Mediterranean Diet with Dr. Reller

Welcome to the Get Healthy Tampa Bay Podcast with Dr. Kerry Reller! In this episode of "Get Healthy Tampa Bay," Dr. Kerry Reller discusses the Mediterranean diet, highlighting its ranking as the best overall diet by U.S. News and World Report. She covers its health benefits, comparison with other diets like the DASH and MIND diets, and its popularity in Blue Zones. The episode details the diet's components, emphasizing fruits, vegetables, fish, whole grains, and olive oil, and its role in promoting health and longevity.

0:00  Welcome back! It's me, HI
00:40 Top Diets in the US
02:26 Blue Zones
04:05 Definition of Mediterranean Diet
11:00 The Essentials 
13:45 Extra Virgin Olive Oil
22:40 Benefits of Mediterranean Diet
24:10 How You Eat
25:59 Myths About this Diet
32:00 Summary
33:20 Tips!

Connect with Dr. Kerry Reller
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#DietAndWellness #BlueZones #GetHealthyTampaBay #FoodAsMedicine
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Transcript

kerry: 0:28

Hi, everybody. Welcome back to the Get Healthy Tampa Bay podcast. I'm your host, Dr. Kerry Reller, and today we have a very special guest, me! So I thought I would do a little overview of the Mediterranean diet or pattern of eating because I find it important and it's one of my highly recommended diets or patterns of eating to my patients. So basically, I don't wanna call it a diet because I do believe it's a pattern of eating and not a diet, but I want to stress that. So I'm going to not make it as boring just looking at my face. So I'm gonna go over some slides. That is if you are, watching this on YouTube so this is the Mediterranean diets or pattern of eating. So basically this was brought to my attention more recently because once again the U. S. News and World Report have gone and released their rankings of the top diets. It is basically a panel of 43 experts ranking 30 diets across 11 categories. So each diet is rated on a scale of one to five with five being the highest. And for the seventh consecutive year, The Mediterranean diet has been ranked as the best overall diet. It was first in 11 categories and the DASH diet was second in five categories. So the DASH diet is the diet to basically Stop hypertension. And it was ranked right behind the Mediterranean diet, which is of interest. And I'll explain that in a second. So the Mediterranean diet was ranked best for overall diet, the best diet for diabetes, the best family friendly diet, the best diet for joint and bone health, the best healthy eating diet, the best heart healthy diet, and the easiest diet to follow. It was ranked second for weight loss and second for plant based. And the overall best diets that was second was the DASH diet, like I said, and the third is the MIND diet. And this is interesting because the MIND diet is simply a combination of the DASH and Mediterranean diet. Now, I'm not going to go into the MIND diet today, but basically, it's the combination of the two and it is shown to have improved cognitive benefit when people are following that eating pattern. So the other big hype right now is about blue zone. I'm not sure if you've heard or listened to the Netflix documentary. I think it's like how to live to a hundred, the secrets of the blue zones or something like that. So if you haven't seen it, check it out, but basically the blue zones are five regions in the world that are deemed the healthiest. Where people live the longest with the least illness. So basically, they live long, healthy, happy lives. And they are living long and fulfilled lives. They're not just long in age. They're also not being burdened by disease. And two of the five of the blue zones are located in the Mediterranean. One is the Greek island of Ikaria. I probably am not saying that right. And the Italian island of Sardinia. So we are going to take a look at those. so they studied these people and they were shown to live longer, have lower risks of cardiovascular disease, including stroke and heart disease, and lower risk of several types of cancer, lower risk of type 2 diabetes, lower risk of brain disorders, and that includes age related cognitive decline, Parkinson's disease, and Alzheimer's. The Mediterranean diet has been shown in many, many studies I'm not going to go into the details of all the different types of studies too much today, but they've shown that they can prevent all of these things and then also treat these things. So they can help with the management of diabetes. They can improve the liver health and it can help with weight control as well. So Mediterranean diet has definitely been proven to be very beneficial pattern of eating to be following for health and longevity. And basically the definition of the Mediterranean diet is kind of focusing on emphasizing certain things. So I have a picture here that you know, has lots of fruits and vegetables, legumes, fish, nuts, seeds, berries You know, things in their whole form that were grown somewhere. It also has a glass of wine and olive oil. So the Mediterranean diet