S4E148 What Is The Mediterranean Diet?

On this episode, Bonnie joins me once again as we dive into what the Mediterranean Diet is and why we have chosen to adopt it.  We talk about what we've found easy.  And what we've found challenging.  I also give Bonnie a pop geography quiz and she tries to give me directions to the Mediterranean region using fence posts???!!!  

Enjoy!
Brian

Transcript

Brian: 0:02

I'm your host Brian Wells, and I'm a fourth generation homesteader Since 2008, my family and I have been homesteading here in beautiful upstate. In 2019, I launched the Homestead Journey Podcast to help people just like you get started and find success on their journey towards self-sufficiency, self-reliance, and sustainability. This is the Homestead journey, and this is season four. Welcome, welcome, welcome, everyone. This. Season four of the Homestead Journey podcast. This is episode number 148, and my name is Brian Wells. I am as always coming to you from three B Farm and Homestead here in beautiful upstate New York. And let me simply start out by saying Happy Spring everyone. As I record this episode. It is officially the first day of Spring and I am so excited about that. As you know, I am a snowboard instructor and so well, I, I do like winter. I enjoy the snow, but my thoughts are certainly turning towards. Spring and all of the things, chicks and gardens, and the whole nine yards. Very excited that today is the first day of spring. If you're a longtime listener of this podcast, welcome back If you're brand new. I'm so glad that you found us, and so thank you so much for joining us on this episode, I am excited to once again be joined by my lovely wife, Bonnie, here in the studio. We're gonna talk about what the Mediterranean diet is all about. I'm going to give her a geography quiz. Just a bit of a spoiler alert, she fails miserably, but we have a lot of fun doing it. So I hope you stick around and enjoy this episode. But before we do that, let's jump on over to this week's Homestead Happenings, and I'm going to bring you up to speed with everything that we've been doing here on three B Farm and Homestead. The first thing that I wanted to share with you is that Bonnie and I finally sat down this week and we came up with a. Garden plan. Now, I had wanted to have this done a long time ago, but for a lot of reasons it did not happen. But we do have a rough garden plan Now, what I mean by a rough garden plan is that we came up with a list of the things that we want to grow, but I still have to plot it out on my garden so we know exactly how many of what type of plant we're going to grow. Unfortunately, I have not gotten around to that piece of it, and time is of the essence. So I am. Putting together my seed order without putting together my detailed plan, which is something that I had promised myself that I wasn't going to do because I didn't wanna over buy seeds. But it is what it is. I've gotta get that seed order in so I can get the seeds back. So I can get seeds started. And so I'm probably going to do like I've done in years past and weigh over order seed. because I just didn't do what I had said I was going to do back in the fall and plan ahead, but it is what it is. we're gonna do the best that we can with what we've got to work with and what we've got to work with has been some circumstances in life, and maybe a little bit of laziness on my part. And as I mentioned a couple of episodes ago, I, I really wasn't a funk And so we're trying to, to get out of that funk and get caught up and so it is what it is. But I am glad that we did get that rough garden plan done. Yesterday, was my son's Eagle Scout Court of Honor, Was so much fun, but it was a lot of work, and not everything went according to plan. But at the end of the day, it still was a very, very nice ceremony and I am very, very proud of him for achieving this milestone. Part of that meant that I took Friday afternoon off from work and we smoked some pork. I wish I could tell you that it was American Guinea hug. The original plan was for me to dress off a couple of our pigs and to roast them whole, but things just didn't quite work out the way that I. Envisioned in my head. Part of that was my helper, or who was going to be my helper was my dad. And I didn't realize, I guess some wires got crossed somewhere, but he found himself in Tennessee this past weekend. And so unfortunately he and my mom were not able to make it to the Court of Honor. Um, but because he wasn't going to be here, I opted to go ahead and buy pork and probably in the long run, that was the better option because I didn't have the, the proper type of pork really for pulled pork, which is what we were going for, which is really the shoulder, uh, portion of a pig. And I certainly didn't have enough for 60 people from our. We were very, very fortunate that last week our local grocery store chain had pork on sale, and so I went ahead and bought up a bunch of pork, put it in the freezer because I wasn't quite sure whether or not leave it in the fridge for a week would be a good idea. but then that meant that I had to get it out and thaw out and I was, I was really a little worried whether or not it was gonna get thaw out in time for me to be able to smoke it. But I was able to get it thaw out and then through three of them in the smoker on Friday, and then three more in the smoker on Saturday. And then we went ahead and warmed them up on Sunday and I pulled it and oh my goodness, folks, it. Delicious. I really, really enjoyed it and people seemed to enjoy it as well. I, I got a lot of compliments on it. Not that I'm trying to pat myself on the back, but it's the first time I'd ever smoked that much meat and the first time I'd ever smoked for pulled pork. And so I was very happy that it was edible, let alone that people were, uh, enjoying it. What I wanted to share with you is that on Sunday when we were trying to get over to my son's Eagle Scout court of honor and get set up and all of the things, we ran into a bit of an issue before we left for church, I had put the smoked meat in the oven and then I programmed the oven to come on while we were at church with a thought that by the time we got home from church, I would have pork that was ready to pull. Well, we've been having some issues with our oven and for some reason, either it didn't come on or it didn't come up the temp, but when we got. that pork was not warmed up like it was supposed to be, we also had some mac and cheese that we needed to warm up, so we were scrambling a bit. I was able to get all of the pork warmed up and pulled, but the mac and cheese was taken a little bit of time to get up to temp, and so I went ahead and sent Bonnie on a head and told her, I'll bring the mac and cheese after it gets warmed up. Well, after it got warmed up, I went out to load it in the truck and lo and behold, I realized that once again, I had pigs where they were not supposed to. Boris was in Bear's Pen. Bear was out running around. and I'm in a hurry trying to get to Brian Jay's court of honor. So I thought, well, what I'll do is I'll get bear into Boris's pen and then I will sort things out when I get home. No such luck. I chased bear around for a while and I, and I know that's not the best way to handle pigs. I'm trying to lead him with food, but he just was not wanting to cooperate. He's probably the least likely to follow a bucket outta all the pigs that we have. I was trying to get him to follow the. He was not cooperating whatsoever. as I was trying to get him to go where he was not wanting to go. Finally he decided, Hey, I'm going back to where I know I'm supposed to be. And so he headed into his pen, but there was Boris, so I quickly hopped into his pen and was able to keep Boris on one side and bear on the other, and finally was able to convince Boris that he should leave the pen. But that now meant that Boris was. and I'm trying to chase Boris back to his pen by myself because at this point, Brian Jay's gone. My brother-in-law, Al, who was up visiting was gone. Bonnie was gone and it was just me. I chased Boris around for a while. I finally went and got marshmallows and I started. Using the old marshmallow trick because he was not following the bucket whatsoever. And luckily it took me about 20 minutes, but I was finally able to get Boris back where he is supposed to be. And then I was able to make it to the court of honor. I had planned