Dietician

The dietitian will show you what a Mediterranean-style diet is and explain each component of the Mediterranean Diet Pyramid. The Mediterranean dietary plan is characterised as a ‘whole-diet approach’. Studies have identified that including at least two key components of the diet appear to be the most cardioprotective. These include olive oil, fruit, vegetables and legumes. You will learn more about what a Mediterranean-style diet is from the online group shown above. You are welcome to ask questions during the session. Expand the tab ‘Online Resource’ above to find out more.

Choosing fruits and/or vegetable salad would help you to reach towards your target of 5-a-day (to learn more, please find out from the British Heart Foundation Healthy Eating. Reading the front of pack traffic light food labelling may help you to choose healthier options. Compare the labels among several food products, go for the options in red less often particularly those that are high in saturated fat, sugar and salt. Green means they are the healthiest choice. When the traffic light labelling is not available, you can refer to Page 12 of the Taking Control of Food Portions and Labels for your reference. It may not be realistic to completely avoid food that are in ‘red’, so, being mindful about how frequently and how much you are eating them would help to strike a balance between health and your food enjoyment.

Keep your snacks around 100kcals. Below are some examples; choose one per snack between meals:

-a medium bowl of mixed fruit salad, one medium apple/orange, one small (child kids’/fun-sized banana), 30g/small handful dried fruits

-120g plain yoghurt mixed with chopped up fresh fruit

– 2 squares dark (>70%) dark chocolate

-a thin slice malt loaf

If we eat these too frequently, they may affect your health in different ways. Ideally, limit takeaways to only having them very occasionally. Takeaways are often high in salt, sugar, saturated fat and calories and limited in dietary fibre. High salt intakes may increase your blood pressure. High saturated fat intakes could contribute to unbalanced levels of fats and cholesterol in your blood (dyslipidaemia). High sugar intakes add extra calories and can lead to weight gain and/or other conditions such as diabetes. Salt, sugar and saturated fat in excess of what your body needs could increase your risk of a further cardiac events.

Yes. The Mediterranean-style diet can promote weight loss and improve blood glucose management in people with Type 2 diabetes.

Eggs can be part of a healthy diet and there is no specific recommendation around how many we should eat. Eggs contain ‘dietary cholesterol’ which is different from the cholesterol created from foods high in saturated fat. It is more important to limit foods high in saturated fat as these raise cholesterol more than foods containing dietary cholesterol. Eating too much can lead to raised cholesterol levels in your body. If you have familial hypercholesterolaemia, one medium egg per day would be okay.

The Mediterranean Diet may help to lower the amount of saturated fat in your blood by partially replacing it with healthy fats. Visit the website British Dietetic Association: Fat Fact above to find out more.

Increasing dietary fibre intakes may help to reduce the unhealthy cholesterol. Losing or maintaining a healthy weight may also help with this. You will be able to find out more from the British Dietetic Association: Fibre