Mediterranean Women Stay Slim, Too: Eating to Be Sexy, Fit, and Fabulous! (15 page)

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Going Whole Grain

Pasta drenched in savory sauce, chewy, dense country bread drizzled in olive oil, creamy risotto studded with wild mushrooms, nutty brown rice, tender couscous . . . rich whole grains.

Are they just a dream? No! They are the foundation of the Mediterranean diet. I’d be remiss not to throw in the terrific practical wisdom of Sophia Loren, our modern-day Mediterranean goddess, and I can imagine she said it with a characteristic flourish toward her own figure: “Everything you see here, I owe to spaghetti.”

But you might be used to thinking you can’t, or shouldn’t, eat carbs. If you are lacking whole grains in your diet, you are missing a wonderful and versatile food group that should actually make up about half of what you consume each day. That doesn’t mean you need to eat a mountain of pasta or a whole loaf of bread. Certainly not! You can bet Sophia Loren doesn’t eat 2 or 3 cups of spaghetti at a time.

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Pasta and bread are quintessential to Mediterranean life, but portions are restrained. A serving of pasta or rice is (brace yourself) actually only one-half cup cooked. A serving of bread? One thin slice, not two. And those giant puffy bagels you might be in the habit of eating for breakfast? A whole one is about three or four servings if you compare it to a small slice of bread.

Whole grains aren’t the kind of carbs you may be used to eating. They are rich, nutty, nutrient-dense plant foods. In ancient cultures, they are
the
food. Whole grains are good for you, they fill you up, and they help you to stay slim and healthy.

The key to weight loss through whole grains is portion control. We are so used to eating more than just a half cup of pasta.

You can make friends with carbs again by keeping your consumption in line with the actual amount your body needs and sticking mostly to whole grains such as brown rice, whole-wheat pasta, whole-grain bread, “old-fashioned” oatmeal, polenta, bulgur wheat, farro, buckwheat, amaranth, quinoa, and millet. In its revised food pyramid, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) lists grains as the category that should take up the greatest portion of your diet. The USDA recommends getting at least half your grains each day from whole-grain sources.

Noodles are not only amusing but delicious.

—Julia Child, chef

The problem with carbs most prevalent in the standard American diet is that most of them are refined. White bread, white pasta, white rice, instant oatmeal, cookies, snack cakes, candy bars . . . white flour and white sugar make up most of America’s carbohydrate intake. In the Mediterranean, women eat carbs, but they probably wouldn’t even grant that presliced squishy white stuff the noble title of “bread.” Sure, we love our
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Italian and French breads, which are often made with white flour, but they’re also made with fermented sourdough and consumed in small amounts. Depending on the country, Mediterranean women also enjoy unprocessed whole grains in the forms of chewy country breads, homemade pastas, mouth-filling farro, rich polenta often topped with spicy sauce, chewy bulgur made into tabbouleh, and spicy couscous topped with exotically spiced vegetables.

Whole grains are more filling and better for your body than refined. They contain the carbohydrate-rich center as well as the nutrient-rich bran and germ. Whole grains contain vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and other phytochemicals, which are substances in plants thought to have therapeutic effects, especially anticancer effects, even though they are not strictly nutrients.

One of the best things about whole grains is their rich fiber content. High-fiber diets have been linked to lower rates of many chronic diseases. Fiber reduces blood cholesterol levels, lowers the risk of heart disease, reduces blood pressure, stabi-lizes insulin levels, reduces the risk of some cancers (especially colon cancer), improves the function of the gastrointestinal tract, and has been associated with greater success at weight-control efforts.

Fiber comes in two types: soluble and insoluble. They are beneficial in different ways, although they both help fill you up so that you tend to eat less. The soluble kind comes in legumes such as soybeans and lentils, oatmeal, and many fruits and vegetables. Insoluble fiber is highly concentrated in wheat bran.