emphasizes like green leafy vegetables, whole grains in their whole form, fruits, nuts, legumes, extra virgin olive oil, fish and seafood, and then there's kind of a moderate intake of poultry, dairy, and eggs, and a limited intake of red meats and sweets, but they're not completely eliminated. And for focusing on the fruits and vegetables, basically, it was recommended to have two to three servings of fruits per day and like six to seven servings of veggies and throughout the week, you really want a variety of colors, the colors offer different antioxidants and beneficial plant compounds, if you can go back to Last year's episode on antioxidants, you can learn all about the different, different ones there and how they can benefit us. But that's what mostly this diet is. It's basically also an anti inflammatory diet, though not described in that manner by the studies at the U. S. News and World Report. Vegetables can be cooked or raw preferably if you're going to cook them, maybe you roast them with a little extra virgin olive oil, and I'm really going to go into detail on that later. Typically they do eat potatoes with the skin, because it has more of the fiber and nutrients, and not usually more than three times a week, and they're eating the whole potato. They're not cutting it up, taking the skin off, frying it, like we do in the standard American diet. So you're going to get a lot more benefit from that. And then they really do stress garlic and onions, and sometimes even tomatoes, which is often used in a lot of Mediterranean dishes in something called sofrita, or sofrito, and it, it's a base of a lot of different dishes. Unfortunately for me, garlic and onions bother me, so I typically avoid those as much as I can. Maybe not garlic as much as the onions, but they're known to be very beneficial. And when cooked with extra virgin oil, olive oil, there's even more benefit with all the different polyphenols. And then we talk about whole grains in this Mediterranean diet. So when we talk about whole grains, it means that's in their natural whole form. They're not refined. They're not broken down. You got the whole seed in there. And honestly, we often are focusing on breads that are whole wheat, whole grain. Not multi grain because that's when part of that will be thrown in there with white flour or something more refined and sometimes sourdough is often recommended because it is the fermentation process can be very beneficial and healthy. So sourdough bread is a more common staple in the Mediterranean diet. And instead of eating the bread with butter, you're often eating it with extra virgin olive oil and maybe with some spices and herbs. And that has shown to be much more beneficial. Of course, they are also limiting the portion sizes of all of these things to very small amounts. Especially when we talk about that pasta is on the Mediterranean diet plan. Pasta, typically homemade, isn't really the main event of the meal. It's typically in a smaller portion, it's just like a side item, and it's just not the whole part of the meal, and they eat a lot less than what we might see in a standard American diet. And Even still like people when they are traveling over to Italy or anything for visiting. They typically aren't gaining weight from eating the more carbohydrate pasta and breads and all of the soils when they're over there and they I mean Admittedly, we don't really know exactly what's going on because there's usually more activity and we're walking But it's just like all the process things that are going into the food Foods in the United States are, you know, contributing more to weight causes than in the European countries, not to say that they don't also have weight issues, but mostly that there's been a lot of articles and studies saying that people aren't gaining weight while eating in abundance in, you know, going overseas. So other things included into the Mediterranean diet I had briefly mentioned were dairy. So typically we're not talking about abundance of dairy, maybe two servings of dairy a day, like one to one and a half ounces of cheese. And sometimes there's really emphasis on this goat cheese and yogurt. So basically they're fermented foods that are good for the gut, like feeding the gut microbiome. Other cheeses can be included, but it's really not an abundance of cheese. And then as far as seafood, it's definitely preferred over meat. You want at least two servings per week. And poultry is a little bit limited. Two times a week, maybe. And eggs, depending upon the size of the person, maybe four to eight eggs per week as well. And that's more referring to the egg yolk, whereas the egg whites are kind of unlimited. Legumes, you want to get that in a couple of meals per week and you limit red meat. Usually we're going to say like two times a month, like you don't, it should not be in the weekly meal plan. And then processed meats like salami and sausage and things like that, really limiting that no more than one time a week. And those foods, those processed meats have been linked to colon cancer. So we really want