at being at the venue where we were holding the quarter of honor by three, and then the whole issue with the mac and cheese and the oven not working meant that I was planning on being there at four. Well, then with all of this nonsense with Boris, I. Managed to get there until about four 40, and the quarter of honor was supposed to start at five, but I got there, we got things set up, it went off. Again, very, very proud of Brian Jay for, uh, achieving this, and it was just a wonderful, wonderful celebration. But boy, I am gonna be so glad when these pigs are gone. I gotta tell you folks, I am so over having these pigs right now, Oh my goodness. Bear is sold. And so I think once we get him off of the property, then that might get Boris a little settled down and he'll be. Apt to want to get out because a lot of times when he's been getting out it's because he's been wanting to fight with Bear, or Bear has gotten out and gotten over with him and then they've been wanting to fight. So it's just been a nightmare. I certainly don't ever anticipate ever having two boars again on my property. or, or else I've gotta have better infrastructure, one or the other. Um, but it is what it is. That was certainly not fun, but we got it all sorted out in the end. Now, one other thing that I did this weekend, which is probably, ah, I don't know, it's, it's way up there on my least favorite things to do here on the, on the homestead. It's probably. A step above pig castration, which is by far and away my least favorite thing to do here on the homestead. But boy, this is, oh, it's right up there. And that is getting my receipts together for the tax guy. I used to be really good about it, and I would do it every month. And then last year I was really bad about, And I didn't do it all year long, and so I had all of the receipts from all of last year to enter into my spreadsheet and that was not fun. Not fun at all. But I got it done while I was smoking meat on Saturday. So, That at least was a plus. I, I was stuck here. I had to monitor that I needed something to occupy my time. And so tax prep was it, Ugh, goodness gracious. Taxation is theft. Uh, but man, ugh, having the farm expenses to put through it just. Oh, well, it is what it is that is done. I'm gonna try to do better and try to keep up on top of things, but knowing me, I'll probably find myself back in the exact same situation next year. because that's how I roll. The last thing I wanted to share with you was just a little bit of a funny story. So yesterday evening after my son's court of honor, we got home and we've been trying to keep the cats out of the garage. We, we let them stay in there probably a little bit too much this winter because we got that really, really cold snap and well, we just had a little bit of a soft heart for'em, and so we let them hang out in the garage. and then they started making messes in the garage. And that really made me mad. And so we've been trying to just do our best to keep them out. But that sometimes is a bit of a challenge because a garage door is wide and cats are quick and small. And anyhow, so last night we got home from the court of honor and we were trying to catch the cats and put them in their cathouse for the evening, but we were unable to. Patches now. Now we have two cats, Sonny, who's an orange tabby cat, and then patches, who is a Calico. Patches, is predominantly a dark color, obviously has some white spots, and usually she's the one that's the easiest to catch. But last night, For whatever reason, she did not want to come to us. And so we were able to catch sunny. We got sunny put away, and I went to grab patches, and then patches went underneath my brother-in-law's car. So I said, let's go ahead and get all of the stuff that we were bringing back from the court of honor. Let's get it put away. We had some leftover food, we had all of the decorations. Let's get this moved inside. Somebody guard the door while we're moving all of this in and then we'll find patches and we'll put patches away. The night as well. So we got everything moved inside, and then we went looking for patches and we could not find. We looked and we looked and we called her and we called her and I'm like, this is not like her. Usually, as I said, she is the easiest, one of the two to catch. She is just an absolute lover. She wants to be held, she wants to be petted. She purs like, I mean, it's just, it sounds like a, a mini chainsaw going off as she purs, but we could not. So we thought, well, let's go ahead and give her a little bit of space and then we'll come back out again and we'll see if we can find her a little bit later on. So we came inside and probably about 20 minutes later we went back outside and we're looking for her and we're calling her and I can't find her. She's not coming. So I said, well, let's go over and let's use her love of going inside the garage to our advantage. I open up the garage. and still no patches. So finally we just kind of threw our hands up and we said, eventually she'll come back, we'll, we'll find her in the morning and hopefully she doesn't get eaten by a coyote during the night. And so we came in and we went to bed. Well, this morning my brother-in-law looked out the window and he said, I found patches. She somehow had gotten in my. and she spent the night inside my truck. So no wonder she couldn't come. We're calling for it. She must have thought you dopes. Here I am. I'm in the truck. Let me out please. But. We couldn't see her cuz it was dark and she's dark colored. And so the knucklehead spent the night in my truck. Thankfully she didn't tear things up too much. I don't think she left me any presents. Hopefully she didn't leave me any presents. But the knucklehead somehow got in there, spent the night in the truck, and oh my goodness. Uh, the joys of having these knucklehead cats. But when I came home at lunch today, they were doing what we got them for, and that is they were chasing a rodent. Now, in this case it was a chipmunk, it wasn't a mouse or a rat, but we have not seen, uh, a lot of, um, mice or rats around since we got them. So hopefully they will become better mouses and rodent chasers as they get a bit. So glad to have'em here. They are a lot of fun. Before we jump on over to this week's charting the course, I did want to thank those of you who have been subscribing to my YouTube. I really, really appreciate it. If you have not already done so, if you could head on over to youtube.com/the Homestead journey or just search for the Homestead journey on YouTube and subscribe, I certainly would really, really appreciate it. One other thing I did want to share with you, those of you who live in the great Northeast. We launched the ticket sales for what we're referring to as the Southern Adirondack Homesteading Festival. So if you are interested in that, if you head on over to the homestead journey.net/festival, that will take you to the page where you can find out more information about it and you can. Order tickets. That's going to be May 19th and 20th at the Washington County Fair here in beautiful, upstate New York. So if you are interested in that, check it out again. May 19th and 20th over at the Washington County Fair here in beautiful, upstate New York. It's gonna be a lot of fun. I'm actually gonna be kicking off both days. The first day I'll be talking about what home setting is and why it's important. And the second day I am going to be talking about getting started with chickens, both standard breeds and meat chickens. But we have a lot of other great people that are gonna be talking about. A variety of different topics and so head on over to the homestead journey.net/festival for more information and to buy your tickets. Alright, let's jump on over to this week's charting the course. Well, hey there everyone. I am joined again today in the studio with none other than my lovely wife, Bonnie. Bonnie, welcome back to the show. Thank you. I am so excited to have you here again. I am looking forward to this conversation today. And today we're gonna be talking about the Mediterranean diet. Now, on last episode, we talked about diet versus way of eating, and we talked about five things that people should consider in order to be successful when changing their way of eating. And today we're really gonna dive into this whole idea of, the Mediterranean diet, which is, as we said on last episode, all your fault.

