The FastDay Forum

A few weeks back, there was a topic regarding eating/skipping breakfast and I remember that I mentioned that in Greece breakfast is a big thing.
There were a few doubts since modern Greeks seem to not have breaky but I insisted that -traditionally- Greeks did have breakfasts -and big ones- because they were working hard and lunch break is not a custom here.

Anyway, I just watched a documentary, initiated by an exhibition for traditional Greek cooking and they had a breakfast table set up to show traditional breakfasts from 5-6 parts of Greece. Was I surprised? No! Omelettes with sausages, pies with cheese, pies with herbs and veggies, flat breads with hams... most of them fried, all looked delicious.

At one point, they mentioned that breakfast is a very important meal in both Greek and Mediterranean diet because people were farmers, breeders, etc and they were working hard all day.

So, not eating breakfast is not in everybody's culture and it is not something that used to go on. I'm not trying to convince anybody to eat breakfast if they are used to not eating I'm just saying that we should not dismiss something easily by just saying "well, our ancestors didn't have big breakfasts"...

Since we all come from various parts of the world, all our ancestors weren't following the same patterns.

I am interested in traditional med meals as for me I'd like to focus this style on feast days. Any suggestions

Gillymary, the Med diet is really simple (and cheap too).
Once a week or once a fortnight you eat red meat or chicken.
Once or twice a week you eat fish.
Once or twice a week you eat eggs.
Twice a week you eat pulses, which are usually accompanied with smoked or cured fish.
The rest of the times it's pasta/rice/pie and/or veggies with cheese.
That's for lunch and dinner.
Breakfast is usually bread with butter&honey or with cheese but many people now eat muesli bars or biscuits.
Snacks are fruit and/or yoghurt.
Also, many people eat yoghurt and fruit and some kind of grain for dinner instead of a proper meal.
Bread is always on the table, so is salad and cheese.
Fruit and veggies are most of the time seasonal, even the frozen ones.

Izzy, I know but the doubts were regarding the traditional Greek breaky, not the Paleo Greek breaky.
Still, there are various kinds of Paleo, depending on the region. Grains were very much popular in the Paleo diet around the Med (there are findings from archaeologists that confirm that) in spite of the belief that there were no grains in the nutrition of the cavemen.

What's in a "pie" ?

The "Med" diet above looks like a protein deficiency diet.

Hummmm, that makes me want to breakfast in Greece, I LOVE a big breakfast, though it has to be said I only ever eat a big brekfast when staying at hotels, I'm just too lazy to cook in the morning!

He he, same here!!!

I basically eat a big breakfast when I am in Britain or when I wake up at lunchtime with a hangover!

A pie is a baked pastry with any feeling.

Protein deficiency? There's protein every day!!!

What's in a "pie" ?

The "Med" diet above looks like a protein deficiency diet.

No, there's lots of eggs and cheese.

Although, I really have no idea what a "Mediterranean" diet is. The different Mediterranean countries have quite different styles of cooking.

(If one wanted to follow a traditional Serb/Croat peasant diet for example, one would have to starve for part of the winter. This was the reality for my parents when they were growing up)

as she said "Once or twice a week you eat eggs" then it has to be the cheese. Which kinda conflicts with the low dairy low saturated fat smokescreen around the med diet.

As does the beef consumption that is the same in Greece per head as the UK

Thanks TML13 appreciated the med diet description, I could do that diet on feast days as I don't want to eat much meat anymore and have pretty much dropped chicken, am eating more fish and love legumes. When I have been to Greece I have just loved all the food.
Med diets I think are a very healthy way to eat alongside 5:2
Anyway think I will draw up a plan for a week based on your info. See what turns outt and what the weight./measurements eventually show as am onto the next stone I wish to drop

Phil, I really don't want to know what a diet with enough proteins is if what I'm eating is low in protein, honestly. BTW, I never said that Greeks follow the traditional Greek or Med diet. In fact, they are beginning to get overweight/obese because they are starting to eat the Western way, it's killing our dieticians.
Anyway, I know that you are not a fan of the Med diet and you will probably never find anything good in it so why bother?

Spurtle (is that your kitty?), the reason why there's cured meat and fish in the Greek diet is the long winters in half of Greece. Fish is either smoked or kept in salt and meat is air-cured. Veggies are also pickled.

Gillimary, you are most welcome! I grew up with a combo of Med and Greek inspired by Asia Minor diet and I still follow it. I rarely eat meat and chicken, I eat lots of fish and fresh cheese, tons of veggies and grains and olive oil every day. Let me know if you want any inspiration for your week plan. I think it's winter for you now so it's less fish and veggies and more on the meat/chicken, pulses soups, pasta etc but that's what happens in Greece, I've no idea what kind of produce is available in Australia. Perhaps you're more lucky and there's more fish/seafood available! Coming June, I know I'll be eating very fresh fish twice a week, YAY!!!

I wonder what the archaeologists will think about 21st century man's diet, in about 20,000 years We'll have them totally confused, with all the weird and wonderful ways of eating these days!

That is EXACTLY what my archaeologist friend told me when I asked her regarding the Paleo diet in Greece. She said that they will be surprised when they see the Bog Mac boxes on the Greek islands, LOL!

I really don't want to know what a diet with enough proteins is if what I'm eating is low in protein

do you know how much protein the above would contain per day ?

For example when you say "The rest of the times it's pasta/rice/pie and/or veggies with cheese" unless there's a lot of cheese there's not a lot of protein in that.

My interest in the Fictitious Mediterranean Diet is that we are forever being told how healthy it is, without being told that it's actually a 1950s peasant diet or that there are massive regional variations. http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/medite ... et/CL00011 for example says "For example, residents of Greece eat very little red meat".

Yes, residents of Greece (with the exception of Cretans) used to eat red meat twice a month.
Also, the average Greek probably eats more than 100 grams of feta daily, most of the people I know eat more than that and I ate more than that when I wasn't dieting so I'm guessing it's enough protein.
Additionally, the "rest of the days" are usually twice a week so forgive me if I think that one can do with low-protein twice a week...
Last, even if this is not 100% accurate, what is wrong with a peasant diet? Peasants were thin and healthy while we are getting more and more overweight and unhealthy...