to limit the intake of that on the Mediterranean diet. And then sweets or desserts typically, I mean, allowed on this plan. Typically, we're saying maybe once or twice a week, but in very small portions. They were not studied to be a typical American standard portion of a sweet or dessert. And sometimes we give an example of just maybe some yogurt with a little bit of honey and berries, and that's considered the dessert. That wouldn't be, you know, the regular morning breakfast or anything like that, because it's including the honey. Water is typically the main drink. There's really an emphasis on hydration definitely wine recommended or you can have one to two glasses of wine, but you're not supposed to be binge drinking or really more than that. And then tea is also recommended, especially that tazan that is made from olives. Really anything from olives. Mediterranean diet really loves olives and olive oil, which I'm going to go into. So handful of nut seeds, olives are also on this dietary pattern. And the essentials of the Mediterranean diet is kind of a review, but Basically, the whole food focus, you want to emphasize fresh, minimally processed foods, including the variety of fruits and vegetables, the variety gets that whole color rainbow talking about all those antioxidants that I was referring to previously, and then minimally processed foods. So there's actually a I don't want to say a guideline, but a scale of processed foods called the Nova classifications were developed out of Brazil and it rates the like the amount of processing of food undergoes and typically, you know, everything is going to be a little bit minimally process. We want to. It's okay to include that, but it's things that is more process than that. So minimally processed just might be meaning that there's salt on a meat to preserve it or something is canned good or it's frozen for shipping and to store things for a longer period of time. But we're wanting to eliminate those Ultra processed foods. So those foods that you look at the back of the package, and you cannot understand any of the labels or the words that are used on there. You really want to limit those ultra processed foods. So it would help to leave the read labels, but so basically whole food focus and whole grains in their, you know, natural form a heart healthy fat. So I'm going to still go very deep into the olive oil, but it's the primary source of fat in this diet. Also nuts and seeds, but mostly the olive oil because you're limiting that red meat that may have. You know, more saturated fat. So when we talk about the hearth health, heart healthy fats, we're talking about the omega three fats and the unsaturated fats. So the protein sources on this diet include the legumes like beans and things like that and then fish poultry and the limited red meat eggs should be on there to whole grains and fiber really focusing on those whole grains and it's important to have good fiber intake for good gut health and feeding that gut microbiome dairy and eggs. I guess the egg should be on there too. But anyway, a moderate consumption of dairy products and eggs is on this plan, but not, you know, to an abundance. You can't have the unlimited cheese. And then, like I said earlier, the hydration is very important and moderate wine consumption. And then I already said this, but limiting processed foods and really reducing sugars and unhealthy fats, definitely avoiding that trans saturated fat that is really only found in like processed foods, things cooked at very high temperatures with like partially hydrogenated oils and the Baked goods sometimes, so we want to reduce all of that and read our labels. So we know what we're taking into our bodies. So more on extra virgin olive oil, so there are some myths out there that says you really can't cook with extra virgin olive oil because of the heat, like getting to the higher heat thing may produce that trans fat and kind of reduce the good antioxidants effects of the olive oil, but that's really not true because those antioxidants has to be really cooked over a very long time at that high heat where I mean, they do start to decline, but it's going to be a relatively long time before we lose most of that antioxidant effect with home cooking. So it is okay to be cooking with extra virgin olive oil. And you should they are mono unsaturated fats and they are stable. They're not creating that polarity that happens when you're heating the oils that causes problems. So the extra virgin oil, olive oil with vegetables increases your body's uptake of all the antioxidants presence in the vegetables and the oil. So one of my favorite things is to get the whole tray of vegetables out that I'm going to be cooking that night. Maybe it's broccoli, maybe it's cauliflower, maybe it's carrots, maybe it's all three, maybe it's green beans or asparagus or anything. But drizzling it all in olive oil. And then I do put a lot of like pepper and then some salt as well and that really helps the body uptake the antioxidants present in the veggies and in the oil at the same time and