Bonnie: 19:41

Yes, totally my fault. Not totally well, because like, yeah, you could do it too, but. Yes, I am. The reason we

Brian: 19:50

are doing this, that is correct. You are the reason that we are doing this. But it's all good. It's all good in the neighborhood, as they used to say back in the day. Although I don't think anybody ever used to really say that. It's all good in the neighborhood. Uh, but yeah, so it is all good. And so today we're gonna talk about what the Mediterranean diet is. We're gonna talk a little bit about some diagrams that we've found helpful in learning this new way of eating, because as we said, we're not going to call it a diet, although I think I've lost that side effect. Yeah, no, I've, I've lost it. So, um, that's what we're gonna do when we say way of eating. All right. Maybe we'll just leave that in last episode. Um, but anyhow,

Bonnie: 20:35

no one liked that anyway.

Brian: 20:37

no one liked that anyway. Is that what you're saying? Oh, so harsh criticism here. As the, as the Bible says, a prophet is not without honor in his own country. So, uh, anyhow, or a, a prophet is without, I can't even get the quote right. All right, let's move on from that to the Mediterranean diet. What it is, we're gonna look at some, uh, some diagrams that we found helpful. We're gonna talk about things that we found easy in transitioning to the Mediterranean diet. Some things that we found a little bit more difficult, and we're also going to focus in on some growing edges. there are some things that we're really still trying to wrap our heads around with regards to the Mediterranean way of eating, although we'll say diet on this because we're not gonna buzz ourselves, but, certainly it's not been without a little bit of, um, head scratching on our part. Would you say. Yeah, certainly. It's a much different way of eating than what you and I grew up with. Oh yeah, definitely. And certainly, uh, one thing is for sure, and, and this is gonna be, uh, what we're gonna call it a geography quiz for you. Okay. Um, which is, I know is unfair because you have perhaps, and I love you to death, you know that I love you to death, but, uh, you perhaps have the world's worst sense of direction. So it maybe is a little unfair for me to ask you geography questions, but these are pretty easy. Pc So where is the Mediterranean located?

Bonnie: 22:13

Nice. Nice. In reference to

Brian: 22:16

what, okay. Well that, that's perhaps a fair question. Well, I, I guess maybe give your best description as far as. what the Mediterranean is and where it's located.

Bonnie: 22:30

Um, can I use fence posts

Brian: 22:32

or you can you can use whatever you want. I'm not quite sure how fence posts plays into this topic, but I I would love to hear. So go ahead,

Bonnie: 22:44

Um, okay. Um, it's near

Brian: 22:49

Greece. Okay. So it's near Greece, So wait a minute. So it's near Greece, but what in the world does a fence post? No. Have to do with the same,

Bonnie: 22:59

it's near Greece. Can I say, can I say like, um, you go to the fourth fence post to take a laugh,

Brian: 23:08

So country directions. Okay. Now that's not what we're looking for. Okay. But yes, the Mediterranean Sea Greece would be, uh, a country that's, touches up against the Mediterranean. Um, some other countries might be, Um, oh my goodness. Sicily, that's not a country that's a part of a country, but, okay. Ok. Okay. So what country would that be? What, what country would that be? That's Sicily. Is it? Yes. Um, begins with an I, Italy. Thank you. Oh, thank you for playing. Okay. And then we, maybe we, yeah, yeah. Clapping. I should have clapping a applause in there, but I don't have the applause button on here, but, okay. So what other countries might be near the Mediterranean Sea? Hmm. And this is, I know this is geography and it's late at night and you're from, well, we're not gonna talk about that. Um, so what other countries, you don't get yourself in trouble. Not at all. It's a little too cold to sleep with the chickens.

Bonnie: 24:10

Oh dear.

Brian: 24:12

Um, oh my goodness.

Bonnie: 24:16

All right. I really did Ace geography. I really, really did. That's

Brian: 24:20

a long time. I can't say a long time ago cuz that would be saying something about your age. Okay. But the gray in my beard does say, should prepped me. Well, I figured this would be easy peasy. So countries like Spain and Portugal and France. I was gonna say

Bonnie: 24:34

France. Yeah. Um, I was, I was, but I was,

Brian: 24:37

I was afraid. Uh, let's see, what else? Uh, Italy, Greece, Turkey, Morocco, Egypt, all of those, um, Israel, all of those would be countries that surround our makeup part of the Mediterranean region. All right, so now that we've got that all outta way, something that I thought would take like 20 seconds. Where do we live? In upstate New York. Now. You messed that up. We live in Beautiful, beautiful, upstate. Upstate, upstate New York. That's correct. Now let me ask you, this is upstate New York in the Mediterranean region?

Bonnie: 25:17

No, because it would be a lot warmer right now.

Brian: 25:24

Yes, we have a winner there, folks. Yes. This is not the Mediterranean region. We are in beautiful upstate New York. And so the reason why I bring that up is, well, if we are not in the Mediterranean region, why in the world are we doing the Mediterranean diet and what in the world is the Mediterranean diet? That was a great question. Thank you so much for that. That really was a great segue. Thank you so much for helping me out. Your co-host, Okay, well that's how it's gonna be tonight, is it? Right. So, um, the, there's, there's obviously lots and lots of definitions when it comes to the Mediterranean diet out there, and some of them are very, very tactical and some of them are a little bit more general. But I really, really like this one. This one comes from the, whole Grains Council, website and. This is what they say. When we think of a diet these days, we usually think of some kind of restriction that will help us reach a specific outcome such as weight loss. The Mediterranean diet couldn't be further from that. Rather, it encourages an eating pattern that includes the food staples of people who live in the countries around the Mediterranean Sea, such as Spain, Greece, Italy, Portugal, Turkey, Morocco, and France. It also focuses on community. When eating, think meals with family and friends and enjoyable conversation, you'll find that in their meals. Mediterranean dieters emphasize a plant-based eating approach loaded with vegetables and healthy fats, including olive oil and omega-3 fatty acids from fish. It's a diet known to be heart healthy. This diet is rich in fruits and vegetables, whole grain, seafood, nuts and legumes. I think it's legumes and olive oil says Nancy El Cohan, PhD, R D a, professor Erta at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst. On this plan, you'll limit or avoid red meat, sugary foods, and dairy. Those small amounts like yogurt and cheese are included. Eating this way means you also have little room for processed faire. When you look at a plate, it should be bursting with color. Traditional proteins like chicken may be more of a side dish compared with produce, which becomes the main event. One thing you'll find people love about the Mediterranean diet is the allowance of load of moderate amounts of red wine. Moderate means five ounces or less each day. That's around one glass. It's worth noting though that a daily glass of wine is not mandatory on this eating plan, and if you don't already, This allowance isn't directive to start, and this means you miss Bonnie Wells

Bonnie: 28:07

Don't start.

Brian: 28:10

Okay. So, uh, having said that, let's just kind of, uh, talk about that a little bit. So, first of all, the thing I like about the, um, kind of that definition there, drinking wine, uh, no,

Bonnie: 28:22

we, we, oh, I'm not starting. Okay. Maybe. Oh, okay. No. Alright.

Brian: 28:26

Let's get back to the topic. Let's get back to the topic of hand, but really breaking down that, that definition there. Um, cuz there's a lot that's said in that, but one of the things that I really, really like about this diet is, or we should say way of eating, is that it's not an elimination diet. It's not a deprivation diet, it's a diet that's more centered around making good choices. What would you say to that?

