The Mediterranean Diet After Trip to Italy

Dr. Galati starts the program by talking about his trip to Italy the past two weeks. He also explains the elements of the Mediterranean diet and all the vegetables and whole grains. Dr. Galati spends the last segment telling us all about his problematic knee.   

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Initialized sequencing coming to you live from Houston, Texas, home
to the world's largest medical center and the approach bras
everything looking to you. This is Your Health First, the

(00:22):
most beneficial health program on radio with doctor Joe Bellotti.
During the next hour, you'll learn about health, wellness, and
the prevention of disease. Now here's your host, doctor Joe Bellotti.

(00:53):
Well look good Sunday evening to everybody. Doctor Joe Glotti,
thanks for tuning in today on this glorious Sunday evening.
It's hard to believe we're into October already, but the
name of the program is Your Health First. And that
is exactly what we talk about, putting your health first.

(01:13):
And as I've said countless times, and you may say, gee,
is he going to say it again? The vast majority
of the chronic diseases that we see, and you know
the usual list of characters. It is high blood pressure,
it is diabetes, it is cardiovascular disease, it is kidney disease,

(01:35):
it is liver disease, it is you could even throw
in their dimension. Now, the underlying ideology of these diseases
are related to the lifestyle decisions that we make, deciding
what to eat, deciding whether or not we're going to

(01:57):
exercise or not, how much sleep we get exercise, and
so that is really the thrust of this program, by
putting your health first, making you all realize that you
have the unbelievable power to alter your degree of happiness,

(02:17):
your health and wellness, your longevity, and your opportunity to
do all of the great things you want to do
for yourself, for your family and those that you care
so to be part of the program. Our website is
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A l A t I dot com and when you

(02:38):
get there you get sign up for our weekly newsletter.
All of our social media, of course, is posted on
the website, prior episodes of the broadcast, our blog, our podcast,
and information about our liver Disease practice, Liver Specialists of
Texas is posted there. You need to go to doctor

(03:02):
Joegalotti dot com. The other thing is also you can
get a copy of my book Eating Yourself Sick, And
as we like to do from time to time, if
you want to give a call tonight, and I think
tonight we'll be giving away We'll give away a couple

(03:23):
of signed books. You have to call our studio line,
which is seven one three, two and two five eight
seven four seven win three two and two five eight
seven four and you'll be talking with Dave. He'll take
your name and address and your email, and this coming

(03:49):
week we'll get a signed copy of Eating Yourself Sick
Out to you, all right. So that's that's always a
little bit of fun to do, all right. So for
the past two week, I've been very fortunate. I was
in Italy. I was in the Tuscany region, and it
was split up amongst three different spots. One was the

(04:13):
island of Ishka, and that is an island about I
don't know, several miles off the coast of Sorrento, off
of Naples. And then from there we went to Florence
and another small town in Tuscany, and I went there predominantly, yes,

(04:34):
for a little bit of rn R rest in relaxation
with my wife. We hadn't been on any sort of
a long trips like this in a while. But also,
as many of you know, photography is one of my
great passions, and I had the great opportunity to travel
with a group of really fine photographers from around the

(04:58):
world somewhere from from France, some were from Israel, somewhere
from Australia, rest of them were from the US. But
we were in a photography workshop with probably I believe,
one of the greatest American photographers by the name of

(05:19):
Joe McNally, and it was such a pleasure not only
to meet these other photographers, and let me say, all
these other photographers have been exquisitely successful in their line
of work their careers, but all have a passion for photography,
and so we all gathered and spent time together learning

(05:41):
about photography and portraits, and it really was amazing. But
it's always always fantastic to get to Italy. And as
you know, the name Galati is Italian. Part of my
lineage is from Sicily, part is from outside of Rome

(06:01):
on my mother's side. But when you look at Italy,
it is the culture, it is the Renaissance, it is
the art, it is the music, but it is the food.
It really is the food. And so many of my patients,
and it's a very common conversation is to talk about

(06:26):
the Mediterranean diet. And I was with a really great
patient right before literally there was the day before I
left two weeks ago let's just say his name is Lee,
and we were talking about diet and nutrition and things
that he had wanted to do and was doing. And
he he sort of, you know, questioned me. He's like,

