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HEALTH

Eat like a Spaniard: Ten tips to kick-start your Mediterranean diet

Everyone talks about it, but not many know what it entails. The Locals gives you tips to follow if you want to eat like a true Southern European.

Published: 4 April 2019 12:25 CEST
Updated: 1 June 2021 12:09 CEST
Eat like a Spaniard: Ten tips to kick-start your Mediterranean diet
A fruit seller at a market in Barcelona. Photo: Daniel Angele/Unsplash

If you ask anyone – whether in Japan, the UK or Norway – if they heard about the Mediterranean diet, they would probably say yes. If you ask them what it actually consists of, most of them won’t probably know. Deemed by the US News and World Report as the best diet for 2019, the Mediterranean diet is followed mainly by the people from countries bordering the Mediterranean sea, like Italy, Spain, Greece, France and even Portugal (even though it isn’t actually on the Med).

Even if it has the word diet in it, the Mediterranean diet is more of a way of living and eating healthy. It differs from country to country, but at its core is based on vegetables, legumes, cereals and fish. The Spanish Society of Endocrinology and Nutrition says that one of the main pros of the Mediterranean diet is that it helps prevent illnesses like obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular problems.

The Mediterrean diet is largely considered responsible for making Spain the healthiest place to live in the world, according to a Bloomberg study last month, and contributes it’s long life expectancy – currently the longest in Europe and set to be  

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A waiter serves paella on a beach in Ibiza. Photo: AFP

These are the top ten tips that will make your eating habits healthier:

– Have food rich with fibres, minerals and anti-oxidants aka fresh and dried fruit. You should consume 3 portions of fresh fruit per day (the more seasonal, the better). As regards dried fruit (like nuts and almonds), you should have it 3-7 times a week; remember to avoid processed fruit cause they might have lost some of their healthiest properties.

– consume cereals (preferably wholegrain – integral in Spanish) every day and legumes (such as lentils and chick peas) 2-4 times a week.

– eat vegetables twice a day and, at least once, they should be raw, preferably added in salads.
– always use virgin olive oil, both for cooking and for flavouring. Cut down on your consumption of animal fats (butter, sausages, ham, …) and avoid anything fried.

– eat more fish than meat but if you feel like you can’t give up on it, eat more white meat (chicken, turkey, rabbit) than red meat (ham, veal, game). As a general rule, meat should not be consumed more than 2-3 times a week.

– avoid consuming processed food, especially those that containing hydrogenated vegetable oil. They are usually present in products like margarine and pastries, but they are not good for your health.

– eat 3-7 eggs per week: they have all the nutrients you need and therefore are a complete meal in and of themselves.

– avoid all sugary drinks and super-processed foods.

– have dairy twice a day. While Infants, children, pregnant women and women in menopause should add a third one to their daily diet, people suffering from obesity, high cholesterol and cardio-vascular problems should have it skimmed. Yoghurt is an extremely healthy way of incorporating dairy into your daily eating habits.

– use iodised salt in small quantities. If you feel like your food doesn’t taste much, use aromatic herbs like oregano and parsley instead.

It feels redundant to say it, but you also need to drink two litres of water every day and exercise regularly!

READ ALSO: These are the 17 absolute worst things about living in Spain 

By Ilaria Grasso Macola / The Local Spain

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SPANISH HISTORY

Who are the historical figures that dominate Spanish street names?

Once you get to know your town or city in Spain better, you may start to wonder who the people that feature so often in street signs actually were. It's a window into Spanish society and history, and the historical figures that Spaniards value.

Published: 5 March 2024 12:09 CET
Who are the historical figures that dominate Spanish street names?

Whenever you take a stroll through a new place, whether in Spain or abroad, whether on holiday or in a new city you’re making home, noticing (and learning) some of the street names is one of the first things you do.

And though they can be very useful in terms of directions and getting a feel for a place, street names can also tell us quite a bit about a place — the history, the society and culture, its key historical figures.

This is true in most countries, of course. If you were to take a stroll through any town or city in the UK, you’d likely come across a London Rd., High St., or Market St. before long. If you’re looking out for historical figures, it’d be King. St or Charles St. or even something a little more obscure like Bob Marley Way.

