Your Checkup: Health Conversations for Motivated Patients
Ever leave the doctor’s office more confused than when you walked in? Your Checkup: Health Conversations for Motivated Patients is your health ally in a world full of fast appointments and even faster Google searches. Each week, a board certified family medicine physician and a pediatric nurse sit down to answer the questions your doctor didn’t have time to.
From understanding diabetes and depression to navigating obesity, high blood pressure, and everyday wellness—we make complex health topics simple, human, and actually useful. Whether you’re managing a condition, supporting a loved one, or just curious about your body, this podcast helps you get smart about your health without needing a medical degree.
Because better understanding leads to better care—and you deserve both.
Your Checkup: Health Conversations for Motivated Patients
Mediterranean Diet: Life Prolonging Benefits & Sample Meals
Send us a message with this link, we would love to hear from you. Standard message rates may apply.
The Mediterranean diet is an evidence-based eating pattern that supports heart health, brain health, and longevity with delicious, sustainable food choices. We explore what makes this diet special and provide practical ways to incorporate its principles into everyday meals.
• Core components include vegetables, fruits, whole grains, legumes, nuts, and olive oil
• Fish (especially fatty varieties like salmon) should be eaten regularly
• Poultry, eggs, and dairy can be consumed in moderation
• Red meat and processed foods should be limited
• Extra virgin olive oil should replace butter and processed oils
• Making your own salad dressings with olive oil is easy and healthier than store-bought options
• Fill half your plate with vegetables at lunch and dinner
• Choose whole grains over refined ones
• Wild-caught fish is preferable to farm-raised when possible
• Simple swaps like using herbs and spices instead of salt can enhance flavor healthfully
Send us an email at yourcheckuppod@gmail.com with your questions and feedback.
Production and Content: Edward Delesky, MD & Nicole Aruffo, RN
Artwork: Olivia Pawlowski
Hi, welcome to your Checkup. We are the patient education podcast, where we bring conversations from the doctor's office to your ears. On this podcast, we try to bring medicine closer to its patients. I'm Ed Dolesky, a family medicine doctor in the Philadelphia area, and I'm Nicole Rufo. I'm a nurse and we are so excited you were able to join us here again today. All right, you got to lay it on me. We let's see. We're walking back from the beach and you got to tell like what did you see? Oh, my God, I'm assuming can you set the scene? Set the scene. We're in the dunes.
Speaker 2:We're like end of the day. We spent all day on the beach. We're walking back and there's a couple behind us who I guess Eddie didn't see. No, I didn't see him at all. I knew they were there and it's like a really nice sunny day. And it's like a really nice sunny day and then eddie just let out one of the bigger farts I've ever heard and it was smelly and that's how you know like it was a smelly one when you can smell it outside you know, right like it, it like overcomes the wind and every bit, and then so I'm like jet stream
Speaker 2:and it was loud and so like I'm looking at him I mean we both had sunglasses on so like I was like giving him eyes, like yo dude, like there's people behind us, but of course he couldn't see and he wasn't paying, because then right after that he goes beach poops smell different, yells it, and I'm like what is happening right now? So then we get like off the little pathway, like we're on the street now, and the girl like both of them like look at me Because I was behind him, like look at me. And then them like look at me because I was behind him, like look at me. And then just like look at him and like laugh. And then they walk in opposite direction and then eddie keeps walking, just blissfully unaware I had no idea what just happened.
Speaker 2:He's so happy.
Speaker 1:He, you know, feels this release and yeah literally no idea that that happened until we were like practically back, like you told me the story and I was like there were people around like normally the social grace is to like maybe hold it until the appropriate time. I thought I was on a deserted island, except for you and you just get the pleasure of being around for all of these. But wow, yeah, but they're like they had such a positive demeanor about it that I felt okay about it. Beach poops do smell different. Tell me, wrong. Yankee candles should have a. A candle, if they're going like anti candle called the rotten seashore is really what they should do. Rotten seashore, yeah, and there's a great opportunity there for marketing.
Speaker 1:So I hope you enjoy that little story. Um, kind of really get you a feature of our personality here, or unified one hive mind personality. Um, can you explain to them that? Like, obviously we had like two different like cinema upbringings. I'm gonna go get the um the cake tasting arrangement soon just to like go through what we thought. But because I think some of our most interested listeners are curious about how that went, but we had a different upbringing, like I was a like Lord of the Rings, star Wars some Harry Potter, I mean.
Speaker 2:What he's trying to say is that he really never saw a single Adam Sandler movie until now, and this I just became aware of this yesterday, actually, I think, or the day before.
Speaker 1:Maybe the extent of it.
Speaker 2:Because we last weekend or whatever other weekend we just were like looking for something to watch. On Netflix, we saw this one Adam Sandler movie. It's called like the Do-Over or something. It was a bit of an older movie. I had never seen it or heard of it and eddie's like oh yeah, like I haven't seen this one either, so you watch it. It's good. Whatever we had watched previously, that the movie with like his daughters and it's the bat mitzvah when that came out, like last year, so not invited to my bat mitzvah um, but that I didn't know that that was the extent of ed's Adam Sandler experience.