those vegetables are delicious raw with that olive oil. Or cooked. So if you've tried like plain vegetables and then added that olive oil, oh my gosh, it is to die for. It's delicious. There are definitely a lot of studies that have shown how good extra virgin olive oil is. One is the PREDIMED study. It was a primary prevention of cardiovascular disease with a Mediterranean diet. Basically it had three groups. One was a control group on the Mediterranean diet. And one was on the Mediterranean diet supplemented with extra virgin olive oil and the other one was on a low fat diet. They were followed for five years. It was about 7, 000 people who started with high coronary vascular risk, cardiovascular risk. And then. They showed that for every 10 grams of extra virgin olive oil consumed in that study that the cardiovascular risk dropped by 10%. That is amazing. And then those consuming the most extra virgin olive oil had a 35 percent lower atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease risk. So 35 percent reduction just from including the extra virgin olive oil over the Walnut study. Over the low fat diet, start using that extra virgin olive oil guys. Okay, so what is interesting about the extra virgin olive oil also is that it's only one of two common oils to come from a fruit, and the other is avocado oil. It's basically just juice squeezed from fresh olives, and avocado oil is also very good if you want to use that. It is a little more expensive, but it's worth trying if you haven't tried it before, and it's also known to be able to tolerate that higher heat of cooking too. So you couldn't also try avocado oil, but it is not listed in the Mediterranean diet. But extra virgin olive oil includes more than 30 polyphenols, which have protective antioxidant and anti inflammatory effects. So basically, there's a chemical called oleocanthal. Kind of gives it a peppery taste. And it's actually an anti inflammatory that works in the same biochemical pathway as ibuprofen, Advil, Motrin, Aleve, all of those anti inflammatory drugs. And it can help with osteoarthritis. It can reduce chronic inflammation over time and reduce the inflammation that might lead to heart disease and possibly brain disease and can even have anti cancer effects. There's another chemical called squalene. I'm probably butchering the name. But it concentrates on the skin and helps protect from sun damage. So there's actually a lower incidence of skin cancer in those following Mediterranean diets. It also helps plump the skin and increase moisture levels. And I know some people use this olive oil on their skin and it helps really moisturize it. And it's there's also some products that use squalene in particular, and if you got to make sure, because some of it is derived from shark, shark, something, so be careful with what you're using. You don't want that one. The other thing about extra virgin olive oil, it is, is not one of these highly refined seed oils. dominating the food industry today. Those are things you want to avoid. Refined seed oils. Those are made with heat, high pressure, and or chemicals. And that includes like canola oil and vegetable oil. So you want to avoid those two and preferably cook with the extra virgin olive oil. Or maybe avocado oil. So, you might think that when we recommend, like, two to three tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil per day that, that is a lot. And you might be worried about, oh my gosh, how, like, think about the calories in that. But it actually can help with weight control. And there are definitely studies around this and it's actually associated with better weight control and especially of that visceral harmful fat around the waist, if you've heard me talk about that before. So that visceral fat around the waist or around those organs are the things that lead to metabolic problems, like high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, things like that, and fatty liver. So reducing the visceral fat is super important. There was a Spanish study that found that those who consumed extra virgin olive oil compared to sunflower oil or more than half, I'm sorry, a third less likely to have obesity, so not associated with obesity. And the PREDIMED study that I already mentioned, they were consuming three to four tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil a day and not gaining weight over the years of the study, which I think it said it was at least seven, but it's, so ongoing, and they actually have lower visceral fat as well. It also contains OEA, which induces satiety. So it makes you feel full and basically is reducing how much you eat at later meals too. So the main fat of the extra virgin olive oil is monounsaturated fat called oleic acid, which actually raises OEA. So that's helpful in increasing satiety. And then in general, it can also reduce blood pressure, increase the HDL, that good cholesterol reduce oxidized or damaged LDL cholesterol. It can reduce triglycerides. And obviously I already said this many times, but it can reduce inflammation, but it also can improve