Mediterranean Ketogenic Diet: All You Need to Know

The Mediterranean Ketogenic Diet seeks to bring together the benefits of these two eating styles. Do you know what the benefits are?

What is the Mediterranean diet and what are its benefits?

If we ask 100 people on the street about what is the healthiest diet out there, more than half are likely to opt for the Mediterranean diet. Why?

This reputation, more or less justified, has been given to it after several decades of studying this dietary model as the “gold standard” of health.

The Mediterranean diet has its strengths and weaknesses.

Firstly, we are not sure what “Mediterranean diet” means. In various parts of the Mediterranean area, the diet has varied (sometimes very much so).

In other words, there is not “one” Mediterranean diet, there are many.

On the other hand, the diet includes as “Mediterranean eating patterns” the low-moderate intake of fermented alcoholic beverages, which leaves ample room for the “healthiest diet in the world”.

The characteristics and benefits of the Mediterranean diet are

Foods which are included

The Mediterranean lifestyle includes, as we said, not only food, but also a Mediterranean “way of life”: family life, frugality, respect for circadian rhythms, plenty of physical activity, cooking and adequate rest.

Beyond that, the foods included belong mostly to the plant kingdom.

It should be a plant-based diet; and I say ‘should’ because in practice this is rarely the case.

The main food groups of a Mediterranean diet are:

Mediterranean Keto

What is the Mediterranean ketogenic diet?

What if we took the benefits of the Mediterranean diet and the ketogenic diet and established synergies between them? Is it possible to do this?

For despite the initial shock it may cause to many, it is not a crazy idea, although it would be useful in some specific contexts.

How it works

Transforming a Mediterranean diet into a low-carb diet does not require much juggling.

We will mainly restrict four classic food groups of the Mediterranean diet: cereals, legumes, higher carbohydrate fruits and wine.

In this way we already have a low or very low carbohydrate diet based on typically “Mediterranean” products.

Benefits of this diet with Spanish products

A well thought-out Mediterranean ketogenic or low-carbohydrate diet should bring us many ( but not all) of the benefits of the original Mediterranean diet:

Butyrate is a molecule which, like BHB, is also ketogenic.

What can you eat on the Mediterranean keto diet?

We might think that this is a very restrictive diet in terms of food variety, but it is a well planned diet that can move away from monotony.

You can include:

What are the results?

There is no specific literature on the keto-mediterranean diet except for some studies such as (Paoli et al., 2013).

The expected results are those achieved with the classic ketogenic diet.

Diet with an “abundance” of vegetables.

Is it a long-term diet?

The ketogenic diet should not be considered as a long term lifestyle except in very specific contexts (such as refractory epilepsy and some other situations).

That said, you can go on a ketogenic Mediterranean diet for an initial period lasting several weeks and then switch to a low carb diet.

Why opt for a Mediterranean ketogenic diet?

The most frequent attacks on the ketogenic diet are:

Mediterranean Keto Salad

We recommend you try this delicious Mediterranean Keto Salad.

Recipe Tips: Mediterranean Keto Salad

• Preparation time: 8 minutes
• Cooking time: 1 minute
• Portion size: 1 Bowl
• Number of servings: 1
• Cooking style: American

Ingredients

• Chopped cucumber
• Cherry tomatoes
• Yellow pepper, chopped
• Half a spring onion
• Black olives
• 1 cup cooked and shredded cauliflower
• 100g sliced Feta cheese
• Olive oil
• Salt
• Garlic and Spice Sauce from FoodSeries

Nutritional Information per serving
Calories:	499kcal
Fat:	36,3g
of which saturates:	19,9g
Carbohydrates:	24g
of which sugars:	10g
Fiber:	7g
Proteins:	19,2g
Salt:	5,8g

How to make: Mediterranean Keto Salad

1. In a bowl we mix all the ingredients.
2. Dress with a pinch of salt, olive oil and the garlic and spice sauce to taste.

Discover a keto Mediterranean menu

Try these keto-mediterranean recipes:

Octopus Salad

Prawn and Green Bean Stir-Fry

Beef and Kale Omelette

Cauliflower and Chicken Bake

Courgette Noodles with Salmon

Bibliography

1. Estruch, R., Ros, E., Salas-Salvadó, J., Covas, M.-I., Corella, D., Arós, F., Gómez-Gracia, E., Ruiz-Gutiérrez, V., Fiol, M., Lapetra, J., Lamuela-Raventos, R. M., Serra-Majem, L., Pintó, X., Basora, J., Muñoz, M. A., Sorlí, J. V, Martínez, J. A., Martínez-González, M. A., & PREDIMED Study Investigators. (2013). Primary prevention of cardiovascular disease with a Mediterranean diet. The New England Journal of Medicine, 368(14), 1279–1290.
2. Moreno, B., Bellido, D., Sajoux, I., Goday, A., Saavedra, D., Crujeiras, A. B., & Casanueva, F. F. (2014). Comparison of a very low-calorie-ketogenic diet with a standard low-calorie diet in the treatment of obesity. Endocrine.
3. Paoli, A., Bianco, A., Grimaldi, K. A., Lodi, A., & Bosco, G. (2013). Long term successful weight loss with a combination biphasic ketogenic Mediterranean diet and mediterranean diet maintenance protocol. Nutrients.
4. Westman, E. C., Tondt, J., Maguire, E., & Yancy, W. S. (2018). Implementing a low-carbohydrate, ketogenic diet to manage type 2 diabetes mellitus. In Expert Review of Endocrinology and Metabolism.

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