How to Eat the Mediterranean Diet WITHOUT Fish: A Doctor Explains

🐟💡 FAQ: “Can I still follow the #mediterraneandiet if I AVOID eating Fish or Seafood ?

Don’t worry,

⚡️ I’ve got you covered ⚡️

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In this video, I’ll be sharing with you the ✨TOP WAYS✨ to follow the Mediterranean Diet & Lifestyle if you are not a fish or seafood eater.

We’ll do this by covering the Top 3 Reasons why someone might avoid eating these foods.

I’ll also be breaking down for you EXACTLY what you need to know about the nutrition in fish or seafood, so that you can not only adapt your diet to meet your needs but also master it 💫

I’ll be breaking down for you some important concepts:
✅ What is the Mediterranean Diet?
✅ How does fish/seafood fit into the schema for the Mediterranean Diet?
✅ What are the top 3 reasons why someone would avoid fish/seafood?
✅ What nutrition does fish/seafood provide for us?
✅ Which foods provide us these types of nutrients?
✅ What other food sources besides fish can we eat to get them?
✅ What are Omega 3 fatty acids and why do they matter?
… and so much more!

You’ll be walking away from this video charged up and READY to start eating this extremely beneficial diet, so that you can get ahead of your health and thrive.

To see more about the food pyramid* I cover in the video, check out this link: https://oldwayspt.org/traditional-diets/mediterranean-diet

*please note: I have no relationship with the group Oldways. My views are my own and I genuinely think their food pyramid is clear and educational.

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🍋 Colander set: https://amzn.to/3Sa9CZi
🍋 Cooking utensil set (silicone) : https://amzn.to/3vOQ2Ks
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🍋 Blender (favorite for smoothies!): https://amzn.to/3SzlULW
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🍋 Immersion blender: https://amzn.to/49dVXY3
🍋 Small food scale (weighs in grams or ounces): https://amzn.to/49InzoJ
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Timestamps:
0:00 Intro
0:42 Top 3 Reasons why people avoid fish/seafood
3:35 How to adopt a fish-free Mediterranean Diet

Don’t forget to COMMENT BELOW what type of fish you do eat in your Mediterranean Diet eating, or if you don’t which type you avoid and why 👇🏼

About Me:
I’m Anna Pleet, MD, and I love teaching people about healthy eating, especially foods from the Mediterranean area. My way of teaching is simple and easy to understand. I want to help you and your family eat in a way that’s both delicious and nutritious.

Connect with me:
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCapta3PYCN2V4NQetFDnm-A
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/annapleetmd
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Tags:
#annapleetmd #mediterraneandiet #hearthealthy #oliveoil #nutrition #healthyfats #mediterraneanfood #wholegrains #healthydiet #plantbaseddiet #wellness #healthylifestyle #healthyfood #healthy #fish #seafood #omega3benefits

This is a common question that I get on this YouTube channel all the time can I still follow the Mediterranean diet if I’m avoiding eating fish or seafood and as a medical doctor people commonly ask this because there are so many different reasons that people might want to avoid

Eating these kinds of things in this video we’re going to cover the top three reasons why somebody might be hesitant about eating fish by the end of the video we’re going to understand what kinds of nutrients fish provide us so that if we are avoiding it we know

How to substitute it with other food sources instead hey there I’m Dr Anna I’m a medical doctor I was trained in Italy and on this channel you’re going to learn how to master your health with the Mediterranean diet okay let’s start by breaking down these top three reasons

Why some people are going to be hesitant about eating fish and the first reason that’s pretty obvious why somebody would need to avoid it is if they have an allergy now shellfish and other types of fish are a common allergen this is why a lot of food manufacturers like to put

The allergen criteria and list shellfish as one of those sources often people who have allergies to fish or shellfish get very severe reactions so severe in fact that some people might even wind up in the emergency department if they come into contact with it so since the

Mediterranean diet has so much fish and seafood in abundance in the types of dishes that are eaten it’s no surprised that people who have one of these fish allergies are really insecure about following the Mediterranean diet and they might be unsure if they can do it correctly all right second most common

Reason that people are going to be hesitant about eating fish or seafood and it’s because they absolutely dislike The Taste now it’s no surprise that fish is extremely smelly especially when it’s still raw if you’ve ever walked through a fish market before you’re going to be overwhelmed by the smell and that’s just

