Oh hello, thanks for joining us today. I hope you are feeling healthyish. Of course you have tuned into the daily podcast from Body and Soul with me Felicity Halle and joining us in the studio is the effervescent Sarah DeLorenzo. She has yet another book out. This one is called My Mediterranean Life and yes we are talking the fundamentals of the med diet and we get her verdict on the planetarian diet. Have you heard of this one? It's
a goody. Now if you like what you hear from Sarah listening to Extra Healthy Ish, where she shares how you can incorporate Mediterranean eating and living into a busy lifestyle, you can catch that one where we get your podcasts.
Sarah hio you. I'm very well and thank you so much for having me to now.
Congratulations on your what another book is this?
This is book and today is publication day, so it's a very special day. It always as an author, it feels like a birthday or Christmas. Like I woke up this morning and I was like, what day is it today? Oh? Yeah,
it's publication day. Because there's that big build up you have with the well, the whole journey I mean you think of a journey as an author where it starts with the idea and the concepts and the flat plan and the writing and the editing and the design and the emotional journey that goes along with it, and then all of a sudden it's done. There's been the pre order campaign, and you think it's here, it's out, it can never come back. I've put it out there, and this book's really special.
Well, let's talk about this fabulous new book, Mediterranean.
Yeah, so it was interesting. Why it's an interesting journey on how we got to this book and how we chose this. So we hadn't planned this. The plan with my publisher was to do very similar to the Gut Repair Plan, the Mediterranean Plan. And I sat down and I battled with it because I just said, Mediterranean isn't a plan, it's a way of life. And as an author, when I write, I go through that kind of journey of you know, I think a lot. I get really
immersed into the project. And I spoke to my publisher and I said, I need to do something completely different. I'm honestly feliciting of the world's worst liar, and I just it was the only thing I could do was right from my heart, and I felt confident enough in my own journey to share personal stuff and personal journey
with food. And I actually thought about it a lot, and it's probably my Greek background is actually and my Greek upbringing is the very foundation of why I'm a clinical nutritionist today, growing up Mediterranean and that appreciation.
Well, why is the med diet the best way to eat for health?
Well we discovered, well, research is discovered in nineteen fifty that all of a sudden, people were living They were kind of looking at longevity around the world, and they realized people around the Mediterranean were living eighteen ninety one hundred and they were living with next to obesity, very low amounts of like scarce amounts of cardiovascular disease. And there are all of a sudden going hold on a minute, what's going on here?
No modern lifestyle diseases?
Correct, absolutely, and what can we take away from this? And I always say, with the Mediterranean diet, it's not it's it's something that is not by design. It is by default because people who live around that it is. It's arid, it's rocky. You can't if you've been to the Greek islands. You'll notice that it's quite windy, and it's rocky, and it's and that it's there's cliffs and they don't didn't have the land to be able to farm, so they had to pick foods that were seasonal. It's
more fruit and vegetables and beans and legumes. And you always think of Greeks and how proud they are of their gardens and it's a very big thing. So that is and it was really interesting. But you think about why it is so amazing. It's it's the it's a plant primarily a plant based diet. People often think of the Mediterranean diet and they might think of like sort of laki and and different things. It's actually it's primarily plant based because meat was scarce because of because of
the landscape. So what are some.
Key foods of the Mediterranean diet and perhaps their health benefits?
So first, when like the first as soon as you say that to me, one of the my first vision is tomatoes.
Yes, it's like red, big, beautiful ripe tomatoes.
Taste Yes, that's my first vision is and and I'm a very visual person, so straight away I think of a beautiful ripe tomato and then I think of all the wonderful lycopene in the tomato, which is an incredible antioxidant that's really wonderful for prostate but also excellent for our heart health, so it's a great antioccident And you think about that two plus vitamin C as well, so
it's great for our immune system. And then I'd think about things like feta cheese, of course, like I love feta, and then that's like out of my cheese is like I always think fetter is one of them. It's got lower matter of fat in it that feta cheese has. It's a great source of calcium as well as protein. My other thought would, obviously I think about all the different herbs like oregano that you think about in Greek cooking.
Lots of herbs dominate basil. Basils wonderful as and antioxid and it's great for also lowering blood pressure and also really good for lowering trugless rides too, so it's wonderful for heart health. And tomato and basil together I think better. Well, yeah, but they're a marriage made in food heaven because they're both very cardio sort of what cardio bascular health. But then I kind in my mind drives off to when I think about my own childhood and what I was
brought up on. And I was brought up on a lot of legumes, so where we would be brought up on things like lentils, which which as a little girl Greek, the greet did you eat them or they? Of course? I hate them? No, I love them. One. I loved all Greek food when I was I was very unusual compared to when I think about.
I would just think, my say, five year olds, are you serving me?