(06:48):
you know, you always talk about the Mediterranean diet, but
I am not quite sure what the Mediterranean diet really is.
He sort of had a, you know, better than average
understanding of it, but I didn't get the sense that
he had a really deep sense of the Mediterranean diet.
So what I want to do tonight, we don't have

(07:10):
any guests tonight. I got home very late last night,
and you know, jet lag going it was a ten
hour flight from Munich. On the way home, you know,
we start off in Florence and to Munich and a
layover and then it was a ten hour flight to Houston.
But anyway, what I want to get into for tonight

(07:33):
is a couple of things. One is sort of an
in depth discussion of the Mediterranean diet. And so at
the end of this hour, by the time eight o'clock
rolls around tonight on Sunday, October twelfth, twenty twenty five,
all of you should be very very much in a

(07:54):
better position to understand what the Mediterranean diet is and
how you need to cooperate this yourself. The second thing
is you know when you're traveling. And I've said this before,
but I think we have a little bit more time
to air this out. The fact that when you travel,
and so many of my patients tell me, yes, I
want to retire so I could travel with my wife,

(08:15):
I travel with you know, my best, with my girlfriend,
or with my grandchildren. Unless you are in pretty good shape,
traveling is a bitch, okay, And if you're not in
good ship, and I'll tell you some personal experiences that
I had while I was traveling. But anyway, so for tonight,
we're going to talk about Mediterranean diet. We're going to

(08:36):
talk about my Italian heritage. We're going to talk about
the food that I ate, why it's important to think
this way, as well as why you need to be
in pretty damn decent shape to be able to travel.
So with that, we're going to take a break. Don't
forget Doctor Joe Glotti is our website, sader for our newsletter.
We'll see you back in just a couple of minutes.
Stay tuned, Welcome back, everybody, Doctor Joe Golotti welcome back

(09:00):
to your health. First. We hear every Sunday between the
hour of seven and eight pm Central Time, broadcasting from
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miss doctor Galotti on Sunday evening. We're always here and

(09:23):
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dot com. That is the place to find out about
what we do, our practice, a little bit about me.
All of our social media is they make sure you
sign up our newsletter. The other thing is at the
beginning of the program, I was we're offering too signed

(09:46):
personalized copies of my book Eating Yourself Sick. And all
you need to do is pick up the phone dial
our switchboard. Now talk to Dave. Dave. Dave is the
man behind the glass. He makes sure this sounds good.
When we get in the studio, the studio hotline seven

(10:06):
one three two on two k t r H seven
one three two and two five eight seven four. Dave
will graciously take your name, phone number, your address, because
let's face the people, I've got to mail this thing
out to you and your email and other contact information,

(10:30):
or if you if you want the book addressed to
somebody like your name by maybe Bob Jones, and you say, well,
I want it addressed to my wife Muriel. Please let
us know how you spell Mura Muriel, because God knows,
I don't want to get it wrong. Uh seven one
three two one two k t r H. Talk to Dave.

(10:52):
He'll he'll take care of it for me tonight on
this beautiful October evening. Okay, so uh in the remaining
minutes before the news comes up here. The Mediterranean diet
so in Italy and most of the Mediterranean, So we're
sort of talking about you know, Italy itself, Sicily, places

(11:13):
like Sardinia, Greece, Turkey, parts of the Middle East are
all in this Mediterranean area geographically, but the diets are
very similar. I am somewhat biased to think that the
Italian food is superior. Don't call me and say the
Greek food is better. I love it all. But anyway,
what are the elements of the Mediterranean diet? And it's

(11:37):
pretty straight forward, and so the Mediterranean diet emphasizes minimally
processed foods that are plant based foods. They have healthy
fats and lots of herbs and flavoring. Salt. Salt is
the enemy. Salt has to be used very judiciously. But

(12:00):
when you go to Italy by American standards, the food
is very mild and almost bland. But you have to
be able to tune up your taste buds to taste
the various herbs, the basil basilica, as we say, the

(12:20):
flavors of the olive oil. Now you know, most people
don't realize and let me go off on a tangent. Here,
good olive oil and now I'm talking about decent olive
oil should almost have a peppery flavor to it and
almost is a little spicy. That's when you know you
have decent olive oil. But anyway, so it's going to

(12:44):
be whole food plant based. You do not go to
Italy and eat processed food that is microwaved out of
a can, frozen. This stuff is fresh and so it's
going to be Also, the healthy fats are going to
be the extra virgin olive oil use for cooking, dressing.