Bonnie: 28:51

Yeah, yeah. It's. A healthier way of eating.

Brian: 28:56

Yeah, it's, it's a healthier way of eating. And as it said in that definition there, you, you really are trying to avoid processed foods. So I guess maybe in that regard, we could say it's an elimination diet. you're trying to eliminate processed foods, but it, it's more about minimizing certain things rather than, it is eliminating things as we talked about on, uh, uh, the last episode there with regards to certain ways of eating where it's more focused on things like, you know, gluten-free. You can't have gluten, um, carnivore, you can't have vegetables or vegetarian, you can't have meat. Um, this is certainly more looking at a balanced, I, I really feel like it's a balanced approach to eating. I, I really feel like, like that. One of the first diagrams, uh, that I ran across with regards to the Mediterranean style of eating was what's known as the Mediterranean Diet pyramid. And it kind of looks a lot like the, um, the classic food pyramid that we knew from. trying, trying to go back to our glory days of elementary school, um, which was a long time ago.

Bonnie: 30:04

He has them, has changed like Oh yeah. Much has changed five or six times and,

Brian: 30:08

and it certainly hasn't. Yeah, definitely. What do they call it? They call it the food pyramid. Yes. There we go. The food pyramid. And actually the, the, uh, Mediterranean diet pyramid was developed in the early nineties, and I'm not gonna go all into the history of it, but really to come up with a better food pyramid than the, the food pyramid that exists at the time. But this Mediterranean diet food pyramid, it really has a base of vegetables and whole grains and herbs and, um, good oils like olive oils So the next level above vegetables would be your seafood and, fish and, things along that line that would provide those nice, healthy, omega-3, whatever they are. Yes. Like

Bonnie: 30:54

muscles and.

Brian: 30:57

Shrimps, oysters, fish, and, and those are things that certainly would be plentiful within the, uh, within the Mediterranean, which certainly are not plentiful here in beautiful upstate New York. And we'll talk about some of those challenges that we have in, um, in future episodes. But then, uh, on top of that would be your other lean protein. So things like chicken and, eggs. Eggs, yeah. Dairy, um mm-hmm. things like that. And then at the very top of the pyramid would be things again that you're trying to really limit, like your sweets and your. Red meats and, and things of that nature. And so again, with that kind of pyramid style, you're, you want to have more of things lower on the pyramid and then less of things as you kind of move your, you know, move your way up through, um, to the top of the pyramid. But then also in the diagram, it also has water as your primary beverage. Although tea and coffee are also, accepted within the Mediterranean way of eating. And then also the, uh, red wine, uh, or I guess probably not even just red wine. Um, not that we're wine drinkers are connoisseurs of wine. So mom, just keep that in mind, um, But, uh, that, that certainly would be, um, acceptable in moderation. But one of the other things that I, I really love about this pyramid is that the foundation or the base of the pyramid, is an active lifestyle, and it's also the, the idea that you eat food in the construct of community, which is very, very different than the American approach to eating, which many times we're eating on the go, we're eating in our cars, we're eating, in front of the tv, so many times it's eating by ourselves. So what are your thoughts on them?

Bonnie: 32:57

Yeah. We grew up like sitting down at the table eating as a family. So we kind of just eased into that.

Brian: 33:07

Yeah, that's definitely something that, for us, was an easy part of this. Um, and I think, you know, for people who aren't used to eating, within the context of community, people who maybe are used to eating on the go in the car by themselves, um, certainly this may be a major change for them versus how it was for us. So, back to our food pyramid here, I think we've covered everything. Um, but certainly the base of the Mediterranean, uh, style of eating is more plant-based. It's definitely focused on vegetables, herbs, fruits, um, Whole grains, those kinds of things. And the meat and the seafood, uh, really become almost a condiment as you really start thinking about the, the way that food is presented and consumed. So that was the first diagram that I ran across with regards to the Mediterranean style of eating. But I found another diagram that I found way more helpful, and I think you would agree that this was more helpful, is trying to wrap our, our heads around the, the balance of different types of food on the Mediterranean diet. And that is what many people refer to as the plate diagram. And the plate diagram really breaks your plate down into, uh, three sections, one half of your. really should be focused on vegetables. It's greens, it's your bell peppers, cucumbers, really vegetables of all shapes and sizes. Mm-hmm. you know, carrots, um, Brussels sprouts, I don't even know. You know, I'm kind of, it's, it's pretty disappointing that I'm, I'm running out of vegetables that come up with cauliflower, uh, whatever. Um, but that really should be half of your plate. And then, uh, one quarter of your plate should be your, your starches, but generally speaking, it would be more favored to have more whole grains. Mm-hmm. So things like your whole wheats, Pharaoh, quinoa, things of, of that nature would be on, that quadrant. Also your legumes, and beans. Mm-hmm. would also fall into that as well. And then finally, your other quarter of your plate would be more of your, your meats. So your, grilled salmon or your other types of fish, seafood, poultry. Mm-hmm. um, things of that nature. And then of course, um, this particular diagram that we're looking at here does have, your fresh fruits. So things like, oranges and strawberries and blueberries and whatever kind of, fruit is in season would be there as well. And then this does show water as the beverage. So mom, you can rest easy. It is not showing a glass of wine, wine, a glass of wine, although in the construct of the Mediterranean diet, that would be acceptable within moderation. And I really, uh, have found that plate diagram to be very, very helpful as we start thinking about what our plate should look like. Because in the past, our traditional way of eating, I think many times would've been more in thirds, like a third vegetable, a third starch, and a third meat, or sometimes it might even have been, um, and I don't remember how you would break this half meat, you know? Yeah, right. Sometimes it's half meat. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, definitely. That's a good point. So this is really helped, I think, shape as we start getting into this and preparing meals and so on and so forth. And sometimes it's a matter of, okay, we go down, we, we go to sit down to a meal and it's like, oh, wait a minute. Maybe there's a little bit too much pasta or. Not enough vegetable here. So what can we do to bring a little bit more balance to this? And so we might have a salad or um, something along those lines. But certainly I have found this plate diagram to be very helpful and we really saw, um, a great example of that this past weekend. So tell me a little bit about that sojourn that we took down to Albany this past weekend.

Bonnie: 37:41

Well, my dear husband took me out to dinner went to a creek restaurant called, um, Athos, is that it's called? That's correct. And everything on that menu, would fit. into the Mediterranean diet. and the plate was proportioned properly too.

