Katerina's Kitchen: Greek Egg Salad
This delicious and healthy meal option is one of our family favorites, and it’s become a popular dish with our friends, too! With good protein and healthy fats, this meal is easy to make and inexpensive.
You will need:
2-3 hardboiled eggs, peeled and sliced
Olive Oil
Fresh squeezed lemon juice (About 1/2 lemon)
Feta Cheese (pre-crumbled or a fresh block)
Oregano
Thyme
Salt + Pepper
Instructions:
In a bowl, combine about 2-3 tablespoons of olive oil and the juice from about 1/2 lemon — this creates the “dressing” for your eggs. Mix well and taste to make sure the balance is to your liking. Too tart from the lemon? Add a bit more oil. Too bland? Add a squeeze more of juice. A light coating for the eggs is more than enough!
Next, add your sliced hard boiled eggs. You can also add in the seasonings to your liking — we prefer oregano, thyme and a dash of salt and pepper. You don’t need to use too much salt, since we’re using feta cheese. Sprinkle in the cheese to your liking, as well, using either pre-crumbled feta or breaking pieces off of a fresh block.
Give the salad a light toss to coat with the dressing.
This is a great option for those following a ketogenic diet!
To add in some carbohydrates, this dish is delicious with a piece of whole wheat bread (my favorite way is to toast it!)
Easy, simple, delicious and healthy!
Kali orexi!
Healthy + Homemade: Whole Wheat Bread
Ah, bread… we hear a lot of contradicting views on bread for our diets. Is it healthy? Is it not healthy? What kind of bread is better? What about the sugar content? All of these questions are valid!
My wonderful wife, Katerina, has a very simple and healthy whole wheat bread recipe that you can make at home. It’s MY favorite bread, and I had to share the recipe with you!
Why opt for a recipe like this rather than buy a loaf at the store?
When we make something from scratch, we feel connected to it. We’re excited about it. We control the process and the ingredients. Let’s look at the sugar content for bread: depending on the brand and the type, a slice of bread could be upwards of 8g per slice. Not just that, they are extremely processed and leave very little nutritional benefits.
This whole wheat bread recipe has everything you need, has about 1 gram of sugar per slice, keeps you full (fiber content), and tastes absolutely delicious!
The ingredients are not hard to find, and they are not expensive — give it a try!
Whole Wheat Bread
Ingredients:
1.5 cups of warm water
1 Tbsp Active Dry Yeast
1.5 tsp of salt
1 Tbsp of honey
3.5 cups of whole wheat flour
Directions:
Fill a bowl with 1.5 cups of warm water. Add in 1 Tbsp of Active Dry Yeast, 1.5 tsp of salt and 1 Tbsp of honey. Whisk together until it’s dissolved. Cover with a towel to keep warm and set aside for about 10-15 minutes.
In another bowl, sift 3.5 cups of whole wheat flour.
After your yeast mixture has had time to rest, pour it into a mixing bowl (preferably your stand mixer with a hook attachment). Add the flour 1 cup at a time, allowing the mixture to incorporate before adding more.
Once the mixture has formed a dough (you’ll know that it’s ready when it pulls away from the sides of the bowl), take it out and place it on a whole wheat flour-dusted surface — like a clean countertop.
Knead the dough a few times and shape it how you’d like. Place it on a piece of wax paper (dust with whole wheat flour) on a pan, cover with a kitchen towel, and let it rest for about 30 minutes.
Remove the towel and with a sharp knife, carefully cut slices across the top (I do three or four!). Dust with a little more whole wheat flour.
Place the pan into a 400-degree preheated oven and let it bake for 28-30 minutes.
Enjoy!
To your health,
Dr. Anthony (and Katerina!)
New Year, New Diet? - Mediterranean (Part 3 of 3)
In my years of practicing medicine and prevention of cardiometabolic diseases, our diets and the way we eat make a very profound difference on our health. In my previous two blogs about the Paleo and Keto diets, I shared my professional opinion on their structure. But there is one more diet that I explain in my book which is a very healthy way of eating — the Mediterranean Diet.
The Mediterranean Diet is rich in whole, natural foods, including fresh vegetables, lean proteins and fish, and olive oil.
The Mediterranean Diet gained popularity - as you can guess - near the Mediterranean Sea and has since expanded from its creation in the 1960s and 70s. It is a diet rich in fruits, vegetables, nuts (unsalted), fish, eggs, lean meat (mostly white meat), whole grains and olive oil — but red meat is rarely eaten. As with all healthy habits, processed foods, deep fried foods, and sugary beverages have no place in Mediterranean diet.
Key items to success with the Mediterranean diet (similar to Paleo) is that you consume healthy, whole foods made from scratch from fresh ingredients and that processed foods are thrown out of the window. It’s also important to note the lifestyle that goes along with this diet. The people who ate the Mediterranean diet would typically work out in the fields for 6-8 hours a day six days a week, which helped them keep up with their muscular physiques and flat bellies.
When comparing the Paleo and the Mediterranean diets, you can see many similarities with the biggest differences coming down to legumes, whole grains and dairy products (these are part of the Mediterranean Diet, but not the Paleo Diet) and the red meat and butter that are liberally allowed in the Paleo diet. The overall lifestyles that match these diets are similar to those who have daily physical work for several hours. There is good scientific evidence that people who eat the Mediterranean diet are prone to living longer, having less chance of contracting diabetes, and that the diet can protect against Alzheimer's and dementia.