(13:05):
The other healthy fats are going to come in the
form of nuts, seeds, and things like avocado. Overall, the
Italians are going to have moderation of animal products, so
it's going to be fish and seafood are at the
top of the list, if not every day, several times

(13:26):
per week. So it's poultry, eggs, dairy like yogurt are
eaten in low to moderate amounts. I would say in
most regions it is infrequent, red meat only a few
times per month. The other part is this whole idea,
and we talk about it here in America all the time.

(13:48):
Minimally processed foods. You don't want added sugars, processed foods,
refined foods, and unhealthy saturated fats, trans fats that are
made read commercially in snacks and sweets. And so you
have to look where where was the food made that
you were eating tonight. Was it made in a factory

(14:11):
where everybody's wearing a hairnet and a white coat and
a mask sometimes like a science project, or did it
come from the farm, from the market. Minimally processed the
food you're eating has to look like what it started
off as you could tell, Oh, these are tomatoes, these
are onions, these are green beans, these are you know,

(14:33):
canaloni beans, you know, what the heck you're eating instead
of something that is processed. And of course the herbs
and spices, you know, gosh time, rosemary galore. Water and wine.
There isn't much soda there, carbonated beverages now wine. They

(14:54):
drink a lot of wine there. But I would say
that is also in moderation. And if you are not
a wine drinker yourself, or you have a thing against alcohol,
now is not the time to start to say, well, gee,
doctor Glotti said, I need to be in a Mediterranean diet.
I've got to have wine with every meal. No, that
is not the point here, but small glasses of wine

(15:16):
with your meal a few times a week is going
to be fine. And then the other is lifestyle habits.
Part of the Mediterranean diet diet is lifestyle habits. So
you have to combine have this amalgamation of healthy foods
along with healthy lifestyles such as regular physical activity and

(15:36):
eating meals with family and friends. And in my book
Eating Yourself Sick, the two lucky people that are going
to get copies tonight we talk about the three f's, family, faith,
and food. The family part and the food part have
to be incorporated. We are not eating together at the
kitchen table anymore. It is every man, woman, child wild

(16:00):
for themselves. I don't like the food you're eating. You're cooking,
mom and dad. I'm going to eat out. You're cooking stinks.
Let's ged door dash. This is the ruination of our
nation from a health and wellness and chronic disease standpoint.
All right, so we're going to take a up break
here news, weather, traffic. I can't say that the astros

(16:21):
are going to be in the news because they blew
it at the end of the season. But anyway, Doctor
Joeglotti dot com is our website. Stay tuned more on
the Mediterranean diet of my trip to Italy. Stay tuned.
We'll be right back. Thanks very much for tuning in
to the radio this evening with me. I'm doctor Joe Galotti.
The name of the program is Your Health First, and

(16:41):
the goal here is to make you better consumers of healthcare,
raising your health IQ, one listener at a time. We've
been on the radio for twenty two years now, every
Sunday in continuous production, and I feel that this is

(17:02):
a natural extension of what I do during the day
taking care of patients and the clinic taking care of
our liver patients, our patients with cirrhosis, fatty liver, alcohol
related liver disease. And it is an opportunity to reach
more people, impact them so that they can be inspired

(17:22):
to realize the habits that they have, the lifestyle choices
that they meet make are really going to negatively impact
them long term. And it is so so said. A
data does not go by where it is an individual,
hard working person, good person that has the best of

(17:44):
intentions of working hard, retiring, taking their retirement money and
doing something fun. Isn't really that what life is all about?
And spend time with your children, your grandchildren, your wife, husband,
whatever it may be, your people, only to find out

(18:06):
that soon after retiring or when you're getting close to retirement,
you are stricken with complications of diabetes, complications of heart disease.
You now have live a disease of some kind because
you did not know something. You did not know that

(18:27):
fatty liver, which you were told about ten years ago,
can lead to cirrhosis. And here it is twenty twenty
five and you're like, holy crap, I was told about that,
But I did not know. I did not know. So
we put so much reliance on our doctors and our

