As a Latina dietitian, I often hear concerns about the healthfulness of Mexican cuisine. Many believe their cultural foods hinder their health goals, creating unnecessary stress. However, through my work and personal experience, I’ve discovered that traditional Latin American foods, especially Mexican food, can be incredibly healthy.
If you’ve ever felt conflicted about enjoying your favorite cultural dishes while pursuing a healthy lifestyle, this article is for you. We’ll explore the reasons why Mexican food is good for you and uncover the health benefits of embracing a traditional Mexican diet.
What is Mexican Food?
Before evaluating the health benefits, let’s define what constitutes Mexican food.
Mexican Staple Foods
The cornerstones of Mexican cuisine are corn, beans, peppers, tomatoes, and squash. These ingredients have sustained the Mexican people for centuries, long before European influence.
Corn is famously used for tortillas, but its versatility extends far beyond in Latin American culinary traditions.
Beans are commonly cultivated and served alongside corn. These two crops are nutritionally and agriculturally symbiotic (1), providing a wealth of protein, fiber, vitamins, and minerals.
Beyond corn and beans, traditional Mexican cuisine utilizes various squashes like pumpkin, chayote, and calabacita (similar to zucchini).
Other essential vegetables include tomatoes, chili peppers, onions, avocados, cabbage, and radishes.
Herbs and spices such as oregano, epazote, cumin, and cinnamon are also integral to Mexican cooking.
Finally, fresh fruits are widely enjoyed in Mexican food, often consumed as a snack.
Regional Differences
The diversity of Mexican cuisine makes a comprehensive overview challenging, especially considering the numerous regional variations.
Northern Mexican food may feature more wheat flour and red meat. Coastal regions boast abundant fish and shellfish. The Yucatan peninsula has a distinct culinary heritage with strong ties to ancient Mayan traditions.
Despite these regional distinctions, the consistent themes throughout Mexican food are corn, beans, and a wide array of fruits and vegetables.
Is Mexican Food Healthy?
One of the most frequent questions I encounter as a dietitian is, “Is Mexican food healthy?”
The answer is a resounding yes. Mexican food, when prepared traditionally, can be incredibly nutritious, thanks to its foundation of corn, beans, tomatoes, and squash. The abundance of fresh produce and spices further contributes to its health benefits!
To fully appreciate why Mexican food is good for you, let’s define what constitutes a healthy diet.
Defining a Healthy Diet
There’s no single dietary pattern universally considered the healthiest. However, diets like the Mediterranean Diet and the DASH diet have consistently demonstrated positive health outcomes (2).
These diets share a common emphasis on a diverse range of plant-based foods, including fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and legumes.
Healthy dietary patterns also incorporate various protein sources like seafood, fermented dairy, poultry, nuts, seeds, and legumes.
Why Mexican Food Is Good For You
By these standards, a traditional Mexican diet can certainly be considered a healthy diet. Some characteristics of traditional Mexican cuisine that contribute to its healthfulness include:
What are the benefits of eating Mexican food?
Extensive research supports the health benefits of the Mediterranean Diet (9). Similarly, growing evidence suggests a traditional Mexican diet offers comparable advantages.
Emerging research indicates that consuming a traditional Mexican diet may be associated with improved cholesterol levels, reduced inflammation, enhanced insulin sensitivity, and a lower risk of breast cancer (10,11,12,13).
This makes perfect sense, as many features that make the Mediterranean Diet healthy are also present in Mexican food, including whole grains like corn, legumes, healthy fats, seafood, and fresh fruits and vegetables.
Challenges
Like any cuisine, Mexican food has nutritional challenges. Over the past few decades, there has been a rise in sugar, sodium, and saturated fats in the Mexican diet.
It’s important to remember that all cuisines have sweets, fried foods, and treats. Mexican food is not unique in this respect.
Traditional Diet vs. Modern Industrial Diet
The perception that a Mexican diet is unhealthy often stems from confusing the modern, industrialized diet with the traditional one.
As we discussed earlier, a traditional Mexican diet is primarily based on corn, beans, squash, tomatoes, and chili peppers.
However, this may not reflect the diet of the average Mexican or Mexican-American today. Mexico, like many industrialized nations, has undergone a nutrition transition.
This is when a developing economy shifts from its traditional diet to a more “Western” style diet. This new diet typically includes more processed foods and sugar, and lower fiber intake, due to changes in the economy, labor, and trade.
How to Build Healthy, Balanced Mexican Meals
The key to creating a balanced meal is to include the following:
- Carbohydrates
- Fiber
- Protein
- Fat
- Non-starchy vegetables
To construct a balanced Mexican meal, simply select Mexican ingredients from each category. Here are some common Mexican foods from each category:
- Carbohydrates: Corn, corn tortillas, rice, etc.
- Fiber: Beans, corn tortillas, fruits, non-starchy vegetables
- Protein: Meat, seafood, beans, dairy products
- Fat: Dairy products, avocado, nuts, seeds, cooking oil
- Non-starchy vegetables: Tomato, avocado, onion, peppers, calabacita
Many classic Mexican meals already meet these criteria! Here are a couple of examples:
Pozole Rojo
- Carbohydrates: Hominy
- Fiber: Hominy, vegetable toppings
- Protein: Pork
- Fat: Pork, possible cheese or avocado toppings
- Non-starchy vegetables: Toppings like shredded cabbage, diced onion, radish slices
Chicken Tostada
- Carbohydrates: Tostada
- Fiber: Beans, possible vegetable toppings
- Protein: Chicken, beans
- Fat: Avocado toppings
- Non-starchy vegetables: Toppings like avocado, salsa, etc.
Final Thoughts
Eating a traditional Mexican diet can offer significant health benefits, thanks to its abundance of fiber, fresh fruits, and vegetables. You don’t have to abandon Mexican food, even when striving to improve your health.
Staple foods like beans, corn, tomatoes, and avocados form the foundation for a balanced, healthy Mexican diet.
As a Latina dietitian, I’m passionate about helping fellow Latinos manage their health without sacrificing their favorite foods.
