Trying A Mediterranean Diet, But..

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1341452

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According to my doctor I’m just a bit high in cholesterol and recommended a Mediterranean diet to help lower it. The thing is that she also provided a lot of recipes that substitute rice and other grains for barley, lentils, quinoa and the like, and also stated that I steer away from “land meats.”
Now I know that I am 100% capable of just following up with my doctor and clarifying these statements but, land meats?? It almost seems like I’m being requested to go full pescatarian unless I count poultry, and barley takes a full ass hour to cook. I’ve also noticed that I’ve lost a bit of weight from following these directions which is awesome, but I’m also naturally lean so I’m unsure of how to better deviate from the traditional diet so I can get more mass and also get more variety of dishes into the house.
Does anyone have any experience with going Mediterranean? What are your personal pros and cons regarding the palette?
 
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K.Dst

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(MD here)

Do you have any personal history of heart problems? Do any of your direct family members have any?
Are you a smoker? Are you diabetic? Do you often have a high blood pressure?

In Europe lately the matter of cholesterol levels is a bit of a hot topic. Basically the European college of cardiology has set the new cholesterol goals even lower than ever, while a higher and higher number of data says that without any other risk factor we shouldn't pay THAT much attention to cholesterol, and that it has been over treated for decades without a lot of positive impact. Personally I find the second perspective more and more convincing every year.

If you answered no to all the questions above, I wouldn't worry too much about your diet.
Red meat is a part of the Mediterranean diet, provided it doesn't use too much organic fat (use of olive oil rather than butter and cream).
Of course I recommend anyone not to overdo any of the fat-filled meats, but it's more a matter of general health than cholesterol directly, which is not very impacted by these fatty acids.
 
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Thank you for the detailed response! And yeah it’s a no to all accounts, no history of any of that bad stuff and I don’t smoke in any capacity.

And as you stated it sounds like the issue at hand is more in the preparation of the meat/meals, which is fair enough
 

halcyondays

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Focus less on diet and more on why cholesterol plaques form in arteries: arterial linings are damaged by nicotine and by anaerobic bacteria which migrate there from teeth and gums.

Don't use tobacco products of any kind and floss 2-3 times a week to lower the population of those stinky microbes between your teeth. I rinse with an alcohol based mouthwash after flossing to kill more of the little buggers. Don't overuse mouthwash because there are good bacteria in you mouth too.

Your body makes all the cholesterol it needs at the cellular level from other fatty acids. It's not required in your diet. Your liver regulates blood serum levels of cholesterol. If it's even slightly deprived of vitamin C one of the first things affected is cholesterol regulation. Since nicotine destroys vitamin C tobacco users get a double whammy of damaged arterial linings and higher blood serum cholesterol levels.

Get your five-a-day of fresh fruits and veggies and you'll get plenty of C.

Regular exercise can help lower it, too. I still remember a case from the 1980s when a pre-diabetic 350 pound man on a junk food diet whose cholesterol was 1200+ took off on a bicycle trip all the way across the US. Pedaling 40-60 miles a day he lost 150 pounds, his cholesterol dropped to 150 and his blood pressure dropped (I don't remember how much) all the while he continued eating the same junk food diet. His only change was to add a daily multivitamin/mineral supplement.

I exercise daily and have been a lacto-vegetarian since 18 (almost 40 years now) but still have slightly elevated cholesterol. So did my parents and siblings (those who smoked much higher) so it's probably genetic. As a lifetime non-smoker I'm not worried about it.
 
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Thanks for the info! Hopefully this will help provided a better understanding of how to proceed, I appreciate the input
 
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deleted907269

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Does anyone have any experience with going Mediterranean? What are your personal pros and cons regarding the palette?

My personal experience with Mediterranean diet has been very good. Swapping most butter for olive and sunflower oil.
Reducing red meat (less than 20% of my protein intake comes from red meat).
Introducing seasonal cooking, forcing myself to learn how to use seasonal ingredients I was not familiar with.
Introducing legumes and grains I was not used to cook, Spanish lentils, different varieties of beans (no chickpeas for me as they are high in estrogen)
And a lot more fish, the UK might be the island with the worst fish, always have to go out of my way to find decent fishmongers in London.

Just try to experiment with things you are not familiar with, legumes can be annoying because it takes long to cook but they are great for meal prepping and a good lentil stew packed with protein can be kept in the freezer for a couple weeks.
 
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1341452

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My personal experience with Mediterranean diet has been very good. Swapping most butter for olive and sunflower oil.
Reducing red meat (less than 20% of my protein intake comes from red meat).
Introducing seasonal cooking, forcing myself to learn how to use seasonal ingredients I was not familiar with.
Introducing legumes and grains I was not used to cook, Spanish lentils, different varieties of beans (no chickpeas for me as they are high in estrogen)
And a lot more fish, the UK might be the island with the worst fish, always have to go out of my way to find decent fishmongers in London.

Just try to experiment with things you are not familiar with, legumes can be annoying because it takes long to cook but they are great for meal prepping and a good lentil stew packed with protein can be kept in the freezer for a couple weeks.

Was not aware about chickpeas, that’s unfortunately I rather like them.
What are you referring to by seasonal cooking tho? I’m in Texas so I’m not sure if our point of reference would be different since you mentioned having to search for better fish meat in the U.K.
 
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deleted907269

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Was not aware about chickpeas, that’s unfortunately I rather like them.
What are you referring to by seasonal cooking tho? I’m in Texas so I’m not sure if our point of reference would be different since you mentioned having to search for better fish meat in the U.K.

Using ingredients that are in season, industrial agriculture has destroyed this over the past few decades, but one of the key elements of Mediterranean or Atlantic diet (Portugal and Galicia) was the rotation of ingredients as they become available in the market.
In London, one can find the same ingredients all year round and it's easier to get stuck in the same recipes, making it easy to fall into "lazy" cooking or fad diets.