Part of the territory it’s just one one of those things some people are more sensitive than others to things like smells if we come into contact with a bad smell it’s no surprise that we’re not going to want to eat something that smells like that it’s a huge turnoff and

What’s the third most common reason a lot of people are hesitant about fish or seafood well it’s because they’re a little bit worried about things like heavy metal contamination specifically Mercury that can be found in high levels in some types of fish and this is a really important one to address because

It is absolutely something we need to pay attention to when we’re selecting the type of fish or seafood that we want to incorporate into our diet now I go into a little bit more detail about which fish are the best to select if we’re trying to avoid too much heavy

Metal contamination in our diet so you can check out that video up there if you’re interested but here’s a good take-home message to keep in mind fish that are higher up in the food chain are often fish that are larger and older and these types of predatory fish often

Acquire the most heavy metal contamination so if if we want to decrease the amount of contamination we are getting from things like fish an easier choice is to eat really little fishes that don’t have a long lifespan so those are going to be things like sardines anchovies mackerel classic fish

That are Incorporated in the Mediterranean diet but nonetheless if someone’s trying to avoid any and all exposure to heavy metals then they may be hesitant about eating any fish at all all right if this video is working for you so far and you’re getting value out

Of this I’d like you to hit subscribe because it helps get these videos out to more people who really deserve to learn this information okay so now that we’ve clarified what the top three most common reasons are for wanting to avoid Fisher Seafood in a diet let’s talk about how

We can still adopt the Mediterranean diet to work without Fisher Seafood so on the screen here you’re going to see a Mediterranean diet food pyramid from the group oldways and I like this food pyramid because it’s pretty accurate to what the Mediterranean diet portrays by but it’s also just really nice visually

So of course you’re going to see that fish and seafood is smack dab in the center of it and it’s in the middle of the pyramid because it’s trying to portray the idea that fish and seafood should be eaten at a moderate amount in the diet overall it’s not at the bottom

Of the pyramid where those are foods that are going to be vegetables fruits whole grains legumes lots of plant foods which should be eaten in abundance at almost every meal but at least every day fish and seafood does not need to be eaten every day and the Mediterranean diet doesn’t necessarily support eating

Fish or seafood every single day but the general recommendation is to have fish or seafood a few times a week different dietary guidelines from different countries around the world vary on the number of days they suggest some countries say 1 to two days others 2 to

Three or even up to four days a week but overall it’s generally supposed to be a moderate amount so let’s say you knocked out this category entirely and you do not have any more Fisher Seafood in your Mediterranean diet what is this going to look like well we’re going to have to

Bump up the foods that are in the bottom part of the pyramid and to make up the difference and make sure that we’re meeting enough nutrition we’ll probably also have to bump up a little bit of the top of the pyramid too let’s follow this thinking here by going one nutrient at a

Time that fish and seafood provide us so that we know what kinds of foods we want to be incorporating instead let’s start by the most obvious one which is protein now fish and Seafood are a very good source of protein in our diet they are a type of animal and they’re going to

Provide our body with what’s called a complete protein that means all nine of the essential amino acids or the little building blocks of protein are going to be provided to us from these food sources now one thing we need to keep in mind is that all animal products are

Complete proteins and by and large all plant products are not but that doesn’t mean we can’t create a complete protein from plant sources this is why beans and rice are commonly put together because lots of whole grain sources and lots of legumes in combination will provide all

Nine of those essential amino acids so you can either give your body protein from plant sources balanced correctly or you can eat other animal sources now if we’re still following the Mediterranean diet principles we want to incorporate a little bit less red meat compared to other types of animal products so by

Looking at that pyramid we’re going to see that a category that includes eggs dairy products like yogurt cheeses even milk itself and then things like poultry should be consumed more than something like a red meat which could be beef it could be lamb or other types of wild

Game meat so in terms of the balance between how much of these different protein sources we should incorporate the emphasis should still be on the plant protein sources eating things like beans and and lentils in combination with whole grains like rice quinoa amarinth buckwheat spelt oats and then

Getting some protein from things like nuts and seeds which will also provide our body other nutrition like healthy fats and then finally working towards incorporate some of those animal sources of protein so those are eggs and yogurt and cheeses and milk Etc all right the next category of nutrients that fish and