Fiber keeps the digestive tract running smoothly. Whole grains take longer to digest, so you don’t get that spike in insulin levels that you get from refined grains and sugar. This spike is what makes you hungry again so quickly. It is this insulin spike that the low-carb craze tried to thwart, but you don’t need to stuff yourself full of meat to do that job. You can keep your in-Going Whole Grain

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sulin levels nice and steady just by sticking to grains the way nature intended them: all in one piece.

Health benefits notwithstanding, whole grains taste better.

They have a fuller, richer, nuttier taste that may surprise you if you are used to eating only refined grains. Whole grains are wonderful to cook with, and because they are so filling and complex in their flavor and texture, they really do work as the center of a meal. A Mediterranean meal often consists of small portions of whole grains topped with tiny bits of meat or fish in a sauce. What fills the rest of the plate? Fresh, bright, delicious greens and other vegetables, of course.

√ Finding and Choosing Whole Grains

Whole grains are simply grains in their natural form, with the bran and germ intact. Refined grains have the bran and germ removed, leaving the carbohydrate-rich center of the grain.

When you get rid of the bran, you also get rid of most of the grain’s nutritional benefits: fiber, a rich source of B vitamins, minerals, and phytochemicals.

It isn’t hard to find whole grains or to work them into your diet. Most grocery stores have whole-grain pasta, brown rice, and couscous. Many also include whole grains—sometimes in

“instant” or easy-to-make versions—in the ethnic or health food sections of the store. Look for buckwheat as “kasha,” bulgur as

“tabbouleh,” and pastas, baking mixes, and breads made with other grains such as spelt, amaranth, or quinoa. Food co-ops and health food stores are still more likely to stock some of the less common whole grains. Give them a try. They usually have more interesting and less processed foods, anyway.

When shopping for bread and pasta, look for labels such as

“100% whole wheat.” If the packaging says “whole wheat,” that just means some of the flour is whole wheat but not all of it.

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Here are some whole-grain descriptions so that you have an idea of what to buy. And don’t forget—a single serving is just one-half cup. Enjoy every rich, nutty bite of these interesting grains.

Amaranth:
This ancient “grain”—actually a plant—is related to the spinach plant and tastes a little like spinach. Many indige-nous cultures use amaranth—the seeds, the leaves, and the flowers. Amaranth seeds are often used like grains—you can pop them like popcorn, grind them into flour for baking, or cook them like oatmeal. Amaranth is very nutritious and has high protein and fiber contents.

Barley:
Barley is the most ancient cereal grain still used today. It has been traditionally used in bread and cereal preparations as well as for brewing beer. Up until the sixteenth century, barley was the grain most often used for bread making in Europe, until it was supplanted by wheat. It makes a sturdy, high-protein flatbread but also a nice porridge, and it’s a good addition to vegetable soups and stews. You can also use it to make a pilaf, like rice. Barley was the grain originally used for polenta in Italy.

Buckwheat:
Another ancient cereal, buckwheat has been used in Europe for centuries, cooked into a porridge, ground into flour to make crepes or pancakes, crushed and cooked into kasha (a Russian dish), or made into noodles, as it is in Japan. Kasha is available in many stores and is a quick and easy way to get buckwheat into your diet.

Bulgur:
Bulgur is the Turkish name for a whole-wheat grain. To make bulgur, wheat is cooked, dried, and cracked. For meals, it is cooked again in an amount of cold water equal to the amount of bulgur until the water is absorbed, which usually takes about
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ten minutes. You can eat it in place of rice or potatoes. You can top it with stir-fried vegetables or chunky sauces. You can also stuff vegetables such as tomatoes or bell peppers with bulgur, or include it as a stuffing base for poultry instead of cubed bread.

Mixed with tomatoes, fresh parsley, and vinaigrette dressing, it becomes tabbouleh salad.

Couscous:
This North African “pasta” is made from hard-wheat semolina, the same stuff most pasta is made from. But couscous looks more like a grain because it is cut into very tiny pieces that are smaller than grains of rice. In Tunisia, it is sometimes made with green wheat. This staple of the eastern Mediterranean is cooked by covering it in steaming hot water and letting it absorb the water until it is al dente. Couscous is the national dish of three countries: Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia. It is also a traditional dish in Sicily. It can be served with barbecued meat, cooked into spicy stew, or mixed with vegetables and chickpeas.