blood glucose control. So bottles that are labeled. Olive oil, pure olive oil or light olive oil have been refined or blended and that usually results in a loss of the, you know, protected plant chemicals that was the purpose of, you know, having it in the first place. So those are the kind of ones that you want to avoid. You also want to keep it in a dark cabinet so it doesn't get that sunlight to create the oxidation of the chemicals. And then extra virgin olive oil phenols have those anti inflammatory effects even on human keratinocytes, suppressing key epidermal cytokines. So that's a lot of words and it was in a study that showed basically it can help prevent skin cancer. So that's kind of exciting and then I like to relate it back to, you know, asthma and allergies as much as I can since that's the other part of our practice, but olive oil and asthma. So there was a study on Italian adults that investigated the association between dietary fatty acids, particularly from olive oil, asthma and rhinitis. And it found that higher intakes of monounsaturated fatty acids and oleic acid, so the things that are in olive oil, were associated with reduced risk of current asthma. The higher olive oil intake correlated with a decreased risk of asthma. So it's super exciting to say that eating olive oil or using olive oil or extra virgin can, you know, reduce that risk of asthma and reduce the risk of recurrent asthma or uncontrolled asthma. Basically, it's an anti inflammatory and asthma is an inflammatory disease. So anything that's inflammatory can be reduced by extra virgin olive oil. And there's another compound called hydroxytyrosol. which is a phenolic compound in olive oil known for its anti inflammatory effects. There was a study on this that said that that hydroxytyrosol could potentiate an immune response increasing IL 10 secretion. I'm not going to go into the details of that, but that also might bolster a healthy immune response. So basically your immune system gets boosted from extra virgin olive oil intake as well. Super exciting. So benefits of a Mediterranean diet. There are obviously a ton. I can't even, you know, cover it all, but it does cut down on those bad fats. It limits the unhealthy saturated fats and trans fats that can raise cholesterol and cause inflammation. And then it promotes the good fats. It encourages the healthy unsaturated fats like omega 3s, which support cholesterol levels and brain health while fighting inflammation. And it watches the sodium intake, not quite as much as the DASH diet, which is why the DASH and the Mediterranean combined in the MIND diet had a really good effect. But it does control salt, it helps prevent high blood pressure, and reduces the risk of heart issues. And it does reduce carbohydrates and sugar because it's limiting those refined carbs and sugar and preventing blood sugar spikes and increase in unnecessary calorie intake. And it just kind of, if you're not having as much of that, you're not craving it as much and taking in as much either. And then it really emphasizes the fiber and the antioxidants. So the diet includes fiber, lots of foods with fiber to help with colon health and gut health. And feed the gut microbiome and then lots of antioxidants that reduce the inflammation and protect against cancer and all these other diseases that we're talking about. So, I don't know why they don't just label it also the anti inflammatory diet because they're very similar as well. one thing I really like about this diet or pattern of eating is it's not just about what you eat. But it's also about how you eat. So in the Mediterranean culture, the diet, it's mealtimes are given a priority, especially in the main meal of the day, whether it be lunch or dinner. And it's just, you know, you're focusing on that meal and the enjoyment of it. You want to sit together to eat. You want to cook the meal together. You want to use local foods and the ones in season with lots of spices and herbs using traditional cooking techniques and nothing new that would, you know, create or involve trans fats or any chemicals. You, like I said, sitting together to eat, enjoying a glass or two of wine, usually only with the and not to excess. You want to eat slow. Chat with others, enjoy the food, be mindful of what you're eating, allow time for your stomach to begin to empty and to digest. So it's not just about, what you're eating, but it's how you're eating. You make it a purposeful meal with mindfulness and paying attention to what you're eating. And these are other things that were seen in those blue zones. Not only did they eat like healthier things and we're moving a lot more because some of them were living in a neighborhood with a hill or something. So they got a lot more exercise, but they also were really, you know, having that community, that family and, and enjoying each other laughing, talking, and, talking about their day and really spending time with one another. So, and you know, it's not just eating the foods it's. You know, the community, which also, makes for a really healthy environment and