Speaker 2:And then what were we watching? Oh, last night yeah, we're on Netflix we saw that they're making a happy Gilmore too. So I'm like, oh, no way. Like wow, they're like 30 years later they're making a second one of these movies. Then come to find out that he had never seen that. So I'm like, okay, whatever. Then he tells me that he's really never seen any of them. So then I'm going down the list of just like the classic, culturally significant icon movies and he has never seen them. Billy Madison.
Speaker 1:No.
Speaker 2:So many good one-liners from Billyy madison happy gilmore, which you saw yesterday. The water boy can't say I've seen it big daddy, little nicky nope, nope eight crazy nights nope 50 first dates. I feel like I watched that movie 500 times I've watched it zero deuce bigelow male gigolo the longest yard. No, oh, we did watch, just go with it we did we watched that one with jennifer aniston? Did we watch that one or the one with jubilee more when they were in africa?
Speaker 1:oh, we watched blended with blended. Yeah, okay, we didn't watch just recently watched grown-ups last weekend yes, and then soon to watch grown-ups too yeah, this is just is it kevin spade or david spade?
Speaker 2:really crazy, he's funny he like looks funny yeah, he, the same people are in all the movies and they're like just like stupid, stupid and dumb. Well, they're so good.
Speaker 1:I was listening to another podcast and Dan Patrick was on there and he's like oh yeah, I've been in 21 Adam Sandler movies and I'm like oh my God, 21.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we have a lot of work to do Tons of work, but you've made some progress because we watched. Okay, happy Gilmore.
Speaker 1:The Bat Mitzvah, one Blended Grownups, okay, four, we're getting somewhere. Yeah, we're making progress, yeah, and we will continue to we have to watch the water plays.
Speaker 2:So stupid and so funny.
Speaker 1:I need that in my life, yeah.
Speaker 2:I need that in my life. Yeah, there are so many good like I feel like there are so many good just like funny one liners that you've probably hear all the time and you have no idea that it's from one of his movies.
Speaker 1:Well, to my credit, we also need you to see Star Wars.
Speaker 2:I don't need to do that.
Speaker 1:Yes, you see, you know, love what they love. I'm being so open minded to watch all these Adam Sandler. No, okay, because that's a boy movie, the Adam Sandler.
Speaker 2:Like funny, stupid movies are for everyone Are you saying it's unisex, they're all inclusive.
Speaker 1:I know a lot of women who like Star Wars and Lord of the Rings. Do you like them or?
Speaker 2:something. What's that I said? Do you like them, or something? What's that I said? Do you like them, or something? I Okay Star Wars and Lord of the Rings. I also have a problem. Not a problem. I have a hard time with things that you have to do a lot of, like world building, which, like. I'm actually surprised that I liked game of thrones as much as I did, because I I'm not usually like fantasy, ish type girly gotcha I can respect that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, there's a fair amount of legwork up front. Um, I'm not asking you to be like a diehard super fan of any of them, but what I I am asking is just an open mindset. Leave the door unlocked at least, if it's not open to you know, because I don't actually don't think anyone in your family has seen those.
Speaker 2:And yeah, we were too busy watching Adam Sandler. He's got like 37 movies. He does have a lot of them.
Speaker 1:It's been a long time since that light's been on. All right, why don't I go get the cake tasting thing? Because really, what the people come here for, as it turns out from all of our podcast numbers, is our food review, and Mike seems to think that they might have pictures of us up at local restaurants thinking, wow, we should. We need to not get a bad review from these two yeah these two like health podcast people who talk about food too much.
Speaker 1:So let's tell you about our cake tasting. So what were you expecting when we signed up that this was going to happen?
Speaker 2:for our wedding tasting. Yeah, um, I'm not sure Me neither. I'm not sure what I was expecting. I feel like I remember her saying that it was like a private thing, but then I also couldn't remember. But then I also talked to like someone at work who had used like the caterer, like venue people that were using they have like 16 venues or something crazy.
Speaker 2:So someone at work got married at one of like this caterers, other venues and their tasting was with like eight other couples. And then I was like, oh wait, is this going to be the same? And it wasn't. And it was so fun. It was just like a private, a private tasting with like us and one of the chefs and we got to try. Well, we like picked what we wanted for our wedding menu before, so like that's what she made, like the main dishes, and then we got to try a couple of the um like appetizer, cocktail hour things, which were all delicious, yeah, yeah and then I didn't know I wasn't expecting that we were going to do the cake tasting during that too, so that was a fun surprise.
Speaker 2:That was so much fun and I'm like not, I like, I'm not a cake girly, I would much rather have like, ice cream over cake, but it was so much fun it was a ton of fun and it was absolutely like 12 different flavors of cake and then like seven icings, a couple fillings, so I got um, yeah, definitely, I got 12, 12 cakes and 10 ice.
Speaker 1:Ed Eddie has the layout they gave us, yeah, and which? The prospect of that was overwhelming. The food was delicious. The salmon was a huge takeaway that was absolutely out of this world. And the chicken was very unique. It was like an apple chicken. We didn't remember that we had ordered the apple chicken. No, that's a bold thing. That doesn't get you steak and I know um, so there's that the.
Speaker 1:So they also came out with these little like I don't know what to what to call them. They were like these little balls. Um, there's so much more elegance to it because the way she described that it took all day to make these balls and this garnish that went with them. I feel bad that. That's the only thing I had to say about it.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, I forget what they were called. We're going to have to ask Heather and I want like an entire plate of them at our wedding.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that was delicious. They had these portobello mushroom croquettes, a garlic shrimp on a skewer, which was of course excellent, and the caesar salad was they had like a moroccan chicken skewer thing.