Brian: 38:05

Yeah, that was one of the things that really jumped out to me. We had firsthand real life demonstration of the plate diagram. As soon as they put the plate down in front of me, I was like, whoa, this is, it looks exactly like the plate diagram for the Mediterranean diet. One half of it was what they referred to as their house salad, which was a toss salad with cucumbers, tomatoes in a Greek vinegarette, we'll call it. And then we each had gotten fish. So I got the Bruno, which I think is a Mediterranean sea bass, and you got the red snapper, I believe. Mm-hmm. And then it, um, it came with lemon potatoes and there was like a handful of, uh, red potatoes and a lemon sauce. But again, it was a handful. It was like three or four small potatoes, not the traditional. you know, half a half a plate Yeah. Of potatoes or like pasta. Yeah. That we would, we would expect as an American or on, on American diet. And the, the food was top-notch. It really, really was. Now, I, I will tell you that actually I had been wanting to go to this restaurant from before we started the Mediterranean diet. So there really wasn't an ulterior motive to go there to kind of say, Hey, this is what Mediterranean food should look like. Uh, but it certainly did work out well, of course. And, and folks, I mean, not to get too much off on a tangent here, and this is certainly not an advertisement for Athos Restaurant in Albany, New York, but if you are ever in Albany, New York and you are interested in Mediterranean food, I would highly recommend that restaurant. Yeah. It was really, really good. But beyond the fact that the Atheros restaurant was very, very good, certainly the food that at least we were served did serve as a great representation of the plate diagram of the Mediterranean diet. But jumping back a little bit to the, um, to the pyramid diagram of the Mediterranean diet, one of the things that we talked about was that the foundation of this diet is this idea of Eden community and also an active lifestyle. But another important component to the Mediterranean diet is the concept of moderation. And in fact, we've talked a little bit about that as we talked about consuming red wine in moderation. And that really is, I think the crux of the Mediterranean diet is that whenever you eat, whatever you eat, Eat in moderation. If you're at the top of the pyramid and you're having a slice of cake, don't eat the whole gosh darned cake. Right. I mean, it's, it's about moderation. In fact, I, I ran across this on Old Ways. pt.org Old Ways is actually an organization that really has done a lot to champion the Mediterranean diet, and in fact is the group that helped establish the Mediterranean diet pyramid. But this is what they had to say. Moderation is a wise approach. A balance and healthy diet accommodates most foods and drinks so long as moderation and wise choices are the key characteristics. For example, enjoying a small piece of birthday cake, savoring a few slices of grilled steak or relaxing with family and friends with a glass or two of wine or beer are important aspects of being human, as always, moderation. is a wise watchword, and so I certainly think that that's something that's key no matter what special diet you're going on. I, I think it's just key to remind yourself that moderation is an important component of it. And I think that as Americans, we aren't so good about that. Yeah. We

Bonnie: 42:01

was like thrown that out the window. Supersizing everything and, yeah,

Brian: 42:05

exactly. Yeah. Yeah, definitely. I mean, I think that's a great example. The whole McDonald supersized me certainly was a great example in the nineties and two thousands, I think it was in the nineties, of really that excessive, you know, everything is bigger. And, and in fact a lot of people, when they come to the United States and they're visiting, they're shocked by the sizes of our soft drinks, for example. Um, because moderation certainly is not a key characteristic of the American culture. Yeah, yeah. And you know, another piece of, of research that I ran across that I found was very, very interesting is that they have observed that the average size of, uh, of a sample of dinner plates increased almost 23% from 9.6 inches to 11 inches since 1900. And studies have shown that if you are eating off of a bigger plate, then you're going to eat everything on that bigger plate. And you, if, if you were to put the same amount of food that might, fit on a smaller plate, you were to put it on a, on a bigger plate. Psychologically, you're going to think that you're still hungry, even though you're technically not. And so I think another great trick, I, I don't mind game maybe. Yeah. No trick you. Yeah. Yeah. But in concert with the concept of way of eating, uh, to help you kind of transition to something like this is to use a smaller plate. Mm-hmm. smaller plate sizes and eat what's on your plate, and you're going to be satisfied. So again, it goes back to the concept of. Moderation. And I think that's, uh, something else that's very, very helpful. And it's a key component of the Mediterranean diet. So that's a little bit about what the Mediterranean diet is. So what are some of the things that we have found easy in transitioning to this diet?

Bonnie: 44:05

eating fish. Like some people would say, oh, we don't like fish Um, I think, all of us like fish and I don't know if there's a type of fish, that we don't like. We like mussels and we like oysters, and so, um,

Brian: 44:21

You can't have clams because you are allergic. Right. Or we think you're allergic. We've never had it officially tested, but there's enough indicators that Exactly. We're not gonna go that go down that route again. But yeah, definitely. I think for us transitioning to eating seafood is not been hard because we do like seafood. Um, one thing that comes to my mind is that drinking water is not that big of a deal. We've really switched to drinking water a long time ago. Yeah. Yeah. Now sometimes we'll drink like, um, what do they call it? Uh, not sparkling water, but what are those things? Oh, seltzers er, flavored seltzer waters, like flavored seltzer waters and things like that. But we generally drink a lot of water here. We don't drink a lot of fruit juices, but we do drink a lot of, um, coffee and tea. Mm-hmm. I probably drink too much coffee, but we're not gonna talk about that today. Uh, but yeah, so for us, the beverage piece of the Mediterranean diet certainly has not been a challenge whatsoever. Um, as you mentioned before, eating meals together has not, uh, not been a challenge for us. We grew up eating meals, family style. Mm-hmm. That, that was always a tradition, and that's a tradition that we've carried on as a family from the time that Brian Jay was young. Yeah. Now, one thing though, that you did find during ski season since Brian, Jay and I were spending so many evenings at the mountain teaching, and you were here kind of alone by yourself, you found that it's been a little bit more difficult to stay compliant with the Mediterranean diet just because you didn't want to cook yourself a meal.

Bonnie: 45:58

Right. And so, I learned, the prime example of why we eat, as community. Because they would eat in the car really quick before they left and not really, sit down to a meal. So I wasn't gonna cook a meal. Um, and so, Brian was testing me to see if I was being, within the bounds of this, way of eating. And so he is like, since you're not making us a meal, what are you eating? And I said a bowl of cereal now. It wasn't, like cocoa pups or anything like that. it was a less sugar, whatever, but still it had sugar in it and more than more sugar than I actually needed. So when it's just me, I'm not gonna make a meal just for myself.

Brian: 46:45

Yeah, definitely. And so certainly. The community aspect of eating together and preparing a meal for more people is certainly, I think, an important component of it. Now, certainly there are many people who live by themselves mm-hmm. Yeah. And so that's always gonna be a struggle for them. But if you, do have the opportunity to eat within the context of community, certainly that is going to be a great, a great thing because I think it's great for your mental health mm-hmm. also because you're, you're getting together, you're talking, you're laughing, you're, sharing your joys. You're concerns, you're, you're sorrows throughout the day, what went well at work, what didn't go well at work. And maybe sometimes that brings the stress level up. Uh, maybe. But certainly, there's so many benefits to eating in the context of community. Mm-hmm. And for us, by and large, that's been something that's been fairly easy Yeah. For us to do, because it's just a continuation of the same.