A good thing for longevity, so there's some myths about the Mediterranean diet. I want to try to dispel. I had chat GPT. Give me a bunch of myths about the diet to see if I could figure out what you guys might be thinking. So the Mediterranean diet is too expensive. Not really true, especially if you are, limiting those processed foods. You're shopping the perimeter of the grocery store. You're getting whole foods, lots of fresh things, and preferably in season shopping locally. I think some of the limitations are saying that fish and seafood are more expensive. But like you can find a local market or Another distributor that has it more affordable. So it's possible. And then if you're limiting all the other foods that you don't actually need, then that is helpful as well. Cause you're not going to be buying those either. There's another myth. It's all about pasta and bread. Well, clearly that is not the case. They're focusing on whole grains and the pasta. Like I said previously is not the main dish. They may use the bread in dipping it in olive oil, but they're not dipping it in, you know, trans fat butter or margarine or anything like that, or saturated fat butter. So that is another benefit. It's not really all about that. It's more about the vegetables and fruits and seafood and, you know, sort of plant forward. And another myth. You can eat as much as you want. No diet out there. Can you eat as much as you want? you can overeat healthy food too. There's still portion control, there's still mindfulness. One of the blue zones, Okinawa, Japan, I always like to say this one to my weight management patients, but their thing is hachi bun me. I know I said it wrong, but it means like eating until you're 80 percent full and not overeating. So clearly they are living to past a hundred by eating to their 80 percent full. And they're clearly not eating as much as they want. So no diet ever or pattern of eating. Can you eat as much as you want and stay healthy? Okay. The the Mediterranean diet is only for weight loss. No, of course not. It's not. It happened to be number one. It's not even number one for weight loss. I think I said that it was the number one overall diet, but not number one in weight loss. Keto is actually number one weight loss, but that one is harder to maintain. So it's not, Followed as often, but the Mediterranean diet is good for weight loss, but you still have to be mindful of portion and paying attention to all this, everything that I have just said, but it's, it's not just only for weight loss is clearly for cardiovascular benefit, cognitive benefit, and bone health and all sorts of things. The Mediterranean diet is strict and restrictive. I also think that one is a myth. It is not strict. It is very easy to follow and it is not that restrictive either. I mean, no one's saying you can't ever have a sugar consumption. It's saying that it should be maybe no more than once a week, depending upon your goals, and it really should be in moderation. So you want to pay attention to the portion size of that. So if you're going to go to Italy and have your scoop of gelato, you know, It's perfectly okay, but maybe you're not doing that every day. Maybe it's once a week, maybe it's twice a week, depending upon how much, you move or your activity level or your metabolism or all sorts of things. But it is definitely not strict and restrictive. It can include these things. And it even includes the red meat. It's just, you know, you maybe choose a leaner cut and not as often. Another myth. So people in the Mediterranean region are all healthy. Well, we clearly know that's not true. Just because they live in the Mediterranean doesn't mean that they're healthy. There's clearly those blue zones that really show that they're healthy. But others, you know, have maybe adapted to standard American diet. Maybe our, their area has more access to fast food and processed foods. There's many reasons why we can say that everyone in the Mediterranean region isn't all healthy. And another myth, unlimited cheese consumption. Definitely can't eat all the cheese you want in the world and be healthy. You can eat cheese in a fair amount. That's really recommended no more than one or two serves a day. And preferably that fermented cheese. I mean, goat cheese does lift the top, but all cheeses, you know, are kind of included. So it's not unlimited though. Another myth. Excess wine consumption is healthy. Nobody ever said that. There's actually new things saying no wine consumption is healthy, but the Mediterranean diet that we're talking about does allow for one glass of wine, probably for a female at dinner and one to two for a male. So no more than that per day. And even like guidelines for American just the general healthy guidelines are not inclusive of more wine or alcohol than that. And when we mean one serving of wine, we mean five ounces. We don't mean, you know, the bottle. So excess wine is not healthy. And then the other myth on the last on the list is regular dessert consumption is acceptable. And I don't want to say it's not, but regular