Speaker 2:That was good oh, that was.
Speaker 1:That was really good, also unexpected, and I think there's going to be like five or six more, because there's like 11 orders which is like so great that those are all included and the salad was great it was so cozy in there and the salad I mean I guess.
Speaker 2:Well, I'm hoping that it's the same when it's all for like a big group of people and not just us. Sure, I feel like I have a weird thing with salad. It's not a weird thing, I don't think, but I liked that it felt like the salad was all like chopped and all incorporated together and it wasn't just like lettuce and then a carrot and then tomato and a cucumber and it's just all separate. I like it all like chopped and together, like if you put a salad in front of me that it's just like a bunch of things on top of each other. Get it out of here.
Speaker 1:You, you do need to salad. The salads that impressed me the most are the ones that seem like an artist took each piece of lettuce and painted the dressing on the lettuce how one gets that but like everything's incorporated, like on your fork, you can have a part of everything. It's most important to me that it's painted on.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we know, you're a big condiment guy. It's important to me is all I'm saying but I'll eat it.
Speaker 1:I'll eat it anyway. I hear you and you know, I hope you know, when you multiply at times how many people were having at the wedding. I hope that it works out that way. I have confidence in them. They seemed great. It was just such a cute, intimate dinner that was unexpected and I thought that was great, and we already talked about the entrees because we were excited about that. But let's go back to the cake. Let's go back to the cake. The the entire thing was um. Well, we started liking everything to start, which was bad, because we were like, yeah, oh, no, what are we going to do?
Speaker 2:we have to pick one.
Speaker 1:Or if we do, we don't have to three, or with the being a three-layered cake, you can do some sort of weird like, each tier is a different flavor per version of yeah, you put it better than I could, so there's no great way to start this off, but I seemingly remember that we tried chocolate chip first yeah, that was good too it also was, I know it's not on our like list of things, but well, it might have to be on the B list. Did we describe how it came out?
Speaker 2:I don't think so.
Speaker 1:Well, it was on a giant platter and all of the little they gave, little like nuggets of the cake it was like a little square bite of each flavor.
Speaker 2:There were like 12 of them, and then little cups of all different flavor icings and then a couple fillings all different flavor icings and then a couple fillings.
Speaker 1:You know icing can so frequently have this like sugar done up, refined type of flavor to it, too sugary, very sweet. None of them had that. It was all creamy and savory and it wasn't too sweet and I thought that was absolutely delicious. I don't know what the best way to go about this was, but there were a couple highlights that I wanted to hit on. What I will say is that almond chiffon, vanilla chiffon were not anything that I was too excited about. They were delicious, though. How'd you feel about the carrot about? They were delicious, though how did you feel about the carrot?
Speaker 2:Well, the carrot had walnuts in it, so I took a little lick of it.
Speaker 1:Got it Red velvet.
Speaker 2:That one was okay.
Speaker 1:But if you had to pick one, it wasn't going to be that one. Devil's Food. This was forgettable. I don't remember.
Speaker 2:You liked this one. It begins with an l and ends in lavender.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I loved the lavender cake.
Speaker 2:That was so good. And then they had a lemon icing. It's like the lavender and the lemon was really good and it was also really good with the vanilla icing yeah, it was great with the vanilla.
Speaker 1:We actually missed each other here. I thought that the flavors maybe my little boy palette wasn't ready for a lavender lemon cross collab album but did you try the lavender and vanilla? Yeah, that was delicious. Yeah, yeah, absolutely delicious. There was a tea.
Speaker 2:Our intern is on his back paws in the air tired from the week oh, he looks so cute he's so cute.
Speaker 1:There was a tea cake. How'd you feel about that?
Speaker 2:oh, that was interesting.
Speaker 1:I liked that tell me about the lemon, because you like the lemon.
Speaker 2:Lemon's a contender lemon is our top contender.
Speaker 1:And then they had a lemon filling and and a lemon icing, triple lemon yeah, and apparently previous bride recent previous bride had done that and that was excellent. Um, triple lemon, lemon, curd lemon, cake lemon. It's on the list. There was a marble.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that one was fine yeah.
Speaker 1:The vanilla cake.
Speaker 2:The vanilla cake was very good. It was delicious.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I shocked that you can do vanilla that good and I left this one intentionally cake wise for the end because it excited us the most and it was the coconut.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that was our favorite coconut with the vanilla icing.
Speaker 1:And how could you make coconut so fluffy but moist?
Speaker 2:It was like fluffy but dense. I don't know that I've ever had a coconut cake and I know like not, like everyone likes coconut, but I don't really care. It's not your wedding. So if we get a coconut cake and you don't like it, you got to pick what you want. I don't care. Yeah.
Speaker 1:As we get further away from the tasting, I feel more like nostalgic and drawn to the coconut cake. I think the vanilla ice cream, the vanilla icing, is what we said, right, yeah, there were like so many delicious so they came in like little cups, the thing with the tiniest little spoon you could imagine. There was a vanilla buttercream, oh oh, that was absolutely delicious. A standout was the salted caramel buttercream.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that was really good on the chocolate chip cake.