(18:48):
healthcare teams, which we should. But at the same time
as care has become more complicated, the population is changing,
people are living longer. It absolutely is your responsibility to
learn about your diseases, your conditions, your risk factors, your medicines,

(19:11):
understanding your blood work. What does that mean. I don't know.
The doctor didn't tell me, So you just end it
right there. No, you have to be that advocate for yourself,
and so that's why we're here trying to make you
at least think about putting your health first. That's that's
really the whole deal. Doctor Joe Glotti is our website

(19:32):
if you if we haven't already gotten all of our
names two books seven one three two, win two k
t R eight seven one three two and two five
eight seven four. What I would say, Dave is if
we're getting more people calling in, take as many names

(19:52):
as you can and I'll see what I could do
to get them a book signed address to somebody the
I would like have it inscribed to somebody. Okay, so
talk with David Hill figure it out. But take all
names Dave, let's do that tonight, all right. So we've
been talking about the Mediterranean diet. I was in Italy

(20:13):
for a couple of weeks on a photography seminar, which
was absolutely wonderful. Met some really, really great people from
around the world, but it certainly gravitated towards the you know,
there were a number of people from the New York
metropolitan area that I got to know, which, you know,

(20:33):
these are new friendships that we make. It's never too
late to make a friend. Keep that in mind, never
too late to make a friend. All right. So, Mediterranean diet.
So the food, if you've never gone to Italy, I
think you would be shocked that it is not macaroni grill,
It is not spaghetti warehouse. It is not your local

(20:58):
Italian or it restaurant that you may be used to
here in Texas, in the Midwest, wherever you're listening to it.
Very very few Italian restaurants can truly replicate the type
of food that you're going to get in Italy. Period.

(21:22):
I will stand by that for quite a long time.
You can't move me off that base. The reason is
the foods and the ingredients are fresh. But that does
not mean they are expensive. The food in Italy is
not that expensive, and so people say, well, you know,

(21:44):
good food, fresh food is expensive and I can't afford it.
That's another argument you're not really necessarily going to win
with me, because if you know the vegetables to get,
and I would say the portion size, the portion sizes
are reasonable in Italy. They are not. You don't have
to get a shovel to fill your plates. You're full,

(22:08):
you feel satisfied. You say, man, I had a freaking
great meal. And so that's the way to look at it. Now,
with regard to the Mediterranean diet, people are you know,
I don't want to say they're confused by it, but
to reiterate again, it is lots of vegetables, fruits, beans,

(22:29):
lentils and nuts, and it's going to be whole grains. Now,
I would say, you know, people talk about Italian bread, good, good, good,
homemade Italian bread. I would say, more than half the
meals that I had in Italy the past two weeks,
the bread that came to the table, or the bread
that you asked for was a whole grain or dark

(22:51):
grain bread. So keep that in mind too. The whole
grains whole wheet, breads, brown rice, plenty of extra virgin
olive oil. Eating fish is going to give you a
Mega three fatty acids, moderate amount of natural cheese and yogurt. Again,
these are not processed cheeses. And here in the States,
here in Texas, you can get naturally minimally processed cheese,

(23:16):
minimal red meat, minimal sausage, minimal pepperoni. Now it is
a little pepperoni. But you know, I think eating some
of these other processed foods, it's balanced out by the
fact that every part of your meal is not processed.
So when you look at a dinner from you know,
appetizers to you know, a starter, to your main meal,

(23:39):
to desert or whatever it may be, you have to
look at it to say, okay, I had a little
bit of salami, had a little bit of processed meat
that represented five percent of the entire dish, not ninety
five percent of the dish if you were to go
out anywhere else. And so when you look at the
foods that you want to look at, and again I'd

(24:00):
like to say this is common sands, or it should
be regular knowledge that you have. But the vegetables, acorn, squash, squash, artichokes,
a ruggulo. They put a ruggulaw on everything and it
is delicious. Beets, bell peppers, broccoli, brussels sprouts, cabbage, carrots, celery,
egg plant, kale, lettuce, zucchini. Now, as far as the

