Eat Like A Roman And Live Forever

That title is deceptive. It's probably more accurate to say "Eat Like A Greek Peasant in 1820," but this is a Stoic blog, so...

My doctor recommended a book to me called "Good Food, Great Medicine." It's author, Miles Hassell M.D., uses evidence to make the case for the Mediterranean diet.

Doctor Hassell is deeply suspcicious of fad diets. Instead he bases his advice on high quality studies from peer reviewed journals. These studies teach us that the Mediteranian diet produces:

1. Lower total mortality
2. Less heart disease, artery disease and stroke
3. Les diabetes
4. More sustainable weight loss
5. Less depression
6. More active elderly people
7. Less cancer and better cancer outcomes

In broad strokes Doctor Hassell recommends that we avoid processed foods, sugar, refined grains, and hydrogenated fats.

Instead we should eat whole foods which would be recognizable 150 years ago. We should eat plenty of vegetables, fruits, nuts, and animal protien. Whole grains are fine and dark chocolate is mandatory. He advises that we drink 2-6 cups of coffee per day and one alcoholic drink (probably red wine, probably with dinner). Cheese and eggs are great.

We shall see, folks...

Hassell emphasizes simplicity in cooking. Most of his recipes seem unfussy and very doable. That's pretty Stoic.

If you're interested Wikipedia has an excellent article on Roman cuisine. Made me want to try making puls. This article claims that modern Romans eat a puls made of boiled farro grain in coffee and cream. I would not have thought of that combination.

This nice hipster lady wants to lay some science on you:

Turns out that interest in the Mediterranean diet started in Crete after World War II:

Image is by Sailko and is used under some sort of public domain license