Healthy Eating out in London’s Mayfair
“‘World’s best new diet’ reduces belly fat and ‘slashes your risk of diabetes and stroke’,” trumpeted The Sun newspaper a few weeks ago, adding with a flourish: “and you can still eat bread!”
Well, it turns out to have been true(ish). The Southern European Traditional Atlantic Diet – or Atlantic Diet, for short – may in fact lower the risk of dying early from cancer, heart disease or any other cause, according to recent research.
It’s the traditional diet of northwestern Spain and northern Portugal: a diet rich in fresh fish (especially cod) with a little red meat and pork products, cheese and dairy, legumes, fresh vegetables, potatoes (in vegetable soups as a rule), whole-grain bread and moderate wine consumption. And it is, of course, a first cousin to the award winning Mediterranean diet.
Dive into the Atlantic diet
The latest research from the University of Santiago de Compostela found that the Atlantic diet modestly reduced the incidence of metabolic syndrome, a combination of higher blood pressure, blood sugar, triglycerides and belly fat – all of which raise the risk of coronary heart disease, diabetes, stroke and other serious health conditions.
Both diets share a high consumption of beans, fruits, olive oil, vegetables and whole grains, but the Atlantic Diet differs in that it includes more red meat and starch. “It is more than a diet,” a 2021 review suggested, “it is a lifestyle where exercise, simple cooking techniques, respect for tradition and pleasure of eating are constants”.
If you want to try either the Atlantic or the Mediterranean diet, there’s no better place to start than El Pirata in Mayfair’s Down Street – where ‘respect for tradition and pleasure of eating are constants’, and have been for three decades.
