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Recipe from Nicky for Mental Health Awareness Week
May 21st, 2020
The Mediterranean diet is well known for maintaining a healthy cardiovascular system and now it is being linked with keeping our brains in good shape too. The SMILE trial in Australia has conducted and now published the results of a randomised controlled trial using dietary intervention for the treatment of moderate to severe depression. Participants were given seven individual nutrition consulting sessions, helping them to follow a modified Mediterranean diet and after 12 weeks those in the dietary support group demonstrated significantly greater improvement in their depression scores compared with the social support control group.
One of the key ingredients of a Mediterranean diet is Extra Virgin Olive oil. The oil, which is not only high in monounsaturates, also contains polyphenols. These are plant nutrients that have excellent antioxidant properties and which make this oil so nourishing.
Here is a recipe using this oil and other foods which feature in the Mediterranean diet.
Guacamole
Ingredients (Serves 2)
1 ripe avocado
Juice of ½ lime or ¼ of lemon
½ garlic clove, crushed
½ small red onion, finely diced
1 tomato diced
1 tbsp chopped fresh coriander
1 tblsp extra virgin olive oil
Freshly ground pepper
Salt to taste
1. Cut the avocado in half lengthways and remove the stone.
2. Scrape the flesh out of the shell into a bowl and quickly mash with the lime or lemon juice to prevent discolouration. Stir in the remaining ingredients and check seasoning.