Seafood provide us are healthy fats and this is something that makes fish and seafood kind of famous when it comes to common knowledge about nutrition fish provides our body with something called omega-3 fatty acids these are really healthy fats that are very important for our brain health and it just so happens

That there are not that many food sources that are providing our body with this perfect nutrient so fish and seafood is famous for because it’s in abundance now the thing about Omega-3s in fish and seafood sources is that they don’t actually make omega-3 fatty acids themselves what happens is the fish in

The ocean are consuming allergy and micro algae and other kinds of sea plants and it’s those plants that actually are providing the source of Omega-3 so what some people do whether or not they eat fish is they kind of jump over that step and they incorporate more algae or algae oil supplements into

Their diet so that they can get the adequate amount of Omega-3s regardless of fish consumption so that is absolutely one approach that someone could take who is avoiding fish or seafood if they wanted to get enough Omega-3s but the good thing is that there are still other sources of food

That can provide our body with omega-3 fatty acids and the most common sources are from Plants they’re going to be in things like seeds such as flax seed or chia seed and in nuts like walnuts but the truth is Omega-3s are not the only important fatty acid there are other

Things called monounsaturated and polysat saturated fatty acids that are also found in fish and are really important for our health overall and we’re going to be able to get these most classically in the Mediterranean diet from olives or olive oil but also incorporating other kinds of nuts other

Kinds of seeds and then things like avocados is going to give us plenty of options for how to eat enough healthy fats in our diet if we don’t want to have any fish now I do need to put this caveat in here it’s a little bit of my

Personal opinion I like to promote whole food nutrition over supplementation so what that means is for thinking about the nutrients that our body needs I’m always going to recommend getting those nutrients from a food before I’d recommend somebody to take a supplement but supplements can be super helpful

Especially in the case where somebody can’t eat a certain kind of food because they have an allergy for example or they just don’t like that food and so somebody who wants to have enough Omega-3s but they’re not in a situation where they can find good sources of

Algae and maybe they also have a nut allergy and they’re not going to eat something like walnuts those people could be a good candidate for something like a fish oil supplement but just keep it in mind it’s something you can always talk to your doctor about if you have

Questions and for a little bit of a deeper dive about omega-3 fatty acids if you are curious about this topic I have a video up here where I talk a lot about Omega-3s in our diet all of the other sources that you could be eating so check out that video if you’re

Interested all right what’s the last group of nutrients that fish and Seafood provide us that we want to make sure we’re getting enough of if we’re avoiding these Foods well that’s minerals things like iodine and selenium now these kinds of minerals are not actually found in that wide of a variety

Of food sources and this is partly why salt in the United States can be iodized or iodine supplemented because it’s a really easy way for people to get enough iodine into their diet now iodine and selenium have different functions in the body you can think of this as iodine is

Is really important for thyroid Health selenium is important antioxidant but they have multiple roles and they’re essential nutrients regardless of what food someone’s eating so if we’re avoiding fish and seafood a good way to incorporate these in is like I said with iodine is to have an iodized salt it’s

Very cheap it’s pretty much going to be found in any kind of grocery store you just have to check the labels to make sure it says iodized but other sources of iodine and selenium in our diet are lots of other animal products things like milk eggs or other kinds of meat

But keep in mind as we know the Mediterranean diet does deemphasize animal Foods over plant Foods so if we’re thinking about our plant sources of some of these minerals seaweed is another great option as well as other types of nuts that provide tons of selenium things like Brazil nuts

Macadamia nuts or hazelnuts now I’d like you at this point to comment below and share with us which of these Foods you would consider incorporating into your diet if you’re not eating them already and if you are a fish eater and if you just can’t manage to avoid fish because

You love it so much comment below and share with us what types of fish you’re typically eating in your Mediterranean diet approach it’s just so great to read all of your comments sharing your recipe ideas with each other that is what makes this community Thrive and if at this

Point you’re interested in learning a little bit more about the types of fish people are typically eating in a Mediterranean diet I have a video up for you here I break down the most common fish that are incorporated into Mediterranean dishes and it gives you a really helpful little acronym to keep in

Mind so check out that video and I’ll see you in there