Thanks for the link to the WaPo article.
Quote:
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“From a cultural perspective, our intervention was grounded in a diet that aligns with the cultural and gastronomic heritage of the area, featuring local and economically accessible foods,” Calvo-Malvar said. “This approach not only contributes to preserving cultural traditions but also enhances the likelihood of dietary adherence and sustainability.”
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As we've seen with the Mediterranean diet (in all it's iterations - including the significantly higher fat "French paradox" diet), it's an historically traditional diet.
I have my doubts that consuming mostly fish and seafood has all that much to do with it at all - it's just what happens to be most readily accessible in coastal areas. I have serious doubts that "lean" meat has anything to do with it at all, especially since the author of the previous article described cooking with lard.
Traditional cultures simply didn't waste anything if they could possibly help it. Excess pork fat was rendered to make lard. Excess beef fat was rendered to make tallow for candles (not very nice candles, but for those who couldn't afford beeswax candles, a much cheaper option to have at least some light after dark)
Quote:
The Atlantic diet consists of foods traditionally eaten in northwest Spain and Portugal. It recommends three to four servings a week of both seafood and lean meat, a variety of seasonal vegetables, fruits, whole grains, beans and olive oil.
One of the main differences between the Atlantic diet and the Mediterranean diet is that the Atlantic version incorporates more brassicas, which is a family of vegetables that includes turnip greens, turnips, kale, cabbage and cauliflower,
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It includes more brassicas because the Atlantic area has a slightly cooler climate than the areas of the Mediterranean studied to come up with the Med diet, and those vegetables need a slightly cooler climate for a longer period of time to grow to maturity than what's.
I get the distinct feeling that the people who study these diets and health outcomes really have no clue about what it takes to grow certain types of food - Rocky, mountainous regions with long harsh winters always relied heavily on animal products, while filling in with whatever relatively short season crops they were able to grow in cooler weather which could be preserved for the winter.
Somewhat milder climates (France, Spain, Portugal) grew foods that had slightly longer growing seasons or needed slightly longer "cool" seasons.
Warmer climates (Mediterranean) grew foods that required longer, warmer growing seasons.
They sure are trying to make it sound like there's got to be one ideal diet for everyone on the planet, when realistically there isn't even one specific assortment of foods that can be grown everywhere.
Every culture historically ate what was available locally and only what was in season, unless it could be stored using primitive preservation techniques for the winter.
We're just a mess these days because we can get every type of food from all over the globe, including tons of highly processed carbs.