Italian Foods
Being Italian it makes very difficult to adjust to any other diet; Italians love their own food and ways they make; unfortunately, the Italian diet has been known for long time as the “spaghetti and meatballs”, lasagna” , “chicken parmesan”, “fettucine alfredo”, etc., to mention some of the most commons, but Italian food is not simply that, and many people now know, especially those who are used to travel or to work in this field, and today with the global internet communication everything becomes more available and easy to find and the world is communicating extensively; local customs, culture and traditions are crossing the oceans and all the barriers and dishes from all other places of the world are exchanged and many times rearranged.
The TV seems to be the major media and vector of transmission, there are so many programs on food and creativity and a variety of creations and recipes from food blogs articles, books and socials networks; today there is certainly an explosion in this field too so it has been with naturopathy and integrative health and because of this, many dishes and recipes have been adapted to the new wave of wellness and love for the nature, fresh, pure and organic and many company producing organic, fresh and whole food are growing all around the countries and making all of us more interested to foods.
Mediterranean Diet
The Mediterranean diet is a sort of anti-inflammatory diet and this is the reason why both the American Cancer Society than the American Heart Association have included in their guidelines with limits on grains; it involves a variety of anti-oxidants and so anti-inflammatory foods as flavonoids and polyphenols, those in fruit and vegetables mainly, healthy grains and spices, lean proteins and healthy fats as oil of olive and olives, and nuts.
By recipland.com
Italian Dieting
Going back to the Italian diet as a Mediterranean diet, it is true that many Italian dishes can be unhealthy, but for sure they taste good; the problem with that is due to the way they are cooked mainly, and to some ingredients used eventually, as excess of dairy and fats, of course, all fried and grilled foods or high heat preparations are non-healthy, but, yes, they are the most tasty; occasional they should be okay, slow cooking, boiling, steaming, baking and broiling are for sure the healthiest ways to cook.
If an Italian diets, the diet is mainly light and clean, Italians relay essentially on very simple food, and with diet of course the quantity, doses and frequency of meals are reduced, the condiments very essential and limited, as quantity of oil, salt and any other dressing, and ways to cook the healthiest, but as a Mediterranean diet, Italian diet does not miss any type of foods other than foods too greasy or fatty, with too many proteins, sugars and eggs, and obviously fried, grilled and junky foods.
Dieting this way and not eating much first of all, people can clean liver and gastrointestinal tract and rebalancing the gut flora, more essentially, they lose weight for not eating much.
The Blood Type Diet
The reason why I personally have been attracted by the blood type diet at the begin of my discover it was for the science behind and the concept of lectins and agglutinations and reasons why foods can cause number of problems in some people but not in others based on blood types, and because mainly for my type this diet has much similarity with the Mediterranean diet, but with more avoidance of type of grains, fruits and vegetables, meat and fish, more restricted for sure.
I totally understand the concept of lectins for the body reacts to those as to any type of antigens and of intolerances to foods and from here of autoimmunity and eventually cancer, or any other disease, especially as Dr. Tom O’Bryan, among all the other doctors I follow, emphasizes on regular basis in his articles and public appearances.
Anti-inflammatory Foods
My preferred foods and those I should eat for my thyroid condition, as nutrient dense, anti-inflammatories and detoxifiers are:
Vegetables of all type, fruit with not much sugar, and legumes which I love, along with salads of any type, soups with herbs and spices, healthy grains pasta with different vegetables or seafood, lean meat and light fish, healthy dessert mainly made with healthy flours, sugars and fats and very occasionally, and dark chocolate, another of my preferred.
Healthy Methods of Cooking
My ways to cook are usually the healthiest, slow cooking, steaming, boiling, backing, and broiling, or sauté’, I do not grill often, I rarely fry and mainly fish, or shrimps, and do not use eggs in the marinate process but only spices and healthy flours.
I like to mix greens and salads with fruits and nuts, or tomatoes and croutons, or I can add more veggies or boiled eggs, my marinates for salads are usually red or green onions with lemon, or balsamic vinegar along with extra-virgin oil of olive and salt.
The soups I prefer and cook more often are, vegetable broth, minestrone, lentils-carrots soup, cauliflower, kale, garbanzo, white beans soup, and so on. With every of these soups I use as basic elements like, garlic, onions, basil, parsley, rosemary and thyme, celery, and carrots and other herbs and spices, ginger, and turmeric only in some of them.
I normally cook all ingredients together with water, carrots, celery and onions, I do not sauté’, only with beans soup I do, I sauté the tomatoes first with garlic, then I add the rinsed beans, and water, celery and parley, and some vegetable broth, I only use vegetable broth or beef broth for roast or stew, I really do not like chicken broth, but I do make chicken soup and in that case I use vegetable broth and water, and usual ingredients mentioned above.
Of course, I love pasta and can cook in a variety of ways, and I am also sometimes inspired from the variety of recipes around so as with other dishes. I try to use different grains, but once in a while I must have my regular pasta, or a “Margherita” pizza, or any other assembled with the usual clean ingredients, tomatoes, and basil and parmesan, and/or other vegetables.
The basic ingredients for my pasta are tomatoes-garlic-basil, or tomatoes-garlic- parsley with seafood, these cooking requires sauté the garlic first in oil, but I try to do a gentle sauté since I only use oil of olive for this type of cooking and which is not an high temperature oil, but only to use for slow cooking and marinating salads; I use onion instead with the most of vegetables. For example, I prefer pasta and broccoli with garlic, but pasta and zucchini with onion and basil, with both of these I can use turmeric if I feel.
Turmeric as ginger, or the enzyme bromelain give all a sensation of clean and purity after eating or taking.
I use lots of herbs and healthy spices in the kitchen like, basil, oregano, parsley, rosemary, mint, thyme, ginger and turmeric when appropriate, and using these is particularly important as we all know, the benefits and functions that have been highlighted recently are countless. I drink a lot of filtered water or sparkling water with lemon, wine occasionally, but in little amount, and green teas.
I am trying to perfecting time by time and day by day ways to eat and lifestyle also for listening the incessant suggestions from providers, the doctors I follow and from all the news in regard of health, adapting some of my dishes and recipes to healthy way of cooking always more, reducing the frequency of the less healthy ways, and eliminating always more foods that I know are not beneficial for me.
I guess, this is what most of the people do today, or try to as I do.
Thanks For Reading
Mariarosaria M.
The Emerging Science 