Speaker 1:That was a standout. A raspberry jam was underplayed the whole time and at the 11th hour I slapped some raspberry jam, I think on a vanilla cake and I was like, whoa, that's like a classic wedding cake, like vanilla cake with raspberry filling and raspberry.
Speaker 2:is that him snoring? I think he's snoring oh my god, he's so cute three walks and he's out for the day he walked hot or he worked hard.
Speaker 1:Chocolate ganache was a little thick for me, if you remember that. Well, there was a cream cheese buttercream, absolutely delicious.
Speaker 1:The lemon curd. We talked about that a little bit in the triple lemon breakdown. Raspberry jam, raspberry mousse. Raspberry mousse would have been the raspberry double dip, vanilla swirl wedding cake. That could be great. We're just enamored and we're so distracted as we rant about this wedding cake experience. Look, listing off all of these has been a fun exercise. What you need to know is that it was absolutely delicious. We'll pick one or we'll pick three for either each of the tiered cakes, or for the cupcakes and you probably won't find out, but it was a delicious experience.
Speaker 1:What's that?
Speaker 2:I said no, you won't.
Speaker 1:But we loved it. I've never tasted cake like that before. I've never tasted icing like that before. I've never tasted icing like that before. Superlatives of each and walked out of there.
Speaker 2:I also, like I've been to a lot of weddings, I don't know that I've had the cake at any one of them.
Speaker 1:Well, you know, after, like burning a thousand calories on the dance floor, I've devoured a cake. I've probably eaten your cake.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's probably why I haven't had any.
Speaker 1:Maybe, um, I've eaten other people's cake, so I've had a lot of cake. Have I like paused to like understand what was going on in that cake? No, no, I have no clue. I don't remember a wedding cake whatsoever from anyone. So it's for us and our wedding cake. Yeah, and it'll be delicious. I'm excited. This left me looking forward to it a lot. All right For what was supposed to be a very short intro and a very short episode. We are anything but that, but what are we going to talk about today, nick?
Speaker 2:Today we have a fun one. We're talking about the Mediterranean diet.
Speaker 1:It's more than just olives and feta. It's a whole lifestyle that we reference a lot here on your checkup, and the idea of it is that it supports heart health, brain health, longevity. There's a lot of evidence to support it. It's one of the most commonly cited diets and so today we wanted to take a deep dive and go through and talk about what the Mediterranean diet is actually, because we referenced it so much, its benefits, and give you some practical tips, like some things to walk away from this episode, thinking like oh, I can incorporate that into my life and have some form of the Mediterranean diet in my diet. Does that sound okay?
Speaker 2:Yeah, that sounds great.
Speaker 1:Cool. So, before we jump in, we're starting off these episodes with an information statement, and so everything we talk about today is drawn from robust medical evidence and from various randomized controlled trials, major clinical guidelines and reviews published in the New England Journal of Medicine and the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, and statements from the American Heart Association and American College of Cardiology. And we try to synthesize that down, remove the jargon for you here today. So, without further ado, why don't we dive in?
Speaker 2:Okay, hit us with the highlights about what the Mediterranean diet is.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So at its core, it's a way of eating inspired by the traditional diets of countries like Greece, italy and Spain, and it's not about strict rules per se, but it's more about patterns of eating. And so the Mediterranean diet itself encourages lots of vegetables, fruits, whole grains, and when I think of that I think about things like brown rice or oats, legumes, nuts and healthy fats like olive oil. Fish, especially fatty kinds like salmon or sardines, are really pushed and encouraged. We have some salmon in the fridge when we had the tasting was delicious and encouraged to have a couple times a week. Poultry, eggs and dairy are fine in moderation, and then red meat and those sweet treats often take a backseat in this type of eating pattern. I feel like we try to do a healthy amount of this. I mean, I buy a couple olives and I call it the Mediterranean diet.
Speaker 2:So you know no, I mean, I feel like this is a lot of what we eat.
Speaker 1:Just looking at this list, yeah, like pretty regularly save for the sardines and the occasional like run where we're having a lot of sirloin. Yeah, I mean there was a hot 10 days there where I had like three times and like you didn't join me in that arc, but there was a lot of red meat there so well, it's not that we were.
Speaker 2:We made it once and then we were at the beach.
Speaker 1:My mom made it right, and then I made it.
Speaker 1:Like a week before that, my dad oh yeah, for father's day yeah, yeah, it's like three times in seven days, but I was like, well, you wanted it, you wanted it for special dinner, I did, and there it was. So why don't we, why don't we break down the main principles and keep going a little bit further, so kind of to reiterate the highlights of that? It's mostly a plant-based food, and so that's something to keep in mind. We listed them off earlier. The main fat ends up being olive oil, and so we're really ditching the butter and instead using an extra virgin olive oil, or evo, evu as they call it. What is evoo?
Speaker 2:yeah, when you're like, rachel ray coined that term did she really I think.
Speaker 1:So it's a rachel ray joint. Yeah, yeah you, you sent that to me one time. You're like evoo, like add that in there, and I was like oh wait, really.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I was like what?
Speaker 1:what's an evil?
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, no, we're a big Evie.
