30 Low Carb Mediterranean Diet Recipes

1K Shares

What is a Low Carb Mediterranean Diet?

When most people think of the Mediterranean Diet they don’t think low carbohydrates. After all, a diet high in fruit and vegetables, yogurt, beans, nuts, bread, rice and pasta doesn’t exactly scream keto or even paleo. A truly authentic Mediterranean diet is higher in carbohydrates and fat and lower in protein. So why would someone want to take the healthiest diet in the world (Mediterranean) and turn it into a low carb diet?

Benefits of a Lower Carb, High Fat Mediterranean Diet.

It wasn’t so long ago that the common wisdom was to eat a high carb, low fat diet and that protein was barely even mentioned. All fat was bad and most carbohydrate foods were good (even some of the processed ones). Most of this so called wisdom was severely misguided and is one of the main reasons our obesity epidemic.

Now, more and more studies are showing the benefits of eating higher fat, especially in the form of extra virgin olive oil. Even more recently, low carb, high fat diets have been shown to be beneficial for weight loss, heart disease, type 2 diabetes as well as reduction of blood pressure and triglycerides.

For most people, switching to a regular Mediterranean Diet will help with all of these issues, but for some it may be recommended to also decrease the amount of carbohydrates eaten. Let’s look at what a modified low carb Mediterranean Diet would look like.

What does a low carb Mediterranean Diet look like?

A low carb Mediterranean Diet looks like lots of vegetables, no processed foods, less fruit (except for berries) and less grains. It also means less beans and more fish, chicken, meat and eggs.

I wouldn’t recommend eating this way for long periods of time. If you are doing it for weight loss then just do it until you have lost the weight. You should be able to easily maintain your weight on the authentic Mediterranean Diet.

According to the Mayo Clinic, a typical low carb diet would include 20 to 60 grams of carbohydrates per day. This super low amount of carbohydrates is hard to maintain over time so I would stick to around 100 grams of carbohydrates per day.

What you will be reducing or cutting out to be on a low carb Mediterranean Diet:

Most sweeteners especially sugar and brown sugar.

Most grains especially anything ultra processed.

Many bean dishes. This is unfortunate as beans are a large part of the Mediterranean Diet. As I said before, this is only temporary and beans can still be eaten, but you want to pay attention to how many carbs are in the beans you are eating.

Most starchy vegetables such as potatoes, carrots and sweet potatoes. Personally, I find these to all be helpful for weight loss even if they are higher in carbs, but if you want to be super strict then they should be at least reduced.

Sweeter fruits (Bananas, oranges, pineapple, kiwi, apples)