Bonnie: 47:41

That's one thing with Brian Jay growing up, and him being a teenager, you know, like teenagers liked to spend a lot of time in their bedrooms and, we raised him from young that, we always eat, together. And so we could pull a lot of things, out of him and learn about his day and, What he was sad about, what stress he had. a lot of things that we wouldn't have found out if, he was taking his food and going to his bedroom.

Brian: 48:09

Yeah, definitely. And, and so whether you're on the Mediterranean way of eating or not, I would strongly encourage you if you can, and if you haven't already,, I would really encourage you to make family mealtime, a priority because I think it's so important for so many, many, many different reasons. And, and I get that many people are busy and you're, you're running here and there and sometimes you have to eat in the car on the go. But I would also say that if you find yourself doing that every night, yeah. Uh, may, maybe there's some life. Choices and changes that might maybe need to be considered, but that's, that's your business, not mine. Uh, but, but certainly that has been, uh, an easy part of the transition for us is that we already did generally eat in the context of community. Another couple of things that I, I thought and I jotted down here with regards to what we found easy is, and you touch on this with regards to seafood, but that we like the food. Mm-hmm. um, yeah, we don't feel deprived at all. And, and part of it is because this is not a deprivation diet. This is more about a diet of moderation. It's about making good choices, but there are so many great foods that you can make that if you don't like one, you make something else great. And there are gonna be people out there who are allergic to, to seafood, and there are people who may not like seafood. And that's okay. If that's your jam or not your jam, I guess I should say, then, then eat something else. There are a lot of great options mm-hmm. within this Mediterranean style of eating because it encompasses so many different cultures, so many different cuisines. And, and at the end of the day, even if you're not eating a particular cuisine or following a particular culture, the idea of eating vegetables and minimal meat and whatnot, I think is something that translates and, and is really kind of easy to wrap your head around. But for me personally, what I found very helpful is along with the plant diagram or the plate diagram, is to think about the foods that we're eating in the context of the cultures. And so it's kind of easy to look at something and say, oh, that's Italian. That probably, and, and we'll talk about faux Italian here in a minute, but that, that might fit within the Mediterranean style of eating. Oh, we're going to a Greek restaurant. we're probably not gonna struggle to find something that is compliant with the Mediterranean style of eating. Um, and so that's really been beneficial to me and helpful to me in wrapping my head around kind of this way of eating. Mm-hmm.

Bonnie: 50:48

yeah, definitely. And then when you eat out, you know, like a steak every once in a while in moderation. It's not gonna be a bad thing. But, you know, you can find something that's lean, like chicken, like most Eddie menu has chicken on it or has fish. Uh, you can fish or salad. Definitely you could find a salad.

Brian: 51:08

And sometimes maybe what it is, is that you ask them to hold the potato and get extra vegetables. Mm-hmm. or, you know, instead of ordering the, what do they call it? Uh, the queen cut? Is that what the big cut or the king cut? Um, uh. Prime rib, you go with the, the smaller cut prime rib. Um, so sometimes it's just a matter of making good choices. Mm-hmm. when you, when you go out, or better choices, I, I should say, but also understanding that every once in a while if you spl it a little bit, you know, it's just that you don't do that every day. Right. Yeah. Again, it's a concept of moderation and every once in a while you have that slice of cake, but you don't eat a whole cake every day. No. you know, maybe every once in a while you have a donut, but you don't eat a whole box of donuts every day. No. No. Oh, okay. Every once in a while you can have some ice cream, but don't eat, but, so, or, but sorbet is better, I think. Right? Sorbet is like fruit-based stuff, but that's probably high in sugar too. So anyhow, uh, that's a bit of a rabbit hole. So, what are some things that have been a little harder for us though, in making the transition?

Bonnie: 52:10

The planning, since it is new, you have to think about what you're eating and what you're gonna make and, it takes longer what's in season, what's not in season, what can we get here in the states? What can we not get here in the states? And so, yeah.

Brian: 52:27

Yeah, definitely. I think that's certainly, um, been a little bit more d. Definitely planning ahead, planning your meals ahead also, um, cooking from scratch, you know, you're not opening up a bunch of cans. Not that we ever really did that. We, we did cook predominantly from scratch. Yeah. But we did rely a little bit more on convenience foods than we have lately,

Bonnie: 52:50

like cook mac and cheese every once in a while, or, you know, a boxed rice or something like that. But we weren't like huge, TV dinner.

Brian: 53:01

No, we've never been huge TV theater. It, it would be more things like, Um, opening up prepared soups. Yeah. You know, or using prepared soups as in

Bonnie: 53:10

our food. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like cream mushroom soup, cream and chicken soup, you know, different things

Brian: 53:15

like that. Exactly. And we, we've really cut out a lot of that. Mm-hmm. processed foods. Um, we've cut down a lot on the, the potato chips that we eat. Mm-hmm. we used to always almost have a bag of potato chips or Doritos in the, in the cupboard, and we don't do that anymore. Um, so we, we've really cut out and not that we were ever huge junk food eaters. No. You know, we, we weren't, but we've cut out a lot of that stuff and just really cut out a lot of the processed foods and we're cooking more from scratch. Um, it's certainly been a more active lifestyle and we certainly are not people who just sit on the couch and eat Cheetos all day. Um, that's never been our, our style, but I work a desk job. um, you're on your feet most of the time at work.

Bonnie: 54:00

Yeah. Most, most, like, pretty much like all day long. I'm on my feet.

Brian: 54:05

You you're on your feet. Yeah. But even though you're on your feet, you're not like,

Bonnie: 54:09

not walking constantly like a nurse. I don't, I'm not work

Brian: 54:11

as a nurse. No, no. So it's not like, you know, we're getting our steps in or our cardio up. Yeah. Um, now during, during snowboard season, several days a week I'm out doing lots of walking or riding the snowboard, which certainly is going to be, great from the active lifestyle perspective. But by and large I do live a relatively sedentary lifestyle, especially during the winter, just due to the nature of the job that I have. And so both you and I have really been trying to focus on being more active. And one of the things that we've done is we've installed pedometers on our. Phones and, you know, we've set particular goals, not extremely high goals. It's not likely we're, we're trying to do 20,000 steps a day, uh, or excuse me,

Bonnie: 55:02

I usually, we're not gonna say the number.

