Hello to all,

I’m new to this and not yet embarked on a programme – so far I’m thinking about my options and how I can make changes. I have a few questions about foods:

1. I get that the Mediterranean diet is meant to be healthy. HOWEVER…..Italians eat loads of pasta and pizza as well as cakes for breakfast! And those we are meant to avoid. I’m baffled and confused, especially about the pasta. Can anyone enlighten me?

2. I normally eat a breakfast of my own muesli: it’s rolled oats, with mixed seeds and nuts. No sugar, no dried fruit, just semi skimmed milk. Is that to be avoided too? Are ordinary rolled oats OK to have or need they be the jumbo type?

Any advice and thoughts welcome, please 😀

Hi, Welcome on board!
I was puzzled when I first heard people talking about the Mediterranean diet a few years ago for a similar reason! What it is looking at is the amount of fresh foods – especially veg and fruit that all the countries around the Mediterranean. They eat very few processed foods. There is also a lot of olive oil, fish, beans and nuts. Meat, eggs and full fat products are eaten in small quantities. So – no it is not a diet full of pasta and pizza!
Oats, I made my own muesli to a similar recipe to yours and for the 8 weeks, all processed carbs are out, so no oats. Rolled oats ie, non processed, are ok in small amounts – but best left alone. I now use the seeds and nuts and add to full fat muesli and add berries to that an I find it as filling as my muesli was. 60g full fat Greek yogurt, 30g blueberries (or brambles/blackberries/strawberries), then add 3g each of linseeds, pumpkin seeds, and sunflower seeds, 3 almonds chopped plus a good pinch of cinnamon.
http://www.weightlossresources.co.uk/diet/mediterranean_diet.htm this is a good description of the principles..
good luck

Hi Rowantree, welcome to the forums!

I have it on good authority (Italians or people of Italian descent) that the Italian version of the med diet did not used to have so much pasta and pizza in it! A few generations ago Italians would have eaten a lot more meals based around fruit, veg, meat, fish or beans.

Cake for breakfast! Yuk!!! I often had an Italian friend of my son’s staying who loved cake or any other pudding for breakfast but he is young and extremely unfit as a consequence of eating the amount of pasta which would feed 5 people and as many sticky cakes and doughnuts he can get his hands on. So definitely NOT his version of the med diet!!!

I think the greek version, minus the bread, is closer – yummy vilkage salads topped with fresh mountain herbs, olive oil and feta! 🙂

Hi. While my friends in Italy do eat carbs for breakfast, pasta and pizza play a small part in their diet.

In their home a small amount of pasta is a first course, followed by protein and either veg or salad, then a little cheese or fruit. Pizza is a very occasional meal.

Eating out it is usually possible to have a meal without pasta, and no need to order pizza. There are meat, fish and poultry dishes on most menus.

Lots of olive oil and fresh produce 😃

My nana is 93 and Italian. She left Italy during ww2. She has often told me how pasta was only ever eaten as a starter, therefore very small portions, and pizza was only eaten by peasants. Make of that what you will….

Hi, This is the first time I have ever joined any forum. I am absolutely new to BSD and with a low BMI, so having read the book, will start with 5:2, In the meantime have just switched to healthy foods and low carbs, which resulted in loss of 10lbs.
Still confused about oats….I recently gave up my fruit free meusli and replaced it with Porage Oats, making porridge with added oatmeal, and milled seeds with yogurt thinking cooked oats would be better.??? Are any oats considered a good breakfast, if so any particular type of jumbo oats? I could resort to seeds only for breakfast but like my oats and am likely to become disappearing woman. On the other hand its more important I am successful in gettling blood sugar level down so would follow delicious suggestion of milled seeds and blueberries if I had to….
Question 2 ….I see rice is not good, how low is the GI on wild rice, eg red carmargue rice or long grain brown rice? Can I eat regularly or occasionally?
Question 3….is brown pasta considered high GI too? Thanks . Tofa

Hi tofa, welcome to the forums and the BSD way of life! Have you thought of switching to full fat yoghurt with a sprinkling of seeds and berries?

If you really want porridge oats you could toast some on foil under the grill then add a few( when cold) to some full fat yoghurt with berries and seeds. It’s delicious that way and you are including the fat for the BSD diet!

Brown rice is lower GI than white but use as an ingredient rather than the basis of a meal. Personally I’m staying off carbs as I feel better without them 🙂

Hi tofa
I can offer an answer to your question about oats. As cereal goes, rolled oats are the best to choose, but not the ready brek type. But they have a significant quantity of carbs, more if you mix them with milk. So its a question of are you happy to have that number of carbs. Some people aim for 20g carbs a day so they wouldn’t have porridge. Others aim for 50/60 or more, or aren’t even counting carbs and so porridge would be acceptable. They are filling and enjoyable.

The other point to bear in mind, if you are concerned about your blood sugar, is that some people find porridge causes a spike while others have no effects so you could try to see what effect it has on you and make a decision from there.

Hi Tofa,
Welcome on board. Oats are ok if unprocessed, so rolled oats or steel-cut oats are fine, porridge oats are not. Porridge oats are processed and not advisable, they are the instant ones that you add water or milk to and boil and serve within 20mins. Rolled oats need soaked overnight, they way my grandmother used to make porridge.
There is a list in MM’s book – sadly I have a Kindle version that does not give pages so I can’t direct you to a page, but it is chapter 6, about 6 pages into the chapter under the section The “M Plan”, then 3 pages on in that section, a table of ‘The M Plan – what to eat to control your weight’ and that itemises what to eat and what to avoid.
Brown rice is ok, but I don’t think red rice is as it does not have the extra fibre. Wild rice is ok. From memory — the book says occasionally eaten.
For M Plan, you can try quinoa, bulgar, buckwheat (I really like this as it is nutty and a lot of texture), whole grain barley instead of rice.
All pasta is off the menu, brown has a negligible amount of extra fibre so still too starchy.

For breakfast, I used to the muesli in the 5:2 book which used oats and oat bran along with 100ml skimmed yogurt, ground almonds, seeds and a few blueberries or rasps. I adapted that to 60ml full fat yogurt, 30g blueberries or rasps, then 3gm each or flax seeds, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds and 3 almonds. I am as full with the new full fat version as I was with the older version. On the 5:2 you could add in some ground almonds to the mix if you need more.

If you go through the recipes at the back, you can pretty much use them all for the ‘5’ days and from them you can get an idea of portions.
good luck.

Hi Orchid, thank you SO much for your detailed reply, that is a great help and I now know what to do, especially about breakfast. . One or two more items out of the cupboard too. I will look at Chapter 6 again. Cheers and thank you again. Tofa