diet is about eating an abundance of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and beans, so mostly plant-based, with some meat such as fish and chicken. The diet prohibits seeds and seeks to keep the consumption of red meat and sweets to a minimum. “You don’t really see a restriction of food groups, but you do see an abundance of the plant side, you see healthy fats,” Talamas says.
Talamas says that the Mediterranean diet is not prescribed, necessarily, for losing weight, it is about improving overall heart health and longevity. “[Heart disease is] One of the biggest chronic diseases that affects men and women internationally. So, when we talk about blood pressure, healthy cholesterol levels, the Mediterranean diet pattern offers a lot of benefits for prevention and even management of these conditions because you’re choosing the right type of fats,” she elaborates. Besides that, the diet can improve your skin and hair.
Watch the full interview with Lucette Talamas here: https://youtu.be/rv-Yyh5yWaY
A Guide to Travelling As A Vegan: https://www.