Speaker 2:Oh, people Well you are now by proxy of me I am are a few things that I'm weirdly actually no, it's not weird that I'm like a stickler about, and one of them is having it has to be a good quality extra virgin olive oil and it has to be single origin because the it's just better quality. And if you have one, like if you look on the back of the olive oil bottle and it'll like say the region that it's from. So sometimes it'll be like Italy, Spain, Argentina, and it'll just say one, but most often the cheaper ones, which are not as high quality, will have like Spain, Argentina, Italy, It'll list like five countries and like your olive oil, it's basically like the scrapple of olive oil and it's just low quality stuff from everywhere all poured in together.
Speaker 1:Is that like off the cuff here and we're stepping away from the structure of our outline here, but is that have some sort of effect in your opinion? Or is it like a?
Speaker 2:I don't know. It's just better quality. It makes me feel better about it. I don't know why I needed to be that, but I do. And there is a difference between olive oil and like vegetable oil or canola oil. Get that out of your house.
Speaker 1:What do you mean by that?
Speaker 2:Cause canola oil is like the worst thing you can put into your body and it does not come in this house.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:It's in all of the salad dressings, all of the sprays. Don't buy a spray that has that. Buy only avocado oil or extra virgin olive oil. Make your own salad dressing. It's not hard and it tastes better.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, that's what I have here is that you know using the olive oil for the salad dressings, and maybe you can take us through one of your famous salad dressings once we get to that part of the episode. So we talked about. Moving on to the fish, you know talking about fish and seafood that are regularly incorporated. We highlighted salmon and sardines and we talked about we talked about a bunch of these features already poultry, eggs, dairy in moderation. We're going to talk about ways you can incorporate those into the diet and limiting processed foods, and we've talked about this in past episodes. Processed foods are basically probably the worst thing. You can probably like really pare down like a vegetable based processed food and like you can get down pretty niche into that conversation, but they become hyper palatable and make you hungrier than you're supposed to be and really contribute to obesity itself, and so processed food is something to avoid. In contrast to that, people say like when I interview them for like a patient interaction, they're like oh yeah, I try to like get like whole foods.
Speaker 2:That doesn't mean you necessarily shop at the store, but like whole foods means that like it isn't so processed we're talking about just like a straight up banana or like a single ingredient yeah, what's the processed food that you might like the most, but, no, it's the worst for you oh, um, I mean probably any kind of like cured meat or like deli meat that's also turns to cancer in your body, but it's so delicious it is delicious.
Speaker 1:We spoke with our cardiologist, like our friendly neighborhood residency cardiologist, and he said if there was one thing he would take as a huge win to remove from people's body and their diet, it was the italian hoagie which shot me in the chest as, like a subway italian bmt, put everything on it and extra, growing up like the local franchise, knowing me when I walked in being like oh, there is so bad for you yeah, I don't think we eat a lot of it no, you know, the delicatessen around the corner has a great one that you got to get.
Speaker 1:They make it so tasty. That's the problem. It's so good. Make it less good and maybe I won't eat it. Yeah, I would probably say um, thanks for asking. Mine are probably chips, the brain goes off with chips and I just indulge.
Speaker 1:I mean, there was that bag from trader joe's that I was mortified when I like came up for air and it was 140 calories in a serving and there were six servings in the bag and before he was like, he's like holding the bag and he's like, hmm, this bag's kind of small, and two seconds later, oh my god, there are six servings in here yeah, gobbled, all six servings was mortified. It was back to the like tortilla chip days, or any kind of chip is not safe around you no, it really isn't.
Speaker 1:And you know, we, we took the dive and I mean went to trader joe's like greater than a week ago and it was still here. I'm surprised it lasted that long, but yeah, there's that. So processed foods are something to think twice about if you can afford. Unfortunately, they're often more affordable than the other foods, which is a damn shame, and they last longer, which is also more convenient because produce does not keep that well, I don't know what your stance on, on, uh, frozen vegetables is.
Speaker 2:Um, I mean, I think it's better than not having any vegetable at all. But freezing it, um, I mean it changes the. What am I trying to say? Like the structure of it, like there's less. Like the fiber is damaged when it's frozen, so like there's not as much in it, so like that part of it there it's not, um, like the nutritional value isn't as high as like a raw vegetable or a cooked vegetable.
Speaker 1:But I mean it's better than nothing sure, yeah, that because they go, they go bad, so poor. I mean, like some of our bins are just like produce graveyards and it. It just happens. It happens to anyone and like something to be improved on. That's me, that's a me problem. Any other thoughts before we move on to the next segment?
Speaker 2:I mean salmon's mentioned in the Mediterranean diet a lot and like is now my diet, like my time when I go into my diet tribe about why your fish should be wild caught and not farm raised.
Speaker 1:Oh, I think it should be.
Speaker 2:That's another thing that I'm particular about.
Speaker 1:Yeah, walk us through your thoughts when it comes to farm raised versus wild caught, anything but, in this particular case, salmon.
Speaker 2:Well, it's the same thing with the olive oil, like it's just better quality and like a healthier fish that you're eating and like when you're looking in the grocery store. It depends what store and you know what like brand of you know wherever you buy your fish, but the farm raised fish and the wild caught fish always look different.
Speaker 1:They do.
