❯❯ Slows the absorption of sugars you consume from carbohydrate foods, which helps keep blood sugar stable. This function is important for those who have insulin resistance diseases, such as diabetes or PCOS, and helps people manage their weights more effectively.
❯❯ Acts as a natural appetite suppressant, helping you to feel full and satisfied after a meal. No need to buy those diet pills that are supposed to suppress your appetite. Save your money and try eating more fresh produce, beans, and whole grains with every meal.
Functional foods are foods that provide a function other than basic nutrition, offering either specific health benefits or disease prevention. Often, these foods are high in phytochemicals, antioxidants, or good bacteria that can decrease your risk of disease.
You don’t need to get caught up in buying expensive packaged foods that promise you a cure-all; just focus on eating common Mediterranean cuisine. Easy! The following sections highlight some of the more common functional foods included in Mediterranean eating.
TABLE 2-3 Functional Foods
Bring on the bacteria: Embracing fermented foods
As you read this book, you have trillions of little creatures working hard inside your body to keep you healthy. These creatures, better known as your gut bacteria, are what scientists call your second brain.
Your gut bacteria change and shift depending on what you eat. Emerging research shows that a microbe balance more heavily populated with good bacteria can improve your immune system, help keep your mood in check, improve digestion, and even help you manage your weight more effectively. When the balance is off and you’re not supporting the good bacteria, it can affect your body in a negative way. Chronic gas, bloating, and indigestion are signs that your gut bacteria may be out of whack. On a bigger scale, your bacteria may indicate your risk of chronic disease. Your gut bacteria have many important roles, such as building vitamins during digestion and signaling your immune system. Research is beginning to show people with chronic diseases like diabetes may have a different mix of bacteria than healthy individuals. This is a new and exciting field that needs more exploration, but for now it’s wise to feed and expand your good bacteria.
Fermented food is full of healthy bacteria sometimes called probiotics and is quite popular in Mediterranean cooking. Fermentation is the process where the sugars and starches from fruits and vegetables are converted to lactic acid, which in return preserves food without refrigeration or canning. The most common fermented foods in Mediterranean meals are yogurt, cheese, wine, sourdough bread, and brined foods like olives, capers, artichokes, and peppers. Whether you snack on some peppers or have a slice of sourdough toast in the morning, you’ll be making your gut happy and healthy.
Getting nutty
You’d be hard pressed to find a Mediterranean cookbook that doesn’t offer recipes using nuts and seeds. A traditional Mediterranean diet was a poor person’s cuisine, so people ate what they could readily grow, including many varieties of tree nuts.
Nuts are made up of fat and protein, making them a perfect snack or meal component to help you feel full and satisfied. As a functional food, many nuts contain omega-3 fatty acids and/or monounsaturated fatty acids shown to help with heart health and decreasing inflammation. Nuts are also a great source of vitamin E, an antioxidant shown to protect the artery walls from forming plaque. According to a 2016 systemic review posted in the British Journal of Nutrition, higher nut consumption is associated with a decreased risk of coronary artery disease and mortality.
Nuts are also high in magnesium, a nutrient many people are lacking in the typical American diet. Mild magnesium deficiency is difficult to diagnose but may be more common than you think. Symptoms include insomnia, muscle cramps, headaches, and nausea.
Drinking more red wine, like many people on the Mediterranean coast do, may be one reason you’re excited about switching to a Mediterranean diet. Red wine has certain properties that research has shown are beneficial for heart health. If you drink alcohol in moderation, add a little red wine in place of other alcoholic beverages. (If you’re not a fan of red wine, drinking grape juice made from Concord grapes and eating purple grapes also provide similar heart-health benefits.)
The cardio protection red wine provides is attributed to the antioxidants from flavonoids found in the skin of the grapes. The flavonoids reduce your risk of heart disease by lowering bad cholesterol, increasing good cholesterol, and reducing blood clotting. A specific flavonoid called reservatol may have additional benefits, including inhibiting tumor development in certain cancers, but that research is still in early stages.
Sulfites are used as preservatives in many food products and also occur naturally in foods. Many people have sensitivities and allergies to sulfites, causing asthma-like symptoms, hives, and swelling. The headache that commonly results from drinking wine may be due to sulfite sensitivity, but it’s more likely a question of overindulgence, dehydration, or lack of food in your stomach while drinking. If your headaches aren’t consistent when you drink wine, you can’t blame the sulfites (sorry). The best way to determine whether you have an allergy is to get yourself tested by an allergist, especially if you already suffer from asthma.
Sadly, you won’t have much luck finding a sulfite-free wine; grape skins themselves are high in sulfites, and more are added in winemaking to give your wine a long shelf life. Without added sulfites, you get vinegar in a few months. Despite popular belief, European wines don’t have fewer sulfites; in some cases, they have more!
The Mediterranean diet is most noticed in the scientific community for its effect on heart health. Heart disease is the number one cause of death in the United States, even though a few lifestyle changes make it easily preventable. Genetics still play a strong role, of course, but making small changes to your diet and exercising make a big difference.
The first research focused on the Mediterranean diet started with a scientist named Ancel Keys and the Seven Countries Study. This study found that southern Europe had far fewer coronary deaths than northern Europe and the United States did, even when factoring in age, smoking, blood pressure, and physical activity. These results made researchers look more closely at the differences in dietary habits. This study