Does the Mediterranean Diet support your sports performance goals?
What is the Mediterranean Diet?
The Mediterranean Diet consists of traditional foods eaten in countries that surround the Mediterranean Sea. It’s also more than just a diet, it’s a lifestyle that includes meals with friends and family and red wine with those meals.
Some studies, cookbooks and resources focus on the foods of Italy and Greece as inspiration, others include Spain and France as well, and still others include all of the countries around the sea.
The meals themselves are heavy in fruits and vegetables, whole grains and legumes like beans, lentils, or chick peas. Olive oil, often extra virgin olive oil, is used for cooking and serving. The original foods would have been very local and changed by the season, so there’s a significant amount of variation across the year.
The wide variety of fresh produce, grains and beans provide a huge range of phytochemicals (polyphenols, stilbenes, and so on) that have antioxidant and anti-inflammatory benefits. They also contain fiber, which fuel the gut microbiome, which in turn supports the immune system.
Also, it’s not a diet. It’s an eating system and a way of life. You can cut calories while following this eating system, but it’s not inherent in the diet.
Oh, I get alcohol? 🥳
Alcohol is an option, yes. Preferably it’s consumed in small amounts with meals. Why is that important? Alcohol (the chemical ethanol) is metabolized from alcohol into acetaldehyde, and then again into acetate, which is easy to burn for energy or store as fat. Acetaldehyde is toxic. If you’re having wine with your meal and you’re really eating fresh fruits, veggies, whole grains and beans and extra virgin olive oil, by the time you’ve accumulated acetaldehyde and it’s doing its damage, you’ve also got all those antioxidant and anti-inflammatory compounds coming in from those plant foods to counteract it. So you get the benefits of the red wine (resveratrol, for one example) without the downsides (alcohol, acetaldehyde).
Also, since you’re an athlete, you should know that alcohol does not support athletic performance. It can lead to dehydration, reduce recovery, affect balance and reaction time, and unsync circadian clocks.
Will I get enough protein?
That depends on what your goals are. The Mediterranean Diet includes fish, poultry, and dairy, but limited red meat. The fish makes sense, right? These are countries with access to the entire Mediterranean for fishing. They’re going to consume fish and seafood pretty much every day. Poultry and dairy can be consumed most days of the week, especially fermented dairy like cheese and yogurt. Red meat is consumed infrequently. Remember too that there’s protein in whole grains and beans, which you’d be getting every day.
Endurance athletes and team sport athletes will probably be okay. Strength and power athletes and athletes trying to maintain muscle mass while losing body fat might need help planning a menu that would meet their needs.
What athletes might use this diet?
In the off season, any athlete. There is an enormous range of tastes and textures, as the Mediterranean covers all the countries from Spain to Croatia and Turkey to Cyprus and Israel to Egypt, Tunisia and Morocco.
In season, there are many things to consider. First, will the diet provide the macronutrients you need to make performance gains? This depends on your sport, the season, your goals, and how you should eat to achieve those goals. The diet is higher in fat than most sports diets, making it by default either high in calories or lower in carbs and protein. Second, the diet is high in fiber. Some people will experience GI issues. Third, and of least concern, the original diet is based on fresh foods. That is harder to maintain during periods of frequent travel. Canned and frozen foods can sub and are better for stocking pantries and freezers.
Can I lose weight on this diet?
As I said above, you might. You can trim calories from any diet.
It’s important to note that the Mediterranean Diet contains a comparatively high percentage of fat from olive oil as a key component.
Are special skills needed to follow this diet?
It helps if you or a roommate or partner can cook. Those fresh foods won’t chop and cook themselves. However, there are many “quick” recipes that have streamlined the cooking process.
A little education on the types of foods different Mediterranean regions consume is also helpful. It can expand your options significantly.
Is this diet expensive?
Probably not. The original diet used seasonal produce, which is always the least expensive option in the store. If you can adjust your menus to what you have in season in your area at any given time, this will save money. It also uses a lot of grains and legumes, which are inexpensive in their original forms. If you eat a lot of seafood but you don’t live on the coast, this might drive the cost of the diet up. Meat and desserts are consumed infrequently, so those expenses would be reduced. Wine can be pricey, but the amount you need is small and it won’t help your sports performance anyway.
How do you know you’re doing the diet “right”?
There’s a Mediterranean Diet Score developed by Oldways and the Mediterranean Foods Alliance. It’s fast and easy to use. There are more complex scoring systems used in research, but the Oldways score will tell you if you’re headed in the right direction or not.
Have questions?
If you’re interested in learning more about how to implement the Mediterranean Diet into your training nutrition, reach out here!
Also see these related articles: Compare the Mediterranean Diet to a Vegetarian Diet, discover if a Med Diet helps with Weight Loss in Athletes or if it helps in Menopause, and find out why Beans are Amazing!