February Mediterranean Diet Dinners Meal Plan (February 19)

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This week’s meal plan is all about bright and healthy February Mediterranean Diet Dinners. All are vibrant and delicious, but they’re also ready in 30 minutes or less, making them perfect for a week of simple, nourishing meals you’ll love.

5 Science Lessons Learned from the Mediterranean Diet

Eating Well has put together an informative article on really, 7 reasons we should continue eating a Mediterranean Diet and adopting the lifestyle that goes along with it. You can read more about the “science-backed” lessons in their article, but here is a summary of my takeaways.

1. Eat Carbs, But Eat the Right Carbs

The vast majority of carbohydrates that formed the early Cretan diet were whole grains rich in soluble fiber. David Katz, M.D., M.P.H., director of Yale University’s Yale-Griffin Prevention Research Center advises switching to 100% whole-wheat bread products and aiming for at least one daily portion of nonwheat grains, like oats or barley. 

2. Reduce Added Sugar

The American Heart Association recommends limiting added sugars to 25 grams daily for women and 36 for men” and advises reading all labels and choosing ones with the lowest sugar amounts.

3. Eat an Array of Fruits and Veggies

“Michael Greger, M.D., author of How Not to Die, suggests rotating as many different colorful fruits and vegetables through your diet as possible to get a broad range of vitamins and minerals. And, generally, the brighter or deeper the pigment—like the dark, leafy horta—the more phyto-nutrients the food will contain.”

4. Choose Good Fat, Not Low Fat

As much as possible, swap extra-virgin olive oil for less healthy fats, like butter. Here’s a great tip when shopping for olive oil: “It’s also worth looking for ‘early harvest’ EVOO that has been extracted from green unripe fruit, to get the highest amount of oleocanthal and other important antioxidants.”

5. Embrace Beans and Nuts

The bulk of protein in early Creton’s diets came from legumes—chickpeas, white beans, fava beans, lentils—and other types of pulses, as well as nuts, including almonds, walnuts and chestnuts. According to Walter Willett, M.D., Dr.P.H., a professor of epidemiology and nutrition at Harvard University’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health, who is perhaps the nation’s top expert on the Mediterranean diet, advises making beans and nuts the principal source of protein.