Following a diet to live healthier should never be a “fad'“. Focusing on whole foods, while getting rid of sugars, processed and deep fried foods are probably the most important take home messages from both the Paleo and Mediterranean diets. Red meat (when eaten in moderate quantities, and provided that you check your cholesterol with your doctor) or “antinutrients” in legumes are not going to ruin your health. Always complement your diet with an active lifestyle and, of course, do not smoke.
To your health,
Dr. Anthony
New Year, New Diet? - Paleo (Part 2 of 3)
It’s hard to believe we’re almost through the month of January! Have you taken steps towards a healthier life?
In my last blog, I shared some information about the Keto Diet — and this time, I want to share one of the two diets that I have studied for many years and encourage my own patients to follow.
Let’s start with the Paleo Diet!
The Paleo Diet comes from the term “paleolithic”: meaning the era of early stone age and cavemen. Cavemen had no choice but to eat what they had access to, which for many, was heavy in protein — whereas, for others, it was predominantly plant-based. So, in the Paleo diet meat is in big time, including red meat.
What all is “ok’d” in the Paleo Diet? Grass-fed meat, poultry, fish, shellfish, eggs, vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds and healthy oils are the favored foods.
Processed foods, sugars (including sugary beverages), dairy, legumes and grains are off the table.
Grass-fed meats and vegetables are always a win on the Paleo Diet.
A strong argument of the proponents of Paleo diet is that the human body was created for the challenges of the cavemen, so why shouldn’t we eat today what they ate then? A positive point of this diet is that, once you exclude sugars from your diet, you avoid insulin spikes and can lose weight without feeling hungry. I believe that cutting out legumes, whole grains and dairy is a rather weak point of Paleo diet as these foods contain fiber (legumes and whole grains), protein (legumes and milk), and antioxidants (all three). The concern that legumes contain anti-nutrients that block the absorption of other essential nutrients is more theoretical than real; one would have to eat extremely large quantities of the same legume to have a negative impact on their nutritional status.
Finally, a better way to approach Paleo diet is to consider it as a part of a “Paleo lifestyle”: cavemen used to walk for 2-4 hours a day and seven days a week, jump, lift weights and climb trees. This diet makes it ideal for those who are extremely active.
Overall, eating whole foods, cutting out the sugars and eliminating processed foods are strong, positive points of the Paleo diet — while cutting off legumes, dairy and whole grains is controversial.
Do you eat Paleo? Would this be a way of eating that you would consider trying?
To your health,
Dr. Anthony
Please HELP! What do I do about my Belly Fat?
Excessive belly fat (a waistline over 40 inches in men or over 35 inches in women) can destroy your metabolism and damage your arteries. It is also an early sign that you may be on your way to becoming diabetic, developing high blood pressure and, later, heart attacks or stroke. It also increases your chances of colon and breast cancer and Alzheimer’s disease. So what do you do?
Given the importance of belly fat, it is natural for people to try to get more information by googling it. If you google “belly fat” you may be directed to websites with advertisement for pills, supplements, shakes and drinks that “guarantee” you will lose belly fat. Should you believe them? Like most health-related issues, there are no easy fixes for abdobesity (excess belly fat); if they existed there would have not been as many people with a big belly walking around. But, in order to be fair about the web, one can find credible sites from reputable hospitals like Cleveland and Mayo Clinic, professional medical organizations like the American Diabetes Association and the American Heart Association or recommendations from professionals like physicians, registered nurses, registered dieticians or exercise physiologists. None of these credible websites will ever claim that you can lose your excess belly fat in a few weeks and keep it off for the rest of your life with a minimum effort.
In my book Abdobesity, I explain the seriousness of the belly fat and show how it is damaging our body’s metabolism and arteries’ health. As opposed to fat under the skin or around our hips (which is metabolically innocent), belly fat is directly wired to the liver, our chief metabolic factory. Under the constant negative influence of the belly fat, our liver is turned into a production line of chemical poisons that induce inflammation all over our body and promote cholesterol plaque development in our arteries; along with the other risk factors (smoking, high blood pressure, high LDL, diabetes, aging and family history) these cholesterol artery plaques mature overtime and they may become unstable as unpredictably as an earthquake. If this happens a heart attack, a stroke or sudden death follow with little or no warning. This is why a healthy lifestyle and early and aggressive treatment (with medications, if necessary) of high blood pressure, high LDL cholesterol or diabetes are so important; to effectively protect our artery health, however, they must be implemented as early in life as possible.
Don’t let abdobesity (excess belly fat) and the catastrophes that may follow it irreversibly damage your health and ruin your life. Espouse the elements of a healthy lifestyle; monitor your blood pressure, blood sugar and cholesterol; and nurture a close relationship with your primary care physician. Start by measuring your waist; if your numbers are in the red, don’t wait; take action. And, if you ever find your daily battle against abdobesity difficult or impossible, think of those who need you and believe in you: how will they be affected if your health takes a turn for the worse?
To your health!
Dr. Anthony