When being fed in the Med, the diet is a disaster
We hear a lot about the healthy Mediterranean diet, with Italy, Greece and Spain exemplary of this way of eating. We should be more like them, with their fresh veg and fish and good-quality olive oil. According to the Mayo Clinic, “the foundation of the Mediterranean diet is vegetables, fruits, herbs, nuts, beans and whole grains”.
Well, having spent several days in Rome last week, I can only laugh at this. The Mediterranean diet, at least in Rome, is as far from the wholesome, virtuous cuisine we imagine as can be. As far as I can tell, it is almost exclusively bad for you, with the most easily available foods the three Ps: pastries, pizza and pasta. And there’s gelato, too. The only vegetables I ate were either fried or surrounded by carbs – battered courgette; veg on pizza; or tomato on a hunk of bread.
Not for want of trying, but somehow when you want a quick bite on the hop or stop at a pizzeria, vegetables are hidden away, bar the odd tired olive. Perhaps the locals can access them, but front and centre are carbs and cheese. And the gelato.
We hear a lot about the Mediterranean diet’s respect for fish. The only fish I encountered were anchovies on pizza or, again, combined with the courgettes and battered.
I was very happy eating pizza, pasta, pastry and ice cream (which comes with whipped cream in classier establishments) – the latter is most welcome after a day traipsing round the jewels of antiquity. My waistline is a different story: if we’re meant to slim down for the feared second wave of the virus, then alas, I am going in the wrong
direction.