Try a small Mediterranfan of Appetite suppressant teas with eaating piece of fruit or carrot sticks dipped in hummus. Get Directions. We eat it once a week during winter to protect us from colds and flus. oh I will be asking questions for sure. regular tea?

Mediterranean diet and seasonal eating -

It gets pretty cold here too. As the seasons change, so should our diet. Apart from the flavor as well as environmental issues, eating in season guides us to eating a variety of fruit and vegetables. I avoid produce that is not in season even though it is available at my local grocery store.

For example tomatoes are available year round, but they certainly do not taste good. As a reminder, I keep a list of fruit and vegetables and their peak seasons on the refrigerator and check it before I go shopping.

Beans are an important part of the Greek-Mediterranean Diet. Traditional ways of preparing them are in the form of thick soups such as this lentil soup or roasted beans. You can also consume them as a salad using olive oil and lemon as a dressing.

Beans are often also cooked together with fish. A popular Greek winter dish is cauliflower cooked in the pot with tomato paste and olive oil, we eat it once a week during winter. You can also try it roasted. Broccoli also is great roasted with pine nuts and olive oil.

You can also roast any type of root vegetable in olive oil, combine with some feta and bread and you have a complete meal. Forget the Greek salad when Fall comes along.

The Greek salad is as a good as the ingredients you use. A Greek salad made with pale wintery tomatoes is very unappetizing and does a disservice to this wonderful salad. Instead, make traditional Greek winter salads using romaine lettuce along with spring onion with olive oil and vinegar or cabbage salad that is made with shredded cabbage, carrots, a touch of garlic and an olive oil-lemon dressing.

Potatoes are always used to accompany meat but they are often made on their own such as the traditional Greek potato salad or potatoes with celery. Greens also know as horta are often consumed in the winter.

There are different varieties available in all seasons. Find what is available in your area, lightly boil them, add a splash of lemon juice, olive oil and enjoy them with a chunk of feta and bread.

Traditionally, vegetables are also cooked together with rice with dishes such as spinach-rice or leek-rice or even cabbage-rice.

The vegetables and rice are cooked together and served with olive oil and lemon and feta. Pies known as pites in Greek, are savory pies made with phyllo and usually a vegetable filling. Pites are ideal to use those winter vegetables. Not only are they fairly easy to make as you can find phyllo almost everywhere plus they last for days and freeze well.

These can be a complete meal. Popular winter pies include the famous spanakopita, hortopita pie with greens , pumpkin pie, leek pie and onion pie. During the winter frozen vegetables and stewed tomatoes or tomato paste play an important role in my kitchen.

I occasionally will make Greek style lathera green beans and peas using frozen vegetables. At that point I will also use preserved tomatoes or tomato paste. Tomato paste in fact was also consumed regularly as part of the Mediterranean diet. Studies have shown that frozen vegetables maintain their nutritional value as they are frozen shortly after harvest.

Again, seasonal fruit is key. Sliced apple, sections of oranges and mandarins are what you usually find on the Greek table in the winter months.

You can also opt for some dried fruit such as dried figs, apricots and prunes dried plums. Greeks are known for drinking a lot of herbal teas during the cold months. Some of our favorites include chamomile, Greek mountain tea tsai tou vounou , sage and linden.

These teas are consumed sometimes with a bit of honey. Elena Paravantes, RDN is a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist, Writer and consultant specializing in the Mediterranean Diet and Cuisine. She has been active as a clinician, consultant and lecturer for 20 years, both in the U.

and Greece. An expert on the Greek Mediterranean Diet, her interviews and articles have been published in many publications including CNN, U. News and World Report, Prevention, NPR, and Shape. Elena has collaborated with a number of organizations including Loyola University, Yale University, University of Missouri, Louisiana State University, and the American College of Greece.

Love this website, I am new in the Mediterranean diet. A lot of interesting info. I will try the recipes soon.

And I also like you on Pinterest. Everything is explained clearly and understandable! Greetings from the Netherlands. During these chilly months, our craving for warm but weighty foods often leads us to eat less vegetables and more meat. Yes, you can have your comfort food and healthy benefits too.

Beans are your friend Beans are the new meat in winter. Traditional ways of preparing them are in the form of thick soups such as this lentil soup or roasted beans. Cruciferous vegetables the Turkish way Cruciferous vegetables are rich in nutrients, including several carotenoids beta-carotene , lutein, zeaxanthin ; vitamins C, E, and K; folate ; and minerals.

They are also known to fight cancer. Cabbage is one of the most powerful cruciferous vegetables. We eat it once a week during winter to protect us from colds and flus. The right salads Forget the Greek salad. Eat fresh, seasonal romaine.

Both are loaded with cancer fighting beta-carotene and vitamin C. Another winter favorite is our Kofte, a cumin spiced grilled lamb served with fries and salad. Last, no winter is complete without a soul-warming lamb tagine.

Ahd background: Preventing diabetes-related digestive problems discovered the Mediterranean diet after observing that people on Nutty Energy Boosters Greek island of Crete lived longer than Mediterranean diet and seasonal eating general population—and people in nearby areas of the Mdditerranean had similarly lower rates Seasonql chronic Mediterranean diet and seasonal eating. But now that the eating plan has gone mainstream, people are focusing too much on food and not enough on the lifestyle aspect as well, Parekh argues. Until we start looking at health holistically, we will continue to create barriers towards our goals. Here are six lifestyle habits of the Mediterranean diet to boost your overall health. But there are lots of ways to hit that quota besides signing up for fitness classes or taking a run.