(24:23):
fruits go, look you should all know what the heck
of fruit is. Avocados, apples, apricots, bananas, blueberries, dates, figs, grapes, seaks,
serve everywhere, both red and green. Pomegranates. They love pomegranates
in Italy, raspberry, strawberry, tomatoes, and of course watermelons. As
far as the grains go, barley, brown rice, buckwheat, bulgar, cuscous, farrow, quinwa, millet, oats, polenta, polentas,

(24:52):
consider the grain, and then you got whole wheed grain,
hole wheat pasta, and then wild rice. And then with
regard to the nuts, the seeds, the lagomes, almonds, brazil nuts,
candaloney beans, chiusy, chickpeas, fava beans. Boy, the fava beans
that they make over there are just delicious. Green beans,
kidney beans, lentils, pine nuts, pistachios. Really, the Sicilians are

(25:16):
known for that pistachios. Sessme seed in walnuts. And so
what I did not say is anything out of a can,
nothing that is microwaved. And so if you could really
take stock of the foods you're eating now once again,
and this is a conversation I have literally every single day,

(25:37):
doctor Galotti. I don't have the time, Doctor Galotti. It's
too much work, Doctor Galotti. My sink is going to
be dirty. It's only me. I don't want to make
a messy kitchen. I got to clean up all this stuff.
And then I eat a meal in twenty minutes and
I'm done invest an hour, I'm done in ten. Why
the hell should I do it? Well, it is a

(26:01):
little bit of work. But you should look at cooking
as fun. You should look at cooking for yourself or
your family or friends as another emotional experience that you have.
You should look at it to say, I am doing
something very important for myself. We exercise, but even though

(26:24):
a lot of people say it's inconvenient to exercise, give
me a break on that. But you have to realize
that if you don't invest the time in yourself through
taking care of yourself. Food as medicine, you're going to
pay the price. There are going to be consequences through
weight gain, diabetes, hypertension, kidney disease, cardiovascular disease, and overall disability.

(26:54):
So if you look and change your orientation on how
we look at meals, I am tomorrow morning going to
start thinking about my Mediterranean diet. What do I need
to do? Now? I understand you cannot make these wholesale
changes on a dime. You're going to have to slowly
integrate and learn. There's so much information on the internet, cookbooks, videos, YouTube,

(27:21):
TikTok that to say that you cannot find this information
simply means you're not committed and you really don't want
to learn. But at the same time, when you get
diabetes and end up on dialysis, tell me that is
not a gigantic inconvenience being on dialysis three hours, three

(27:45):
times a week for the rest of your life. So
you have to really put it into consideration. But Mediterranean
diet is the way to go. Learn to eat like
an Italian, learn to eat like a Sicilian. It is
going to be so bitter for your life and the
health and wellness of your family. All right, final segment
coming up. I'm going to talk a little bit about

(28:07):
travel and a little bit of a personal story here.
Stay tuned. Final segment coming up. I'm doctor Joe Glotti.
Don't forget doctor Joeglotti dot com. Stay tuned, of course,
we'll be right back. Final segment of this week's Your
Health First. I'm doctor Joe Glotti. Always a pleasure to
be here. Don't forget. Every Sunday between seven and a
pm Central time, of course, for our friends in New

(28:30):
York City, it is eight o'clock. If it's on the
left coast, it is five o'clock Central time, West Coast time. Anyway,
you know what time zone you live in and follow
it accordingly, but central time it is seven to eight pm.
And our goal, as I said earlier, it's to make
you better consumers of healthcare, raise your health IQ, so

(28:53):
that you could deal with the challenges we face, and
that you truly understand the role that you play in
your own health. And I think next week we'll probably
talk about is there a role that you have in
worrying about if you want to say worry is the
right word, about the health of your family, your spouse,

(29:16):
your significant other, your children, your siblings, close friends of yours.
If there's something wrong, should you step up and intervene.
I think we'll talk about this next week. The other
point is research. We are our team in the Texas
Medical Center. We're doing a lot of research on fatty

(29:39):
liver disease. We're doing a lot of work on weight loss,
and so if you would like to participate in any
of our research studies, we have multiple studies, multiple opportunities.
It's all covered by the research organization, so it's no

(30:02):
charge to you. You even get a little bit of
a stipend and some travel fee travel expenses. What I
would do is two things. Go to doctor Joegalotti dot com,
send me an email, send me a message. There's there's
a tab right at the top of the web page
to say contact us, and just say hey, I heard

(30:22):
you on the radio tonight on Sunday evening talking about research.
Hey have somebody call me. That's one thing. Or our
main office number is seven one three seven ninety four
zero seven hundred seven one three seven ninety four zero
seven hundred. When you get through to somebody, just say hey,
same thing. Listening to doctor Galada on the radio Sunday

(30:45):
evening and I'd like more information about research in one
of our cordiners, we'll get coordinators, we'll get back with you.
But again, this is our opportunity to extend the highest
level of care to as many people as possible. Researches
one opportunity in the realm of fatty liver disease and obesity.

