Dive Into the Atlantic Diet

A Bite-Size Read for Your Health and Waistline

Photo by Victoria Shes on Unsplash

Earlier this year I was seeing this on social media and in articles all over. Suddenly, there was a resurgence of the Atlantic Diet. What is the Atlantic diet? A lot of times when we hear the Atlantic Diet, most people think of the Mediterranean Diet. Admittedly, they are pretty similar, in that they are based on foods grown traditionally in a specific geographic region; the Mediterranean diet applies to the Mediterranean, while the Atlantic diet, also referenced as the Southern European Atlantic diet (S.E.A.D), is based on the traditional way of eating foods grown in Spain and Portugal.

The Atlantic diet focuses on seasonal, local, fresh, whole, and minimally processed foods. What does that mean? We see fish and seafood, beef, pork, poultry, even wild game. It also includes olive oil, as well as dairy like milk and cheese, veggies, fruits, whole grains, potatoes, nuts, and legumes. Oh, and they also include wine! Now, the Atlantic Diet also recommends cooking processes like boiling, grilling, baking, and stewing. The Atlantic Diet also emphasizes family style meals. None of this is particularly revolutionary, so why is it suddenly so popular?

There have been a couple of recent studies that investigated this nutritional approach. In February 2024, the Journal of American Medical Association…