The Mediterranean diet needs some holes poked in it, right? There's benefits to the Mediterranean diet, but there's also some serious drawbacks. I'm not a big fan of telling people to go consume 50% of their calories from carbohydrates. However, when you're looking at a real Mediterranean region and the type of carbohydrates they're consuming, and you look at the actual lifestyle that is there, it makes some more sense. So if you tell someone in the United States to eat Mediterranean, they're going to eat pasta, they're going to try to eat pasta, try to follow a Mediterranean approach, but the lifestyle also doesn't add up, right?
So it's hard to take a Mediterranean diet and apply it to the United States sort of way of living because the activity levels are lower, the food quality is different, which probably does matter, and even the types of carbohydrates we would probably lean into compared to in Europe or the Mediterranean are entirely different. What's really interesting is there was a study that was published that was completely done in free living situations. What we used to think is that carbohydrates in the evening would cause higher levels of glucose overnight and would be poor for metabolic health. And we've seen that in some American models with the standard American diet. But this particular study was interesting because it had subjects consume a relatively high-carb diet, but it was Mediterranean.
So it was like 50% carbs, 30% fat, but healthy fats, and only about 20% protein. So relatively low protein. So let's break down what they found here.
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Remember, still moderately high carb though, but they were in a caloric deficit. The most important thing to note here is that the only difference between the two groups was that one group ate more carbs in the morning and one group ate more carbs at night. But the end result was the same carb intake over the course of the day, the same fat intake, and the same protein intake just spread slightly different, right? Now, ordinarily, we would probably see that there would be an increase in metabolic markers associated with glucose, insulin resistance in the carbohydrate at night group.
There is some evidence to back it up and there's a lot of rodent model evidence to back it up But not enough to really be sure so this study was trying to set out to find that what's wild is they found No changes across the board like they were the same Same body weight same reductions in body weight same improvements in HOMA IR same improvements in area under the curve It was eerily similar now on one hand you say okay cool. It doesn't matter when I have carbohydrates, but my main focus here is if we look at the Mediterranean diet and what is in it, what makes it so unique is its benefits towards metabolic health and sort of homeostasis with glycemic control. So when you look at what's in a Mediterranean diet, let's put aside the whole grains, let's put aside the pasta for a little bit, okay, because that's a separate discussion, but even then I'd argue that true Mediterranean grains and stuff are probably better.
Lentils, maybe full grain pasta, quinoa, like things like that, right? Also... how things are fermented, how things are created. Whole different ballgame entirely from the United States.
But the fat consumption, monounsaturated fats, which have early evidence to be very strong when it comes to insulin resistance. Polyunsaturated fats, which have good evidence towards membrane fluidity when they're consumed in a non-oxidized form. Instead of using cruddy oils like we use here that are oxidized, there's good stable fats. So we're talking olive oil. We're talking good cheeses.
We're talking... Pecorino Romano, we're talking good aged cheeses that have microbial effects, have microbiome benefits in a lot of ways, but also have short chain fatty acids and medium chain fatty acids and long chain fats that are good for us, right? Overall the fat profile is just better.
So there's something that's really important that we know with this. Carbohydrates are a problem with insulin resistance. There's no doubt about that. We do know that, yes. But one thing that we forget, and this is the uncommon, unpopular opinion, is that saturated fats are just as much of a driver of insulin resistance as carbohydrates.
High saturated fat intake is problematic, specifically in a surplus. But what's interesting with this particular study is they were in a slight deficit. So what we learn from this is two things. A slight deficit probably gives you a lot more amnesty in your diet.
If you're eating at a slight deficit, you have more slack with your diet. So no matter where the carbohydrates landed, the most important thing, in my opinion with the study, is that they were in a 5% deficit or more than that, 5% body weight deficit, right? Or 5% reduction in body weight over 12 week deficit. Whatever percentage deficit that is, they were clearly in enough of a deficit to... instigate weight loss.
That is fascinating because that shows me that the weight loss is what's driving a lot of the metabolic benefits, but also the effects of the foods that are in a Mediterranean diet. Why is it that sometimes when we look at studies that are looking at standard American or other diet types, allocation of carbohydrates matters more, but when the diet is better, it matters less? So we could get more specific about a Mediterranean approach. Again, the monounsaturated fats, the polyunsaturated fats, the saturated fats that are in there that are good.
The bottom line is that they're consuming probably less of these insulin-resistant threat foods. High amounts of saturated fat in a surplus, high amounts of sugar in a surplus, high amounts of carbohydrates in a surplus. All the things that lead to more problematic metabolic outcomes.
But you have this situation where you're a slight deficit. Plus you're consuming fats that are contributing to the good of the metabolism, not the detriment. So you have more poly and monounsaturated fats, nuts, seeds, even things like, I would say, monounsaturated fats from macadamia nuts, even though macadamia nuts aren't technically Mediterranean.
Olives, olive oil, polyphenols, don't even get me started there. The polyphenol-rich fruits and vegetables have tons of evidence stacked for them in terms of insulin resistance and metabolic health. All in spite of...
relatively low protein too. So the takeaway from this is that the allocation of carbohydrates doesn't matter if you're in a somewhat of a deficit and your diet is good. Ahem, Mediterranean approach.
It does probably matter if you're in a surplus and you're eating cruddy foods. The one thing I would change with this particular study is the 50% carbohydrate intake. I don't think that that is required.
I think that we could reduce that dramatically. and still implement more Mediterranean flair? Again, salmon, smoked salmon, eggs, prosciutto, parma ham, little bits of chicken, little bits of poultry like duck, small amounts of lean beef that isn't super fatty cuts of meat, nuts, seeds, vegetables, fruit.
Hmm, okay, without the pasta and the refined carbs, and even with maybe a little bit of fermented starch and a little bit of pasta and a little bit of... Who knows? Properly fermented sourdough bread, you'd be totally fine and still be in a lower carb category. So as always, keep it locked into my channel. I'll see you tomorrow.