Speaker 2:And sometimes in the farm raised fish. It'll be like it depends. Sometimes it's either like more pale and it's like this is like a, a sick, sad fish that I don't want to eat, or sometimes, depending on the store, it's like really red and like looks really good, but they like inject dye into it to make it look more appealing to buy yeah, I feel like there's a lot of documentaries about this.
Speaker 1:I feel like we watched one in the more now distant past.
Speaker 2:So it's just. I mean it's a bit more expensive. I think salmon in general isn't like the most cost efficient thing you can buy. So, like I mean, if you're spending the money on salmon, get the better one.
Speaker 1:Sure.
Speaker 2:It's all part of my plan to make Eddie live forever.
Speaker 1:It's working so far. Knock on wood, so it almost. I mean it might help in portion control in some ways. It would be more beneficial if it was cheaper, though that's the. That's the rub. Is that no one? Yeah. The Mediterranean diet's great, though that's the that's the rub. Is that no one? Yeah, the mediterranean diet's great.
Speaker 1:no one said that it was affordable and reasonable, for I mean to feed a family like yeah. So we also recognize that here, where we talk about these ideal things to do and realize that, like it's not always so available or reasonable, but something to think about, because I certainly wasn't thinking about these things before we started looking to buy salmon together.
Speaker 1:You're welcome, I just kind of grabbed it and I was like, oh yeah, here we go, no issue. But you see those documentaries about how they shove the fish in the small, small areas and the processing to try to get them to grow as fast as possible, and like we're definitely outside of the scope of like what we usually claim to be like some sort of expertise here. But well then, it's the same with like.
Speaker 2:I mean red meat isn't on the Mediterranean diet, but like a grass fed piece of meat like that. I don't know how to not sound like morbid Like that meat that you're eating was once an animal that was like eating grass and not like crap.
Speaker 1:Right and now you're eating it, so it's like a healthier thing that you're eating right, like if you look at the sort of ugly underbelly of food production, especially when it comes to meat. It's probably an unpleasant thing to really dig into lots of documentaries out there about that, but if this grosses you out, you you know great opportunity to lean more into the vegetable and the legume and the legume.
Speaker 1:So there's a note here about alcohol. It says if you drink alcohol, keep it moderate, and that basically a small glass of wine with meals is traditional in the Mediterranean diet, but it's absolutely not required for health benefits Mediterranean diet but it's absolutely not required for health benefits. Less is better here. I think there's a whole community of people who are at least intrigued by the idea of drinking a glass of wine and then imbuing some sort of cardiovascular benefit years down the line. Culturally, I don't know what you're going to do at home. It's probably not like the health benefits of this cardiovascular maybe benefit don't outweigh all of the other stuff that can happen. So my two pieces, my two cents less is better here. It's traditional, very, very modest. Moderation is what I would say. Okay. So there's a ton of health benefits to the Mediterranean diet itself. It, formally well-studied and established, reduces the risk of heart attack, stroke and cardiovascular disease. That's crazy, for just I mean, yes, it's the food that goes into your body, but this is something that you can be proactive about and really take a look at and say like, wow, I had this conversation with my doctor and they said my 10 year heart attack stroke risk score is 25% and I see this online all the time and they're like what's something I can do? That's natural.
Speaker 1:Incorporate some of these elements into your diet. I mean, it's not easy. Behavior change takes a long time. It's a thing that is tough to incorporate consistently, but this is something to think about. There are legitimate benefits here to help people, and the benefits don't stop there. There's evidence that it helps prevent and manage type 2 diabetes and that it helps support and sustain healthy weight management, and there's a lot of benefits because there's more vegetables, you have more fiber, more healthy fats, helps contribute to your gut microbiome and reduce inflammation, perhaps improving your metabolism. But all in all, it's just a good idea to think about this. This is like the most evidence-based diet, the thing pushed forward the most, and I mean there's no like big pharma attached to this. It's just like a big Mediterranean.
Speaker 2:Big med.
Speaker 1:That could be misconstrued. So this is all well and good. I think we've convinced people that like well, maybe not perfect for everyone, there are certain elements of this that could be really helpful for someone's health, especially when it comes to reducing cardiovascular risk. Like that's the big key, one that's always taught to us in school and that you kind of teach and practice. But but I think a lot of times people go out there and like, what can I do? Like what are the practical steps that I can do to make this happen? Nikki?
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:Can you take us through what a breakfast might look like for someone who's going through the Mediterranean diet, thinking to make some changes?
Speaker 2:Sure, we have some Greek yogurt with berries, maybe some nuts and a drizzle of honey. We've actually been doing that a lot lately.
Speaker 1:We have.
Speaker 2:Or some whole grain toast with tomatoes and olive oil. Now I feel like I want toast with tomatoes, and we ate all the tomatoes that we have.
Speaker 1:We definitely did, and I guess I wonder, would ricotta also fit in this, because we've been doing some of that as well also fit in this because we've been doing some of that as well.
Speaker 2:I don't know how much dairy plays a part in.
Speaker 1:You said, dairy in moderation is where we were at, so maybe the Greek yogurt would satisfy that. Oh yeah, but this all sounds delicious.
Speaker 2:What about? What do you think? Yeah, I want a piece of toast with the tomato now. I love tomatoes.
Speaker 1:You do Quick aside, you know like a summer heirloom tomato.
Speaker 2:I love it so much it's like my top five favorite foods.
Speaker 1:Is that a Jersey?
