The Food In This Spanish Region Helps Make It A Hub Of Healthy Living

At the mention of the words "Mediterranean diet," a dazzling array of food leaps to mind. Platters of sliced tomato and mozzarella, zesty citrus fruit, lean fish, and fresh, crusty bread, with olive oil running through it all like a green-gold thread. It's enough to make us want to hop on a plane and hot-foot it to ... València, on the eastern coast of Spain. Yup — forget Italy and Greece, the València region (home to the city of València as well) is on the opposite side of the Mediterranean Sea and is so beloved among foodies that it even has its own version of the famous healthy diet. It's also routinely ranked highly for quality of life.

Americans love red meat, but the Mediterranean diet puts vegetables, fruits, and whole grains front and center. Fish, poultry, and nuts are more often served up than beef, while salt and sweet treats are also kept to a minimum. The health benefits of this kind of lifestyle can be considerable, helping cut the risk of heart disease, stroke, and diabetes, as well as improve brain health and keep cholesterol levels down. The València diet takes all that to another level.

In part because it's a major Mediterranean port, the multicultural melting pot of València is a go-to spot for seafood. Fresh-off-the-boat sardines (a boomer snack that's getting a reboot among Gen Zers), as well as cod and anchovies, are among the regular catches available in stores and restaurants, and as we know, oily fish are great for heart and gut health. Plus, nothing says summer like biting into a sweet, juicy València orange, even if it doesn't have as much vitamin C as these foods. But the València diet doesn't stop there. 

Rice is also an important component of the València diet, with short-grain bomba rice, grown locally, preferred for the region's most famous dish, paella, or arroz meloso, which is usually served in a rich soup. Recipes from the València region also incorporate lots of plant-based proteins like nuts and legumes, including the popular garrofón, which is also a local crop and akin to a butter bean. As for olive oil, Spain is a prolific producer, and Castellón, in València's north, is home to trees over a millennium old that are still generating amazing-tasting oil.

If you want to eat like Valèncian locals, the easiest way is by recreating the region's most famous recipe, paella Valènciana. A word of advice: it's quite a heavy dish, so it's best to serve it at lunchtime. The insider tip is that the dinner version is only for tourists! For those in the mood for something fancier, blend rice with olive oil and garlic, toss in some seafood and squid ink (here's how to prep squid without breaking the sac) for your own version of arroz negro (black rice). Need a bit of a treat to wash down all that good stuff? Then only an orxata (horchata) de chufa will do. It's a dairy-free, delicious combination of tiger nuts (the chufa), water, and sugar.