Gluten Free Mediterranean Diet Plan for Heart-Healthy Patient Education
Guiding patients through their heart-healthy eating plan by providing a practical, healthy, and safe way to embrace a healthier lifestyle.
What is the Gluten Free Mediterranean Diet Plan?
The Gluten Free Mediterranean Diet Plan is a great method to supply your patients with the nutrients that a regular gluten free diet may be lacking. This diet plan is all about heart health; it is rich in raw fruits, vegetables, and only healthy fats. Imagine a splash of flavorful olive oil and perhaps even a glass of red wine.
The Gluten Free Mediterranean Diet Plan is fit for those who are gluten intolerant or are simply trying to embrace a healthier lifestyle. The plan may also be a good framework for those who have celiac disease.
This diet also recognizes the importance of being physically active and enjoying shared meals with family and friends.
What Are the Guidelines for This Diet Plan?
The focus of the Mediterranean Diet isn’t on limiting total fat consumption, but rather on choosing healthier types of fat. This diet discourages saturated fats and hydrogenated oils (trans fats), both of which contribute to heart disease. It features olive oil as the primary source of fat; olive oil is mainly monounsaturated fat — a type of fat that can help reduce low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol levels when used in place of saturated or trans fats. “Extra-virgin” and “virgin” olive oils (the least processed forms) also contain the highest levels of protective plant compounds that provide antioxidant effects.
Canola oil and some nuts contain the beneficial linolenic acid (a type of omega-3 fatty acid) in addition to healthy unsaturated fat. Omega-3 fatty acids lower triglycerides, decrease blood clotting, and are associated with decreased incidence of sudden heart attacks, improve the health of your blood vessels, and help moderate blood pressure. Fatty fish — such as mackerel, lake trout, herring, sardines, albacore tuna and salmon — are rich sources of omega-3 fatty acids. Fish is eaten on a regular basis in the Mediterranean diet.
Although historically rich in grains, the Mediterranean diet is easily made gluten free for this plan! There are some specific steps to get your patients started:
1. Eat your veggies and fruits, and switch to whole grains. A variety of plant foods should make up the majority of your meals. They should be minimally processed — fresh and whole are best. Include veggies and fruits in every meal and eat them for snacks as well.
2. Go nuts. Nuts and seeds are good sources of fiber, protein and healthy fats. Keep almonds, cashews, pistachios and walnuts on hand for a quick snack.
3. Pass on the butter. Try olive or canola oil as a healthy replacement for butter or margarine.
4. Spice it up. Herbs and spices make food tasty and can stand in for salt and fat in recipes.
5. Go fish. Eat fish at least twice a week. Fresh or water-packed tuna, salmon, trout, mackerel and herring are healthy choices. Grill, bake or broil fish for great taste and easy cleanup. Avoid breaded and fried fish.
6. Rein in the red meat. Limit red meat to no more than a few times a month. Substitute fish and poultry for red meat. When choosing red meat, make sure it’s lean and keep portions small (about the size of a deck of cards). Also avoid sausage, bacon and other high-fat, processed meats.
7. Choose low-fat dairy. Limit higher fat dairy products, such as whole or 2 percent milk, cheese and ice cream. Switch to skim milk, fat-free yogurt and low-fat cheese.
This plan can also be easily altered to suit the preferences and needs of your patients. If they are vegetarian, vegan, on a low-sodium diet, or on a low-fat diet, you can easily modify these plans for them.
What’s Inside the Plan?
Guiding your patients through new eating habits and lifestyles can be difficult, and it can definitely be a chore to collect all of the needed information.
Fortunately, their program will provide them with daily recipes, motivation, guidance, and tasks in order to help them transition to the Gluten Free Mediterranean Diet made specially for them. This way, they can maintain their healthy eating plan even after the 28 days are up.
Each day, their program will start with some motivation or helpful tips that they can follow throughout their everyday lives. Here is an example:
These are intended to keep your patients motivated and/or to give them some tips and ideas that will help them maintain a healthy lifestyle during and after the Gluten Free Mediterranean Diet Plan. Patients can take in the information provided and use it throughout their daily lives.
Their daily motivation or tips are then followed by daily tasks that will keep them on a healthy, grounded schedule throughout their plan. Here is an example:
These tasks encourage patients to make sure they are tracking the food and metrics that need to be tracked in order to keep you updated with their progress.
Following these tasks are the daily recipes that your patients will follow. They are provided with a shopping list for each week so that they never miss a day of good meals. Here is an example:
Each day provides this content for your patients and are a great help when it comes to easily adjusting to their new plan.
Why the Gluten Free Mediterranean Diet Plan?
We recognize that some doctors and some patients may need individualized approaches to wellness plans, so that’s why our Gluten Free Mediterranean Diet Plan as well as our 60+ other remote care programs are all customizable using out content management system, if you choose to modify the program.
Their program will also come with access to a complete remote patient monitoring web portal and app for iPhone and Android. Patients will be able to track their progress, keep a journal, and follow your prescribed program materials everyday with ease, all while making the process of health monitoring much easier for you.
Use the Gluten Free Mediterranean Diet Plan today to guide your patients through a healthy, practical, and safe way to embrace a heart-healthy lifestyle. If you’re not already using the BodySite remote care platform, you can sign up for a free trial at this link. If you’re already a member, check out the fully revamped Gluten Free Mediterranean Diet plan today!