In France, you’d no doubt see many a Rue de Charles de Gaulle, or Victor Hugo, two of the three most common historically inspired street names found in France.

READ ALSO: Which French figure has the most streets named after them?

But what about Spain? What are the most common street names in Spain, and which historical figures are most often used?

A research project at Pablo de Olavide University has revealed the most common street names in Spain, and they tell us quite a lot about Spanish history, society and culture. “Street names are not random, but reflect the social, cultural and historical values of a population,” says Daniel Oto-Peralías, Professor at Pablo de Olavide, who led the project. 

The project studied the street names in 8,131 municipalities across Spain through textual analysis techniques. It also has a great search engine tool, which you can find here, so you can search for different street names across Spain.

Mercado (Market) is a common name for streets and squares in Spain, but not as common as ‘iglesia’ (church). Photo: Zeynep Sümer/Unsplash
 

Of course, not all streets are named after great historical figures. Often they are fairly generic and geographically derived — think Church St. or Mill Lane in English.

According to the analysis done by Pablo de Olavide, in Spain the most common name in street names overall was iglesia (church) with 4,767 across the country, though this isn’t particularly surprising in a Catholic country.

Next was mayor (main) with 3,762; followed by fuente (fountain) with 2,544; constitución (constitution) with 2,439; real (royal) with 2,208; and finally eras with 2,063 streets around Spain.

READ ALSO: Why does Madrid have a plaza named after Margaret Thatcher?

Historical figures

The presence of historical figures is also significant in Spanish street names. The most renowned is the writer Miguel de Cervantes, the author of arguably the most famous novel of all time, Don Quixote, who appears in 1,940 streets across the country.

He is followed by Nobel Prize winning scientist Santiago Ramón y Cajal, the man dubbed the father of modern neuroscience, with 1,383 streets, and Granada poet Federico García Lorca (shot by Franco’s fascists for being a homosexual), who has more than a thousand.

Alexander Fleming, the Scottish scientist who discovered penicillin, is in fact the seventh most common Spanish street moniker named after a male historical figure.

Pope John XXIII and El Greco, the Greek painter and sculptor who played a significant role in the Spanish Renaissance and died in Toledo, are also very popular street names all over the country.

There are hundreds of streets named after Spanish conquistadors Hernán Cortés and Francisco Pizarro and of course Cristobal Colón (Christopher Columbus), as well Spanish painters Velázquez (who painted ‘Las Meninas’) and Francisco de Goya (‘La Maja Desnuda’) and as could be expected plenty of Picasso Streets. The lesser-known 17th century Spanish artist Murillo also gives his name to many streets.

Additionally, poets Antonio Machado, Juan Ramón Jiménez and Miguel Hernández feature in lots of calles across Spain, as does the scandal-hit emeritus king Juan Carlos I.

Gender gap

However, the study also revealed that just 12.7 percent of the streets named after people in Spain are named after women.

Republican lawyer and politician Clara Campoamor, widely considered the mother of Spain’s feminist movement, is the woman most commemorated. She spearheaded the push for universal suffrage and achieved Spanish women’s right to vote in 1931.

Campoamor is followed by 19th century Galician poet and novelist Rosalía de Castro and 20th century philosopher and essayist María Zambrano.

Catholic Queen Isabel I, who together with King Ferdinand led the Reconquista against the Moors and united ‘modern Spain’, is also widely featured, as is the mother of current King Felipe VI, Reina Sofía.

Other Spanish women whose names are emblazoned across Spanish street plaques were usually ahead of their time in patriarchal Spain, including Concepción Arenal (considered the precursor of social work in Spain) and 19th century María Pineda (a liberal who faced the guillotine for defying the absolute monarchy of Fernando VII). 

Religious streets

Of course, historical figures aside, Spain unsurprisingly has a huge number of streets with religious names. Research from Pablo de Olavide also revealed just how many streets in Spain have religious names — 12 percent overall.

In provinces such as Burgos, Navarra and Cuenca there are religious references in more than 15 percent of the streets, but perhaps the most striking example is the case of the Triana-Los Remedios neighbourhood in Seville, one of the traditional hotbeds of Semana Santa activity, which has 41 streets dedicated to ‘virgins’ alone.

READ HISTORY: Why are there so many Irish street names in Spain’s Canary Islands?

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