Spanish Cuisine

The Healthier Way of Life

~Blog Post #4~

April 17, 2015

By: Gabby Gallo

The typical Spanish diet falls in the range of a typical Mediterranean diet in general. Either way you think about it, these diets are considered healthy and much healthier than an “Anglo-saxon” diet for a variety of reasons. The Mediterranean diet became popular around the 1990’s when it was more widely recognized and followed by other countries. There is still a trend followed where more non-English speaking countries are more likely to follow the Mediterranean diet than English speaking countries. When following a Mediterranean diet, there is often a greater consumption of red wine than other liquors, where in other countries there is a greater consumption of beer. Still taken in small to moderate amounts in Spain, red wine has been proven to contain flavonoids, powerful antioxidants, while beer has no real health benefits, so the Mediterranean diet even follows a healthier liquor consumption diet.

The Mediterranean diet in general contains a much greater portion of unprocessed foods than in other diets. Lots of plant foods, fresh fruit and vegetables, fish and poultry are in the Spanish diet, as well as low amounts of red meat per week. The types of food consumed in a Mediterranean diet often have long term health benefits. For example, a variety of legumes (plants in the pea family such as peas, chickpeas, lentils, alfalfa and beans) which have been proven to lessen the risk of coronary heart disease, as well as improve glycemic control in people with type 2 diabetes. 

The Spanish diet is high in dietary fiber and monounsaturated fat, but low in saturated fat. 25%-35% of the calorie intake in Spain is from fat, with only about 8% of that being saturated fat, and olive oil being the main source of dietary fat. However, despite the large consumption of fat, it is still shown that this type of diet is an enigma, showing lower rates of hypertension, cardiovascular disease, obesity, diabetes and caner than people following other diets. The fact that there are also typically four smaller meals a day versus three, with more spaced out and later times, as well as the amount of walking done in Spain versus the amount of driving in other countries can also be a great factor in the health of people in this country. 

"What Is the Mediterranean Diet? What Are the Benefits of the Mediterranean Diet?" Medical News Today. MediLexicon International, 2 Jan. 2015. Web. 15 Apr. 2015.

"Spain's Mediterranean Diet. A Healthy Diet." Spain.info. Segittur, n.d. Web. 15 Apr. 2015.