(31:09):
Those two go together. So that's that's our public service
for tonight. All right, So we got about five minutes left.
So I have been dealing with a very very problematic knee.
It is arthritis. It is from wear and tear. It

(31:30):
is from all my years of exercising. I have been
an avid hiker, backpacker, love to spend time on the mountains,
and for whatever reason, there's probably some genetic component to it,
my knee has completely gone out. I've been faithful, going

(31:51):
to rehab, you know, weekly for a couple of years now.
I do my exercises at home. I swim, I eat right,
I go to sauna. It just isn't working and I'm
probably going to need a knee replacement before the end
of the year, which isn't something I'm looking forward to.

(32:11):
But the trip to Italy was as marvelous as it was.
Between the photography that I was doing, the new people
that I met, the food, just visiting Italy and the Renaissance,
and it's just mind blowing. If I was taking eight
to ten thousand steps a day, it was eight to

(32:32):
ten thousand reminders that my knee was killing me. And
so I look at this to say that for all
of you, as we all age, we want to do
stuff and travel. Now, I don't know if I'm paying
more attention to this or airports of today have changed.

(32:55):
They have turned into this behemoth of a facility. And
what I had to do yesterday and I kept track
of this and let me let me pull up my
phone for just a second here. Yesterday, all I did
was wake up in the morning, went to the Florence
Airport and that's where it all started. So I went

(33:17):
to the Florence Airport, had to walk to security, walk
to the gate, got on the plane, got off, landed
at Munich. From Munich, I had to renavigate to the
gate there to get on the plane. Fly to George

(33:41):
Bush in Houston, get out, get my bags, walk from
the airport to the parking lot. Okay, that was almost
seven thousand steps. Now to my phone here, that was

(34:05):
about two and a half miles. So two and a
half miles of slugging a eighteen to twenty pound backpack,
pushing and pulling suitcases was a fair amount of work. Now,
my point here is if you have orthopedic issues, bad hips,

(34:31):
bad knees, bad back, bad ankles, bad feet, this is
going to be a bear. If you have any sort
of cardiovascular or pulmonary issues, this requires pretty intact cardiopulmonary
function to be able to walk this amount of a

(34:52):
distance under a little bit of stress and time pressure.
The other thing is when we travel, we and to
bring stuff and the bags get heavy, and you're lifting
things off the carousel, you're lifting things up to the
check in, you are putting things in your overhead compartment.

(35:12):
You need balance, you need upper body strength. And I
think we don't really appreciate these unintended stressors that we have.
So if you're looking at yourself and say, look, I
really need to get back into shape. Yes, you probably
need to get back into shape. But by being in
better shape, by losing weight, exercising, working on your balance,

(35:35):
doing pilates, doing yoga, it will make your later lives
so much better. That is the key thing. And so
here I am I think I'm in pretty decent shape,
and it was a fair amount of work getting all
this done, especially with a bad knee. And I feel

(35:56):
so bad for people that have bad hearts, bad lungs,
kidney disease, they're on dialysis, they've had strokes. It's almost
impossible to leave your house, which is something that we
have to work on, exploring the world, visiting friends and
family and other loved ones. All right, so we're gonna
check out tonight. So glad to be back. Had a
wonderful time in Italy, made some great friends and took

(36:19):
some wonderful pictures I'll share with you. But now it's
back to work tomorrow at seven in the morning. I'm
doctor Joe Glotti. Here every Sunday evening at seven pm.
Doctor Joeglotti dot com is our website, and I hope
to see everybody next Sunday night. You've been listening to
Your Health First with doctor Joe Glotti. For more information
on this program or the content of this program, go

(36:40):
to your Health First dot com.