Funny how the diet they eat, the bold section headings and the actual advice given seem to contradict or are just plain vague:
Quote:
Eat at least one portion of pulses each week for gut health
From Portuguese beans made with pinto beans to Spanish bean stew with butter beans, pulses and legumes (including chickpeas, beans and lentils) feature prominently in the Atlantic way of eating. Patel says that in the UK we eat nowhere near the 50g a day of legumes that the World Health Organisation recommends for all-round health. Patel says they are packed with fibre, plant polyphenols and nutrients that boost gut and digestive health. “Our intake of legumes in the UK is around 28g per person per week,” Patel says. “We would definitely benefit from following the higher intakes of the Spanish and Portuguese.”
|
So they say you should eat at least one portion weekly, although WHO says you need 50g/day (while not mentioning how big one portion is on the Atlantic diet), and that they feature prominently in the Atlantic diet - but no indication of exactly how much they consume in the Atlantic diet.
The push for fresh oily fish always confounds me. I doubt it's that difficult to get fresh fish in the UK that's actually FRESH - living on islands surrounded by water means fish are likely one of the most readily available sources of protein, at least in towns near the coasts. But if you go someplace like landlocked W Va, or Oklahoma, any fish available will be canned, smoked, or frozen - and they distinctly recommend against canned and smoked. Even here in PA - I only live a couple hours from the Atlantic and about an hour from the Chesapeake Bay, but our local stores "fresh" fish departments generally have "fresh" fish with signs saying "previously frozen, thawed for your convenience" So frozen it is. But something they never seem to mention is that all fish has mercury in it these days. So you're supposed to eat all this fresh fish, while strictly limiting your fish consumption because of the mercury content.
Oh and then there's those individuals who are highly allergic to fish, as in keep the epi-pen handy in case you accidentally consume something you didn't realize had Worcestershire sauce in it. (because Worcestershire has some anchovy in it)
Then there's beef and pork:
Quote:
Red meat — pork and beef — is allowed
“Meat is a definite feature of the Atlantic diet,” Patel says. The most popular types are pork and lean beef. “Meat is a good source of protein nutrients, including iron, B12, zinc and B vitamins, and can play a part in a healthy diet but do stick to healthy guidelines,” she says. The best and most easily absorbed form of iron is the heme iron found in red meat. In the UK, the NHS says “red meat, including pork and beef” can form part of a balanced diet, although government advice is to eat no more than 70g a day of cooked weight of red meat and to avoid processed meat products such as salami and sausage.
|
So how much red meat are the ones doing the Atlantic diet eating? I somehow doubt they're strictly limiting their intake to 70 g daily. And are they eating processed meat products? They don't mention those little details - but unless they're eating the entire carcass at one meal, chances are they're eating plenty of processed meats too, because those are old fashioned preservation methods. And then there's the question of what they're doing with all the fat from the pork and beef, since they're still only recommending lean cuts.
This gives us a little hint though:
Quote:
|
When I first visited Portugal just over 12 years ago,gambas da costa (prawns from our coast), amęijoas (clams), dourada (sea bream) and robalo (sea bass) and the simple way of cooking it all enthralled me. People here want to taste the seafood, not the sauce. That led me to a love affair with the country where I now live: after spending one of the lockdowns on the Portuguese coast I decided not to return to London. The move has completely changed my eating habits because this wonderfully seasonal produce is not only abundant but much more affordable. Here I use extra virgin olive oil (sometimes pork lard) as my main cooking fat, and I eat more citrus fruits, almonds, tomatoes, peppers, onion, garlic and carrots, and feel better and lighter all round. Crucially, I can go for a blow-out mariscada (seafood platter) lunch with friends, and not feel in need of a nap afterwards.
|
And yet they're still warning: don't eat more than 70g of red meat/day, make sure it's lean, avoid processed meats, and eat lots of fish/seafood (but stay away from salted and canned fish, while not even mentioning the mercury content)... but then there's also this:
Quote:
|
Cozido ŕ Portuguesa (slow-cooked pork, beef, sausages, vegetables and potatoes) is a national dish; feijoada (black bean and pork stew) is another; and the traditional Christmas Eve meal is bacalhau cozido com todos (stewed salt cod with everything, including potatoes and cabbage, fresh garlic and olive oil).
|
Many of the distinctions they point out between what they consume on the Atlantic diet and what is consumed in the UK is not all that significant -
8.32kg tomatoes/year in the UK vs 12.98kg or tomatoes/year on Atlantic (that amounts to a difference of 0.08kg tomatoes/week, which is about 2 oz or 1/4 cup per week)
202 eggs/year vs 220 eggs/year. (approximately 1/3 of an egg per week)
And yet more contradiction to those egg numbers:
Quote:
|
A study in the Molecular Nutrition and Food Research journal reported that one egg a day could lower the risk of type 2 diabetes.
|
That would be 365 eggs per year - so even the Atlantic diet is still falling very short of that ideal.
You'd think that if they wanted to show this as a truly viable diet, they'd stick to the differences that actually separate it from the typical standard diet that includes a lot of convenience foods, fast foods, and junk foods:
Quote:
|
“The Atlantic diet typically contains local, fresh and minimally processed seasonal foods such as vegetables, fruits, whole grains, beans and olive oil,” says Alex Ruani, a researcher in nutrition science at UCL and chief science educator at the Health Sciences Academy. “But it also features moderate amounts of meat, mainly pork, some starchy-based carbs like bread and pasta, dairy including milk and a little wine”
|
In other words, what they actually eat in Spain and Portugal on the so-called Atlantic Diet is an historically traditional diet. The nuances such as olive oil or lard, salted fish or fresh, exactly how many eggs weekly and how much cheese or milk daily or weekly - those are all going to be slightly different in different countries. The biggest thing is that they're not eating a lot of junk.
But then I doubt most people these days are even aware of what was historically traditional in terms of diet - they can't imagine a world without a fast food place or Starbucks on every corner, not having an entire grocery aisle of boxed cereals, another aisle with nothing but sodas, and yet another separate aisle (or even 2 or 3) containing nothing but snacks, cookies, crackers, and chips.