Brian: 55:05

We're not gonna say the number. We're gonna say the number. We're

Bonnie: 55:06

gonna say the number. No, no, no. I was just, uh, curious how many steps, you know. No, no, no. I did take during the day. So mine isn't like really ambitious, but,

Brian: 55:15

but it is, it is helping us focus on that. We need to be a little bit more active. And in fact, there are times when I will, walk around the island in the kitchen like a crazy man because I am trying to get my steps up to meet my goal for the day. And, especially during the winter, I'm not gonna go be walking down the side of the road in snow or, with knucklehead people running around and you won't be diving into snowbank, and in mud season and those kinds of things. So, I try to get the steps where I can get'em, but that certainly has been a bit of a challenge for us, is just focusing on that more active lifestyle. Another thing that comes to my mind is that within the Mediterranean style of eating, and especially as you start exploring different cuisines from around the Mediterranean area, we're starting to explore flavors and herbs and so forth that maybe you and I didn't grow up with. Mm. And so that's been a little bit of a challenge just trying to get used to some different play, uh, flavor profiles. Mm-hmm. almost at flavor flow profile, but flavor profiles. Mm-hmm. And so that's been a little bit of a challenge. It's been fun though. Uh, I I'm definitely a lot more adventurous when it comes to eating than you, wouldn't you say? Yeah. Yeah. So it, it's certainly been a little bit more of, um, I, I think maybe a bit easier for me mm-hmm. um, in some regards. But certainly exploring those different flavor profiles has been sometimes a bit strange. Um, and, you know, another thing that's really been hard on us has been, and I don't say hard on us, but it's that we made this transition at really at the wrong time from the standpoint of the time of year. Um, because there's a lot of things that it's like, oh man, we could grow this in our garden. Mm-hmm. but we did this in the middle of the winter, or I should say in the middle of the winter, but before winter. Mm-hmm. And we did this when the cost of food was already rising. Yeah. And so you're expensive.

Bonnie: 57:28

Well, we haven't started talking about you yet,

Brian: 57:30

Oh. But you're expensive, you know, and, and as a good farmer, every once in a while you have to evaluate the amount of money that you're putting in versus, oh no, I'm not gonna go there but I should do this. Okay. Uh, so Oh yeah, yeah. I'm not, I'm You're not abused. Not abused, okay. No, no, no. Um, but, but certainly that, that was definitely something for us that was a little bit hard is, is, you know, getting used to the, because there is a real cost to, to eating. Yeah. And so that certainly has been something that we've had to deal with. Now. What are some things that we are still wrapping our heads around when it comes to this?

Bonnie: 58:16

I'm still trying to wrap my head around, all the tomato based things, because I do have acid reflux a lot of the meals I was preparing or a lot of the Mediterranean meals that I had were like every single night something had a tomato in it and acidic foods. I have to be sure that, I switch it up a little bit.

Brian: 58:36

Yeah, definitely it, that's been a, a bit of a challenge is a lot of the traditional, um, Mediterranean food recipes that are out there are definitely tomato based. And, uh, that's been a bit of, a bit of a challenge. Um, I think also just. Balancing the food types and portion sizes. Mm-hmm. how often you should eat this type versus that type. And the other piece to it as well is we're not looking at this from the standpoint of we are 100% compliant with this diet. No, we're not looking at it from that, that perspective at all. In part because we do have a lot of food in the freezer. Um, and I'm, you know, pork would be a great example of that, that would be considered a red meat on the Mediterranean diet. And if we were to eat it in the portions that the Mediterranean diet, uh, prescribes, we would have pork in our freezer probably for about 10 years. Yeah. And so we're trying to work our way through that in a balanced approach. Yeah. But also, not being wasteful and being good stewards of, of the food that, that, we've raised and grown and so for us it's, it's been a bit of a challenge in trying to figure out how to balance that and still find the health benefits in particular that you need. Mm-hmm. Yeah. And then the other piece too is really trying to wrap our heads around the concept of whole Greens. Yeah. Because that is something that, for us, has never been a huge part of our life. That's

Bonnie: 1:00:10

not, that wouldn't be like our go-to. I mean, we've occasionally had, brown rice, wild rice. I think we had quinoa like once. Um, but that, that wouldn't be like our go-to. But with this, you can still have, you know, the pastas, which is, which is what? COOs. COOs and, um, orzo. And you can still have spaghetti. Um, but like the whole diabetes thing, I'm still learning like, is this something I should be having? Is this something, I shouldn't be having?

Brian: 1:00:48

And one of the things that we, we've discovered is that there are, um, Pastas out there that are based mm-hmm. on things other than, uh, you know, white wheat. So there's whole wheat pasta. There's quinoa based pasta. There's then

Bonnie: 1:01:05

brown, brown rice. Brown rice, pasta,

Brian: 1:01:07

like quinoa, pasta. Yeah. And, and, and some of those, those other ones are, are actually pretty good. Yeah. Um, I, I'm not a whole wheat guy. Uh, the whole wheat pasta I find a little bit. I don't know. A little bit like I'm

Bonnie: 1:01:19

chewing on a piece of hay or

Brian: 1:01:21

something. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It, it's not, it's not great stuff. If you mix it like with the regular pasta, it's not too bad. Um, but it's certainly not my favorite to eat straight up. But the other piece, and I think that the important thing to keep in mind with this is that we are not consuming pasta like a traditional American wood. See, normally when you're having spaghetti and meatballs as an American, you have an entire plate. Right? And remember we were talking about those plate sizes. What was it, like a 12, 12 inch plate of pasta with sauce and meatballs on it. Mm-hmm. And that's not the traditional way that, uh, Italians would eat pasta. And that's not what the, the Mediterranean diet would call for. The Medi Mediterranean diet would call for maybe a quarter of your plate being pasta, not the whole plate being pasta. And so I think that's the other thing that we're trying to wrap our heads around is, okay, maybe for a diabetic. The regular pasta is, is not the best thing to have, but that's because generally speaking, they're going to have an entire mountain of pasta. And in the Mediterranean diet, we would be looking at maybe a mini hill of pasta. Yeah. Yeah.

Bonnie: 1:02:38

Like, so when you go to a restaurant, I mean, because pasta is cheap, you know, they, they give you like a lot of it, so you feel like you're getting like a good deal. Um,