You might mix it with fish and vegetables or with nuts and dried fruits. Serve it in pilaf form, or eat it like a hot cereal drizzled with honey, sprinkled with cinnamon, and softened with a little milk, or make it extra spicy with red peppers. Couscous is obviously versatile as well as easy to find and prepare.

Farro/Emmer Wheat/Spelt:
Farro is an ancient variety of wheat that doesn’t resemble the wheat we use today to make bread. It is very hard and must be soaked for a long time before cooking, after which it can be prepared like rice or used in soup or bread, as people like to do in Provence. Some people say farro and spelt are the same grain, but farro is actually the same as emmer wheat and spelt is a different cereal grain. Farro is commonly used in Tuscany in soups and salads.

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Millet:
Millet is a grain that grows well in dry soil and has been served for thousands of years in Italy, Africa, and Asia. It is often used to make flour and is also used for poultry feed. The birdseed you use in your outdoor feeders probably contains a lot of millet, but millet isn’t just for the birds. Cook it as a hot cereal or side dish just like you would cook bulgur: in an amount of water equal to the amount of millet, boil it for about ten minutes or until all the water is absorbed. Try it with a spicy or tangy sauce, as you might with rice or polenta.

Oats:
You know it as oatmeal, but try the steel-cut kind for a chewier, nuttier, more whole-grain cereal experience. Or grind up old-fashioned oats in the blender and use the flour in baking.

Oats are a great source of soluble fiber. Oats are more traditional for northern Europe and Great Britain, but they are widely available in the United States and so nutritious that they are worth including in a Mediterranean diet plan.

Polenta:
Polenta is just porridge made from coarsely ground cornmeal. You can eat it like porridge (cook it like oatmeal), or you can let the porridge chill and slice it into blocks, then fry it briefly in a little olive oil and douse it in a chunky tomato sauce.

Very
Italian. It also makes a delicious breakfast topped with scrambled eggs, onions, bell peppers, and tomatoes.

Quinoa:
Also not technically a grain but used like one, quinoa is actually a seed from a South American plant. It can be cooked as a grain like rice or ground into flour for baking. You can sometimes find breakfast cereals, baked goods, or pastas made with quinoa.

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√ What About Bread?

When it comes to bread, you can eat it! Yes, you can! But forget about the white, packaged, presliced stuff that you can roll into a tight little ball. Do you think people in Sicily would eat that kind of processed nonsense? Never! Choose bread that is dense, chewy, and grainy. Try rye breads, rustic whole-wheat country breads, flatbreads, and sourdough levain.

We are lucky here at Primo because Price bakes such fantastic and memorable breads, but don’t feel bad if you’re not up to the task of making your own. Most people in the Mediterranean don’t! Instead, people typically visit the neighborhood bakery each day for fresh bread and carry it home under their arms (or in their bicycle baskets). Because there are so many grocery stores and bakeries in the United States, you can do the same.

Bread baking is a sort of meditative act, however, and good exercise, too. It isn’t hard, but it does take time because the dough must be mixed, then set aside to rise, then mixed again, then set aside to rise again. This kind of slow, careful, attentive preparation is certainly in the spirit of eating in the Mediterranean style.

If you have a day at home, you might want to try baking bread. Otherwise, be choosy about your bread. Pick the freshest, the best, the whole-grain and sourdough options, and eat just enough to really please you. Use leftovers for bread crumbs, crostini, or croutons. No need to overdo it—just have the slice you want and savor it. Then move on to the next course.

To get you started, try Price’s recipe for this simple whole-grain flatbread.

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Piadina

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√This Italian flatbread is flexible enough that you can add your own fresh herbs, grated cheese, chopped greens, or whatever you like. Price’s recipe incorporates buckwheat, whole-wheat, graham, and bread flour for a delicious whole-grain treat that is super quick to prepare. Use it as part of an antipasto or put some grilled vegetables and cheese on top for a delicious lunch.