Gino DAcampo: Chef on how Italians avoid heart disease and cancer

Gino D'Acampo announces break from This Morning

We use your sign-up to provide content in ways you’ve consented to and to improve our understanding of you. This may include adverts from us and 3rd parties based on our understanding. You can unsubscribe at any time. More info

Alongside real-life friends Gordon Ramsey and Fred Sirieix have travelled the world with their series Gordon, Gino and Fred’s Road Trip. Part one of the series where the trio travel to Greece, is airing tonight (Wednesday, August 31) on ITV2. Sticking more with his homeland, D’Acampo says the secret to shedding weight whilst still enjoying all the food you like is adhering to the Italian “way of life”. Remarkably stats seem to back him up, with figures showing that almost a quarter of British adults are obese, compared with just eight percent of Italians.

Although within his 2010 book, The Italian Diet, the former I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! Winner suggests that a simple appreciation for fresh ingredients is enough to help your health, he also replaces traditional ingredients, such as the mascarpone cheese in tiramisu, with lower-fat alternatives such as greek yogurt. In that recipe, for example, he hopes to halve our calorie intake, from around 400 down to 200 per serving.

Speaking about his book and what he hoped it would achieve, Gino said: “I am not going to promise, like every other author of a diet book, that if you use it you’ll lose three or four kilos.

“It doesn’t work like that. That’s because your standard diet book makes you lose weight and then as soon as you’ve finished the diet you pile it back on.

“My book is about habits. It’s about a lifestyle and applying that to how we eat food. My book is about cutting out the cream and the butter. It’s all about the way you shop.”

Research into the differences between Brits and Italians again confirmed some logic behind D’Acampo’s thinking, as a 2008 report by the European Heart Network found that despite the older profile of Italy’s population, Italians are far less likely to die from cancer and heart problems than their British counterparts.

In addition, back in 2013, the UK performed poorly in a comparison of health outcomes in 19 countries over 20 years published by Lancet. On life expectancy the UK was ranked 14th in comparison to Italy which ranked 2nd.

Hoping to decipher the reasons as to why this was, Alan Maryon-Davis, honorary Professor of Public Health at King’s College London suggested that it was because Italy had a less divided society in comparison to Britain.

“There is a flatter social gradient – less difference between the haves and have-nots in Italy, and that is likely to play a role in health outcomes,” he said.

“I wonder if many people feel that they can ignore their health for decades in the expectation that the NHS will be there to bail them out when they get into trouble.”

One thing that professionals seem to agree on is the fact that Italians are far healthier due to their diets matching the guidelines for healthy eating laid down by experts.

For example, portion sizes tend to be smaller and the diet traditionally features lots of fresh, natural foods and few processed ones. The diet, referred to as the Mediterranean diet, clings to the consumption of fruit, vegetables, bread, pasta, rice, beans, and nuts; fish is preferred to meat (Naples is known for its seafood, for example).

Olive oil is the main fat consumed, and is also used as a salad dressing. Salt is used, but herbs, garlic and black pepper are more usual. Small amounts of red wine are drunk with meals. Meat, eggs and full-fat dairy products are usually only eaten in small amounts.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Gino D’Acampo (@iamginodacampo)

Several studies have linked the Mediterranean diet with a reduced risk of heart disease. A trial in the New England Journal of Medicine involving more than 7,000 people in Spain found that those given either a litre of extra virgin olive oil, or 200g of walnuts, hazelnuts and almonds “every week for five years had a significantly reduced risk of stroke and heart disease compared to a third control group who were simply advised to have a low-fat diet”.

“You’ll never see an Italian go on a diet,” said D’Acampo. “I’m not saying you don’t find obese people in Italy as well. Generally, Italians just eat better.

“They’re not doing that thing where they’re eating two or three hundred grams of pasta. They’re never eating a carbonara sauce with a tub of cream in it.”

Having been born into a relatively poor Neapolitan family in 1976, D’Acampo lived on a big farm with 10 children. His grandfather worked as a chef, and the whole family used to enjoy traditional Neapolitan pizza, garnished with a thin sprinkling of mozzarella.

Back in 2010, a typical day for D’Acampo featured yogurt and fruit for breakfast, light spicy meatballs for lunch (439 calories); and then baked stuffed onions with sun-dried tomatoes (160 calories) followed by fresh sardines baked with lemon and capers (233 calories).

In 2022, many health experts still recommend the Mediterranean diet. For example, leading charity Heart UK explains that following the diet will help individuals lower their cholesterol and in turn avoid life-threatening conditions such as a heart attack or heart disease.

The main reason as to why the diet is so good for an individual is the fact that much less of the fat comes from saturated sources like butter, fatty meats, pastry or dairy fat. Instead it is rich in monounsaturated fats which are heart healthy, such as olive oil and nuts.

The UK’s Eatwell Guide also promotes similar foods, and similar sized portions. It recommends that on average, women should have around 2,000 calories a day (8,400 kilojoules) and men should have around 2,500 calories a day (10,500 kilojoules).

Source: Read Full Article