What is regular mean to you, right? Is regular once a week is regular. Every meal is regular. Every lunch and dinner is regular every day? I mean, you really have to define what regular is, but I would say if regular is once a week. Yeah, sure. It's acceptable. But are we talking about. you know, a giant bowl of ice cream, or are we talking about, you know, a half a cup of it? Or are we talking about, adding some honey to the yogurt with berries? Depending upon what you're eating or what you're choosing may flex that standard, I guess. But regular dessert consumption is acceptable, but you have to define what regular is. That concludes all the myths about the Mediterranean diet. So in summary, you know, the Mediterranean diet includes lots of fruits and vegetables, definitely green leafy vegetables, you want to get as many colors and variety as you can throughout the week, include fish or seafood, two servings at least a week, include poultry once or twice a week, red meat maybe once a month, lots of legumes Maybe like most in one or two times a week. And then the eggs kind of four to eight eggs per week or the yolk. You can have as much egg white as needed. That's also, you know, where the protein is. The egg yolk has that saturated fat and then it's really extra virgin olive oil forward diet. So in our house, we like to put extra virgin olive oil on all the vegetables we roast. And I think we put it on the chicken before we grill it as well. And then we put spices on it and it just, it really helps bring out the flavor, bring out the antioxidants and it's just delicious. And my kids kind of always say to me that they don't like other people's vegetables. They really only like our vegetables. So, I pride myself in that they only like my vegetables, but it is, it's hard to get them to get other people's. So, drizzling extra virgin olive oil on the vegetables is really good. And then the dessert in moderation, or, Less than once or twice a week and the wine consumption, one to two glasses per day at meals and no, not, not in abundance. So what are we having for dinner tonight? This is will be fun. So in our house today, we're going to be having salmon and I do tend to buy like more than one and then I'll freeze it and then, you know, we're thawing it right now and we're going to have that probably for a day or two. And then my son loves asparagus. So we, he asked for asparagus. So we are having asparagus with it as well. And my daughter who doesn't love asparagus will tolerate it. And I will also make green beans probably for tomorrow for the, she can have that for other leftover days. And then we'll probably have like a salad with it too. So in our salad we, I put like usually spinach, we'll chop up some mini sweet peppers for a nice crunch feel, some grape tomatoes, usually the colorful ones that they sell at Costco, and maybe a little bit of avocado. And then we usually pick a cheese and it's going to be either a shaved Parmesan cheese or like a mozzarella cheese. And that's typically what we put in our salad. We also have either like a dressing of some kind sometimes, you know, extra virgin olive oil and red wine vinegar, maybe a little mustard and some spices. Other times we'll use some like leftover dressing from something else that we had made. So we'll use that in there. And then the kids will eat the salad, the asparagus, the salmon will be great. Sometimes we'll add in the whole grain at dinner. Sometimes we don't. I just went to Whole Foods recently to stock up on some farro and I love farro. So I've had that actually twice in my lunch this week, but farro is something that will, we might add to it tonight if I have time. So that's kind of what we eat and then, I will say with the goat cheese comment, we make a like a turkey burger meal. So it's poultry sometimes, and we'll add goat cheese to it and avocado on top. And that makes for a, you know, a healthier option of a burger. And have side of vegetables in a salad, probably with that as well. But Our family loves goat cheese. So we have lots of goat cheese in the house and that's actually my favorite thing to put in an omelet. So if you guys are interested in any other tips or recipes for Mediterranean style eating let me know or Google it. Not hard. A very easy pattern to follow. We do have a handout that we use in our weight management patients that has a Mediterranean eating plan. And I think it's easiest to follow and the most healthy. So I typically give that rather than like a normal one or one that says low fat or low carb or anything like that. Typically I'm handing out the Mediterranean one. If I hand out anything that I think is relevant, if it depends on the person, of course. But if you are looking for a primary care doctor, Again, I'm Dr. Kerry Reller and our phone number is 727 446 1097. We also do obesity medicine, allergy, and asthma, and we are located in Clearwater and Palm Harbor. So we are accepting new patients. Come on out and I hope you enjoyed today's podcast and please tune in next week and we'll see what we've got waiting for you. Bye everybody.