Speaker 2:Flaky salt? I don't know. Your mom's talking about Jersey tomatoes and I'm like, yeah, mary loves a Jersey tomato. No, I seriously love them. Like when my boss gave me those tomatoes from her garden last summer, do you remember that? That was like the happiest day of my life and like I told her that and I think she thought I was being sarcastic. But I'm like, no, that made me so happy. There were a bunch of them and every day after work I had my afterschool snack and it was just a tomato.
Speaker 1:It was delicious, absolutely delicious. Um big tomato gal over here, can you take us through what a lunch might look like for someone on the Mediterranean diet?
Speaker 2:Sure Lunch you could have some mixed greens with some chickpeas, more tomatoes, olives, feta and maybe a little homemade olive oil lemon dressing all right, take us through, give us a little sample.
Speaker 1:You know this is a in the family recipe book. I know I said it wrong. It's more for the bit than it is anything. Tell us a little bit about a homemade dressing. What are the staple elements to do that?
Speaker 2:okay, you need well, you need oil, a good quality extra virgin olive oil, and then either like a vinegar or a citrus. So either like lemon juice red wine vinegar is good usually a two to one ish ratio of the oil to the lemon or the vinegar. Whatever the like acid part is a little joj of some dijon mustard, if you're feeling crazy, um, and then salt pepper and then whatever other like seasonings you want. Could put a little like grated Parmesan cheese in there, but it's really easy.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you broke it down there.
Speaker 2:It's way better for you than anything you buy in the store that's just filled with canola oil.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and like God knows what else, right, yeah, like in there um, can you keep it?
Speaker 2:yeah, you can keep it. You should keep it on the counter, though, because it'll all just like get weird in the fridge and then you mentioned vinegar.
Speaker 1:You said red wine vinegar. Can you use any other types of vinegar?
Speaker 2:oh yeah, an apple cider vinegar. Um, there's also a dressing I've made before with like some soy sauce in there, like some soy sauce, apple cider vinegar oil Dijon.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. So it sounds like there's like a ton of variety that you can do. There were some fundamental elements in there. It sounds like you need the extra virgin olive oil, a vinegar and the acidic component I right to say that you're like balsamic vinegar.
Speaker 2:You can put a little like zhuzh of honey in there if you want it a little sweeter I've seen like maple syrup yeah, that too that happened last week, or just this past week, earlier in the week.
Speaker 1:How many times can I say week, oh my god. Week, um, what else? Thank you for sharing that.
Speaker 2:I mean hopefully we inspire some people to like really get creative in the kitchen no, it's really so easy, and you probably already have all those things in your house, and if you don't, you should get them and become an ingredient household, and then you can make whatever dressing you want, whenever you feel like it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and then like you can make whatever dressing you want, whenever you feel like it, yeah, and then like you can make salads interesting and creative too. Like you try something new and different, which is awesome. I mean, this is a huge eye-opening experience in our time together. That like I love, that piece. I love when you make a salad dressing like that Huge endorsement, I'm really stepping outside of my dressing before my normal role here of like I love this stuff, the first breakfast salad that I had, changed my life.
Speaker 1:And you know, just for keeping family secrets we won't say it on air, but like I love the breakfast salad. And then it's just like every week comes out a new salad dressing. I drink the stuff. That's probably not Mediterranean of me, but like I take it out of the mason jar it is a problem with condiments?
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's more of me thing than anything else. But guys, let me tell you the stuff is great. Try it at home. Transitioning here Don't eat the whole can of chickpeas. I became a hefty boy when I started doing that. All the time, here and there, like there's like probably like a serving and a half, maybe two and a half servings in a can of chickpeas Double check me on that when you get the chance. Really high in protein, Really high in fiber. I love the chickpea itself. I was a beefcake when I was eating chickpeas all the time, unwarranted and like without limit, because I thought it was the best thing. So everything in moderation is what I'm trying to say. Even the best foods in the Mediterranean diet can deserve a little moderation. That's my diatribe on the chickpea. I'm also seeing whole grain pita with hummus and veggies and that's a lunch. That's a great option. But it all starts at the grocery store. We can pause there for a second. We talked about a dinner. Can you take us through what a dinner on the Mediterranean diet might be talked?
Speaker 2:about a dinner. Can you take us through what a dinner on the Mediterranean diet might be? Sure? Maybe, like a few times a week, you have some grilled salmon roast, some eggplant zucchini with some quinoa. This actually sounds really good. I think we have quinoa in the kitchen too. Or you can make a chicken stew Not quite sure what that entails.
Speaker 1:With some tomatoes, garlic and herbs, served with brown rice. No notes on this Chicken incorporating the lean meat there as opposed to a red meat, which is a great option. I don't have any thoughts about dinner, but it's just another idea for you folks out there thinking about how can I be Mediterranean? Everyone likes to snack. Can you take us through a couple different ideas for what you can keep in the house to snack on?
Speaker 2:so yeah, fresh fruits and veggies are always a good option to have.
Speaker 1:List a couple because I think like it's a very. We've been doing a lot of hand waving, like fresh fruits and veggies. What can people take, pick up and like I mean, we have some of our fruit now carrots, bell peppers, cucumbers I feel like the fruit is more seasonal right now.