Brian: 1:02:50

Yeah. That, and that's, that's a great point. And in fact that's, that's a great segue to a a a point that I wanted to make. And that's beware of the fake, uh, the, the Americanized maybe I, maybe I should say the Americanized versions of Mediterranean diets or, or Mediterranean dishes and in particular Italian dishes, um, where they do have a tendency to give you those big mounds of spaghetti because it is so cheap to produce mm-hmm. and, you know, so you go to the olive gardens or you go to the macaroni grills or, or whatever. And then not only is that, is it that, but the, the sauces that are on there are cream based sauces mm-hmm. and just so high in calories and, and all kinds of stuff that it, you're, you're talking. huge portions, lots of calories. And, and it certainly, you know, you would think, well, no, this is, this is Italian food. And Italian, you know, Italy is, as we said, part of the Mediterranean. Mm-hmm. So this has gotta be good for you, but it's not. And, and the funny thing is today there's, there's a couple on, uh, YouTube that I watched. The, I think, I think it's the Pacini, but he is, uh, an American, but he was raised in Italy and so would, I think probably view himself as an Italian. And his wife was, uh, raised in the United States, and they sometimes will go to different restaurants. And so he'll be trying American food, some American foods for the first time. But they've also done some visits to, uh, Italian restaurants. And one of the videos they put out, it might have been the latest one, was they went to. Boca de Pepe or something like that. I think it's, it's an Italian chain that they serve everything, family style. And so anyhow, he's eating these dishes and he's like, no, this is, this is not, this is not how we would eat Italian food. And I think they went the Olive Garden and they've gone to like kind of olive of these Americanized versions of Italian food. And, and on the latest video he. Now, this is not Italian food, and I'm done re reviewing, uh, American, Italian restaurants because this is garbage food. Like, this is not like I get done eating and I, I'm bloated and I just want to go take a nap, but I feel like I should go take a walk because I've just eaten all of this stuff. Like a half a pound of spaghetti. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Half a pound of spaghetti, you know, a, a, a lasagna that's, you know, the, the size of a small child So, you know, and, and so I, I take that from him to simply say that, beware of the Americanized versions of these things, and keep in mind, What the proper ratios, the proper portion sizes should be as we are navigating this whole Mediterranean diet thing. So before we move on to the last thing that I want to talk about, which is the why, is there anything else that you wanted to cover with regards to what the Mediterranean diet is? Or did we nail it all? I think we pretty much covered it. We pretty much covered it. So then why the Mediterranean diet? Why are we doing this? What is the point? And, and certainly I think that was some, that was a point that we tried to make on the last episode, that understanding your why is very, very important. And we certainly are not doing this because it's a fad diet. Mm-hmm. we're not doing this because we, you know, it's, it's some kind of a status symbol to us. Oh, we eat the Mediterranean diets. Woo-hoo. Lada. Uh, no, it's not that

1:06:43

at

Bonnie: 1:06:43

all. We're spending more money on groceries

Brian: 1:06:46

and Yeah, exactly. Like, yeah, yeah. No, no, not at all. Um, so, so why are we doing this? What are the benefits of the Mediterranean diet?

Bonnie: 1:06:56

Well, one of the reasons my doctor put me on it or ask me to go on it is because it's, anti-inflammatory. And if you have diabetes or you're pre-diabetic, it helps lower that if you have heart, conditions, it helps with high blood pressure. if you have a fatty liver, it helps with the fatty liver. So it's just an all around you. Better way of eating.

Brian: 1:07:24

And, and it's not just that these are claims that somebody is inventing that it's better, uh, you know, that it's a better way of eating. There's actually been clinical trials, clinical studies that have been done, that have proven that, that that is really true. That following this way of eating is really going to have impact in all of those areas. And there have been studies that have been done of people in the Mediterranean regions that mm-hmm. shows that they do have lower risks of cardiovascular disease and diabetes and, and those kinds of things. Um, and so people are like, well, what's the secret? Mm-hmm. And they really do believe that it is the fact that their, their way of eating contributes so much to their health. obviously also coupled with an active lifestyle, that community, you know, type of eating and then that whole idea of moderation. Mm-hmm. And so all of that contributes to having these health benefits that have been proven. And not to say that US News is just the end all, be all with regards to Diets Um, but it has actually been selected by US News as the best diet, this comes from scripps.org. scripps.org is. Like a medical oriented website. Um, but anyhow, scripps.org says, US News and World Report recently weighed in on the best diets for 2023. The Mediterranean Diet topped the scale as the best diet overall in the annual best diet rankings for the sixth consecutive year. US News also ranked the Mediterranean diet number one in four other categories, best diets for bone and joint health, best family friendly diets, and best diets for healthy eating and best plant-based diets. So it's not a fad. Mm-hmm. it's proven scientifically to be good for you. And it's actually something that's been around for a while. Mm-hmm. I actually did a little research into it this diet has been around since the 1970s, but it didn't really gain traction until the early nineties when the old ways non-for-profit organization, I think in conjunction with the University of Harvard and maybe W H O developed the um, The food pyramid and, uh, that's when it really gained traction. But all of that to say that there certainly isn't a fad diet. Lots and lots of scientific evidence to, to back up the claims and, the fact that your doctor has recommended it for, the anti-inflammatory properties, as well as the fact that you're pre-diabetic. We're trying to keep you around a little longer, even though you're costing me a lot of stinking money. Very expensive. Oh my goodness. She's expensive. But, uh, anyhow, so that's the Mediterranean diet. as we understand it now, we are not DIA dieticians. Correct? Not at all. Uh, we're not dieticians and we're still trying to wrap our heads around this, but we're really, I, I, I think I can say, at least from my perspective, I'm enjoying it. I really like the food. I don't find it to be anything, um, onerous. I don't find it to be depriving it all. I, I enjoy the, the, the flavors. No, not every meal that we've eaten has been one that I've enjoyed. Um, that's just the way it is. Mm-hmm. you know, some things you like, some things you don't. Yep. And you know, sometimes I'll look at you and I'll say, oh, that's a keeper. Mm-hmm. And then there's other times like she say, ah, nah, nah,

Bonnie: 1:11:08

that one. Let's not make that one again. Let's

Brian: 1:11:09

not, let's not, let's not do that one again. And it's all good. And it's been fun, you know, exploring different things. Mm-hmm. um, I've, I've really enjoyed it, but, um, but we're still trying to, you know, learn more about it mm-hmm. and understand it and become more proficient in it. And so as we continue that journey and we understand this better, then we'll try to help other people understand it better. So, any closing thoughts that you would have with regards to the Mediterranean diet and why we're doing this?

Bonnie: 1:11:43

I am glad I did it. Um, so the verdict is still out. We'll see, in a couple days, I guess, if I did lower my A1C and my glucose and all that, so,

Brian: 1:11:57

Yeah. Yeah, definitely. Uh, that then the proof is in the pudding, as they say. Yeah. and, uh, Bonnie did go have, uh, the fasting blood work for her checkup. I think it's been six months, right. About that since the doctor said, yeah, yeah, go on, do this. And we started this back in about October, I think it was. Mm-hmm. And so we've been doing this five, six months now. And so we'll see whether or not it's, uh, helped at all. Hopefully it has. And hopefully all of this has not been in vain because it's been a lot of stinking money that I mentioned to you. and moaning. Oh my goodness. No, baby. I, I, I like it. I love you. I wanna keep you around. That's what,

Bonnie: 1:12:35

good thing, I'm not like high maintenance. That is correct. Okay. Yeah.

Brian: 1:12:39

Oh, boy. Mainten, you want me to go high maintenance? What's that? No. You want me to go high maintenance like that? No, baby. No. No. I, no. Okay. I love you just the way you are. Okay. All right. On that note folks, that's it for, uh, this. Episode. And so thank you babe so much for joining us and we are going to be talking about what on the next episode. Let me look it up. On the next episode, we're gonna be diving into whether or not you can homestead on the Mediterranean diet, whether or not homesteading the Mediterranean diet are compatible, which is something that I really, really struggled with when we first decided to go on this. And obviously I think the answer is yes. Vegetables, vegetables, vegetables, vegetables. Yeah. And it's just a matter of understanding what meat you should raise. And so we'll talk about all of. on the next episode, but for now, thanks so much for joining us. I'm Brian. And I'm Bonnie. Until next time, keep up the good work.