Mum? No, I've always been a good ada like that. Yeah, I'm just and I'm going I'll explain why in a minute. But I used to and this is a bit was very risky in my house because my Papa would live with us. But I would say, so lentil in Greek is fucky, and I thought that was the best thing to say that I would walk around say Papa, can we have some fuck eats? It was the way that I could swear without swear. It's so dumb, but anyway,
it was so funny. But I think about and as I write this book, all those memories came flooding to me, which was why every recipe has got a little story in the book. But then I think about, you know, we had so many legumes in my house growing up, and legumes are affordable daily two to three times a week. Split pea which is a like a squirrespee called father which is basically like periods, but peas would have that every Saturday. Greens dominated, so the wild greens were really big,
and my paple grew them. Of course, I can't even forget the amount of olive oil. Olive oil was always on our table, next to salt and pepper, so you always had We always had the pora there. There was always beautiful bread, and it was the dipping and then we often he used to actually put a little dish of v and dice up a bit of red onion in there as well. So all of that food was
very dominant. But you think of olive oil, I mean, it's got oliocancel in it, it's got a leak acid in it, wonderful for heart, anti inflammatory and people in Greece and also longevity. All that omega three people in Greece would have up to I always tell my patients medicinally try to get two tablespoons a day. People in grease have up to six tablespoons a day of olive extraversionally well, yeah, which is a lot when you think
about it. But it's the salads. It's the I'm thinking how because it can be a little bit if you try to drink it straight or if you've noticed you've ever had it and you think.
Well, I think the TikTok trend was taking shots.
Yeah, I can shot off. It was been debunked. Ye, it's experts. You can't do shots. But if you think about absorbing, enjoying the end of a meal and swishing, getting a bit of bread and mopping up the plate, delicious. That's one of my favorite That's actually one of my favorite rectis in the book is a Catherean salad because it's got the rusks the PUCKSI mother are, which is a Greek rask, all in the bottom, and at the end of it you actually get to you get to
eat the rusk that's absorbed, or the salad dressing. And which is it's so good now dreaming of it now.
I wanted to get your thoughts. I recently read a review calling for world recognition of the planetarian diet. So basically, I mean so many, there were so many studies. I think it's the most study diet, the Mediterranean diet, and you know, obviously we all know that it's wonderful for our health. So this planetarian diet is basically the principles of the med diet, but adapted to each country's locally available foods. I mean, I think this is fabulous. Yeah,
so tell me what are your thoughts about it? And how can we make the Mediterranean diet work in Australia with our produce.
We can so easily. I mean, I give me a challenge and I will give you a solution. And I absolutely love this. So bringing the Mediterranean diet in first and foremost people forget. They often think because like sometimes certain like fish can be expensive for example, and you can look at the budget as well, salmon, and salmon is fright for leg I bought it. I bought two filets the other day and it was twenty two dollars and I was looking at it. I was like, that's
two filets. But you can get cheaper cuts of fish, but not only forgetting it, don't you know? I always say to people, tinfish is fine in moderation. I mean it's not my preference. But you know, if you did that once a fortnight or twice a fortnite to balance out a meal, you can still use tinfish other things. Not forgetting legumes, like people forget when they make soups and stewice and even like piluffy which is salads and salads and stuff. You can always bring legumes in it.
Like they're a dollar. They're seriously so cheap, and they've full of protein. Chickpeas as well. I mean, there's like they're an excellent source of protein. Plus we know they're amazing for guts. So I always had to people think about that. And the other thing I encourage people to do to bring to live Mediterranean in Australia is do what Mediterranean people do, shop seasonally. So when you learn so it's when you learn seasonal eating, you can actually
you will save. I'm a seasonal eater. First of all, it's what your body needs at that time of year. You think about potatoes in winter and to get to all those kind of root vegetables to help keep you warm, but you think about citrus in winter to support your immune system because of the weather changes, all the leafy greens that come out in spring that we have in all of our salads, which are great for supporting detox pathways.
You think of melons in summer which are hydrating. You think of avocados and olives in autumn to fatten us up for winter. It's all logical eating. But the thing is you will save so much money. And I always said to my patients when I'm presenting about learning season or eating it is what is at the front of the supermarket. It's not because the buyer there had a bad day and ordered too many avocados or too many many rawberries. It's because they're in season locally like locally farmed.
They're harvested when they're ripe, and they're nutrient dense, so they are delicious. So produced when it's harvested, when it's ripe, and it's prime nutrient density. So it's and I just say, just shop at the front of the supermarket and make recipes according to that so and over time you will
save so much money the foods had minimal transportation. Then there's the other side of things, so looking at legging seasonal produce, different cuts of meat, different cuts of proteins, not forgetting You can also use other things like tofu, which is cheap to kind of accelerate the nutritional profile of a meal, and frozen options too, which are a lot cheaper. But think about the Mediterranean because it's not
just what you eat. It's a holistic approach. Think about preparing food together, sitting down together, making it a part of life culture, No phones, the togetherness, the warmth, the friendship that entire, feeling, the hydration, a little bit of red wine and just celebrating life, love, being together and beautiful food. And that's that's I'm Sarah.
Thank you for coming, going to help, thank.
You, thank you for having me. It's always a pleasure, mark my words.
People. I think we'll hear more about the planetarian diet over the next couple of years. If you want to hear more from Sarah Well, read more from Sarah grab her new book. It is called My Mediterranean Life and it is out now. If you do have any ideas for upcoming epps for Healthy Ish or Extra Healthy Ish, dm me across social media at Felicity Harley, anything else, head to Body andsoul dot com. Do you follow us on socials? G of our print edition which is our
in your local Sunday paper. Thanks again for listening, and stay healthy ish