Speaker 2:Get some like watermelon. That's good. We just got a good one. I might have some tonight while we watch Love Island, because we don't have any processed sweet treats in the house. So I guess I'm going to have to eat some fruit.
Speaker 1:I know you're really To cure my sweet tooth. You're really like leaning into me on this. It's like, but you know, chocolate chips don't count for the calories.
Speaker 2:And then some nuts. So like almonds or walnuts are good to snack on too, but also very calorie dense. So do with that, do with. Can you break that down a little? What is like you?
Speaker 1:know no jargon. Explain calorie dense. What does that mean? But there's a lot of calories for a little bit yeah, I mean like here I am thinking I'm great, oh yeah, even.
Speaker 2:Eddie, just like I mean you can. If you have a little scale that's more accurate, you can like weigh it or measure it or count them. That was a sad day, but yeah, that was a sad day because Eddie was out here eating I think there were cashews like by the handful. It was pist sad day, but yeah, that was a sad day, because Eddie was out here eating. I think there were cashews like by the handful.
Speaker 1:It was pistachios. Oh, yeah, the pistachios and the cashews.
Speaker 2:Yeah, by the fistful, you had a problem with that too, and Eddie is not a small guy, so he doesn't have small hands, so he was eating many servings very quickly.
Speaker 1:And it was sad when you like, broke out the scale.
Speaker 2:And then yeah, Cause I like pack some for your lunch, like one serving, and you were like wait, that's it. This has this 120 calories, oh.
Speaker 1:I was mortified, yeah.
Speaker 2:I think he was like I'm eating 400 calories a day Just in nuts.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, it's a miracle that my weight, like, stays the same or behaves the way it does.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's so crazy Wow.
Speaker 1:Anyway, must be so nice. And as we talk about all these foods, it all starts at the grocery store, and so when you go there and you're making your decisions, maybe plan ahead or know what you're going to pick out, because now you've got a couple options and a couple meal plans for the week to get creative, and there's recipes all over the place. But there are a few fundamentals that we want to share with you, that we've talked about the episode, but we want to put them in a more itemized list for you, so we'll go back and forth here. But here are a couple key things to think about when getting started with the Mediterranean diet. Number one fill about half your plate with vegetables at lunch and dinner. I mean, look at the circle, half dedicate to all those vegetables. I don't think a lot of people do that. Maybe they do, maybe I'm I mean, even sometimes my portions are off. I'm like, yeah, let's put all that meat and let's get the, even when it's like rice and chicken and vegetables like pasta Eddie four bowls pasta.
Speaker 2:Eddie, four bowls, a roof it's my family's name. I've been calling him Eddie four bowls for the last couple of days because he had four bowls of pasta.
Speaker 1:Look, it's delicious. Can you take us through number two?
Speaker 2:Swap your butter for olive oil yeah, easy win right there.
Speaker 1:Number three choose a whole grain over refined ones. I think, uh, whole grain meaning like you can just literally see the name whole grain on the the bread, but, um, a refined one would be what? Like a standard, standard white bread. Is that right? I'll just take them from here. Plan fish meals, maybe twice a week, and that goes back to going to the grocery store, making your plan ahead of time. Maybe you plan to have some fish more than one time during the week and see how that goes for you. You can use herbs and spices instead of salt.
Speaker 1:At some point we're going to talk about the dash diet, but you can still make food delicious even without a lot of sodium and finish your meals with fruit instead of sweets. So you know, even like you were saying tonight, you're probably going to lean into the watermelon for a dessert Not as fun, perhaps, as an ice cream, but if you do get a watermelon and you're in the right frame of mind, you might have the best watermelon you've ever had in your life. So just keep an open mind. You know who you are if you're listening to this and you understand what that bit was.
Speaker 1:So I'm just going to deliver some final thoughts about the Mediterranean diet. It isn't just healthy, it's probably enjoyable, sustainable and really backed by some of the strongest evidence that we have in nutrition science. At the end of the day, it helps protect your heart, your brain, your weight and, because it's so delicious, maybe it makes you happier. It's not about cutting out food. It's all about nourishing your body in delicious ways to be able to improve your health. I don't know if you need to talk to your doctor before doing this, because it's pretty standard and a nice thing to do, but maybe it's a nice idea to talk to your doctor, or maybe talk to a dietician if you aren't sure which way you need to head. But, most importantly, thanks for coming back to another episode of your Checkup. Hopefully you were able to learn something for yourself, a loved one or a neighbor.
Speaker 1:Find us on our website. Send us some fan mail. We love to interact with our community. Send us an email at yourcheckuppod at gmailcom. But, most importantly, stay healthy, my friends. Until next time. I'm Ed Dolesky. I'm Nicola Rufo. Thank you and goodbye.
Speaker 2:Bye.
Speaker 1:This information may provide a brief overview of diagnosis, treatment and medications. It's not exhaustive and is a tool to help you understand potential options about your health. It doesn't cover all details about conditions, treatments or medications for a specific person. This is not medical advice or an attempt to substitute medical advice. You should contact a health care provider for personalized guidance based on your unique circumstances. We explicitly disclaim any liability relating to the information given or its use. This content doesn't endorse any treatments or medications for a specific patient. Always talk to your healthcare provider for complete information tailored to you. In short, I'm not your doctor, I am not your nurse, and make sure you go get your own checkup with your own personal doctor.
