Eat your way to optimal health with the help of the Mediterranean Diet
09/26/2020 / By Leslie Locklear / Comments
Eat your way to optimal health with the help of the Mediterranean Diet

If you’re looking for a way to improve your health without necessarily decreasing your food intake, following a Mediterranean Diet may be for you.

According to a review published in the journal Nutrients, this is because adopting a Meditteranean Diet can lead to several health benefits such as reducing your risk for heart attack, stroke and even premature death.

But first, what is a Mediterranean Diet?

Mediterranean Diet: A primer

The Mediterranean Diet is an umbrella term for diet plans drawn from the eating habits of the people who live in the countries that border the Mediterranean Sea, such as Italy, Greece and Spain.

Because it is based on multiple cuisines, there is no one right way to follow the Mediterranean diet. Despite this, however, these cuisines have several things in common, such as a bias towards generous amounts of colorful fruits and vegetables, whole grains, legumes and lean protein, as well as healthy fats.

Like getting some of that sweet vino every now and then? Well, you’re in luck: the diet is also known for advocating the consumption of a glass of wine per day.

As noted by nutritionists, some of the foods primarily consumed in the diet are the following:

  • Whole grains such as whole wheat, oats, rye, barley, bulgur and millet.
  • Pasta, bread and other baked goods made from whole-grain flour.
  • Kale, broccoli, arugula, spinach, Brussels sprouts, chicory, collard greens, cabbages, mustard greens, lettuce and other green leafy vegetables.
  • Root crops such as potatoes, sweet potatoes, carrots, radishes, turnips, beets, and rutabagas.
  • Vegetables such as mushrooms, cucumbers, pumpkins, okra and artichokes.
  • Whole fresh fruits such as apples, apricots, dates, figs, grapes, oranges, lemons, clementines, peaches, pears, pomegranates and melons.
  • Healthy fats such as avocados and extra-virgin olive oil.
  • Legumes, nuts and seeds such as organic fava beans, green beans, kidney beans, peas, lentils, chickpeas, almonds, hazelnuts, pistachios, walnuts and sesame seeds.
  • Fatty fish such as wild-caught tuna, herring, sardines, salmon and sea bream.
  • Other seafood and shellfish such as abalone, cockles, mussels, crabs, oysters, squid and octopus.
  • Free-range eggs from chickens, ducks and quail.
  • Lean cuts of grass-fed beef, pork, lamb, goat and mutton.
  • Free-range and organically-fed chickens and ducks.
  • Moderate servings of fermented dairy products, including cheeses, kefir and Greek yogurt.

How healthy is a Mediterranean Diet?

As noted by experts, because of its emphasis on organic and natural food products, it is not surprising for eating programs patterned after a Mediterranean Diet to become exceptionally rich in nutrients such as monounsaturated fats, Omega-3 fatty acids, dietary fiber, carbohydrates and protein, as well as essential vitamins and minerals

These nutrients, the experts said, are the reason behind a Mediterranean Diet’s impressive slate of benefits, most of which involve the reduction of both inflammation and oxidative stress within the body.

Here are some of the health benefits of following a Mediterranean Diet:

Following a Mediterranean Diet can help lower your risk for heart disease and strokes

Following a Mediterranean Diet can be good for the heart, according to a research paper published in the New England Journal of Medicine which looked at the eating habits of several thousand participants over five years.

Also known as the PREDIMED study, this randomized trial involved 7,000 men and women who had either type 2 diabetes or were at high risk for cardiovascular disease.

As detailed in the journal, the participants were made to follow one of three diets: a Mediterranean diet supplemented with extra-virgin olive oil, a Mediterranean diet supplemented with mixed nuts, or a low-fat control diet.

According to the researchers, those who ate a calorie-unrestricted Mediterranean diet with extra-virgin olive oil or nuts had a 30 percent lower risk of heart events compared to those who followed the control diet.

Following a Mediterranean Diet can help maintain your cognitive function

Aside from being good for the heart, a Mediterranean Diet may also help reduce age-related cognitive decline, according to several studies.

For example, in a review published in the journal Frontiers in Nutrition, a research team from Swinburne University of Technology and Deakin University in Melbourne, Australia, found that the Mediterranean Diet can be linked to improvements in cognition, including slowing down cognitive decline in older adults and reducing their risk for Alzheimer’s Disease.

In addition, another study funded by the National Institute on Aging and published in the journal Neurology looked at the brain scans of 70 people who had no signs of dementia at the outset and scored them for how close their eating patterns were to the Mediterranean Diet.

Conducted by a team of researchers from the University of Florence and New York University, the study found that those who scored low or whose eating patterns did not follow the Mediterranean Diet tended to have more beta-amyloid deposits – protein plaques associated with Alzheimer’s Disease – in their brains, compared to the participants whose food habits more closely followed the Mediterranean Diet.

Following a Mediterranean Diet can aid in sensible and healthy weight management

Those looking for a way to successfully manage their weight in a sensible and healthy manner will likely benefit from following a Mediterranean Diet.

This is according to the PREDIMED study, which found that aside from helping the participants achieve optimal cardiovascular health, following a Mediterranean Diet can also lead you to shed more excess weight compared to people who followed a low-fat diet.

This is corroborated by a two-year randomized, clinical trial, which noted that people following a calorie-restricted Mediterranean Diet are more likely to achieve dramatic results when it comes to weight management, compared to people who followed a calorie-restricted low-fat diet.

Following a Mediterranean Diet may help manage – or even stave off – Type 2 diabetes

People diagnosed as having Type 2 diabetes may find that following a Mediterranean Diet can help them manage the disease, several studies said.

One study, published in the journal Diabetes Care, found that PREDIMED participants who supplemented their diets with olive oil or nuts – both of which are staples in a Mediterranean Diet – for four years, had a 52 percent lower risk for Type 2 diabetes compared to those who didn’t.

Furthermore, a report published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that the Mediterranean Diet helped improve blood sugar control in individuals who are managing Type 2 diabetes more than low-carbohydrate, low-glycemic index, and high-protein diets.

Following a Mediterranean Diet can help manage the symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis

According to experts, following a Mediterranean Diet may be of benefit to those who have been diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis – an autoimmune disease that attacks the joints.

This is because a Mediterranean Diet advocates the consumption of fatty fish such as salmon and mackerel, which are both considered to be good sources of omega-3 fatty acids – a nutrient that is believed to help relieve the symptoms attributed to rheumatoid arthritis such as inflammation.

Adopting a healthier lifestyle does not mean totally overhauling your eating habits – most of the time it’s just a matter of rooting out the unhealthy parts of it and replacing them with more healthful ones.

A Mediterranean Diet may not be a silver bullet that can solve all of your health woes but it’s a good start, at the very least.

For more stories about the health-giving powers of food, visit NaturalCures.news.

Sources:

MDPI.com

MedicalNewsToday.com

NEJM.org 1

FrontiersIn.org

Neurology.org

NEJM.org 2

NCBI.NLM.NIH.gov

Academic.OUP.com

Arthritis.org

100% Fresh Food News, Right at Your Fingertips!
Find out everything you need to know about clean and healthy eating when you sign up for our FREE email newsletter. Receive the latest news on all the top superfoods, recipes, natural remedies, diets, food tips, and more!
Your privacy is protected. Subscription confirmation required.

Related Articles
Comments
comments powered by Disqus

100% Fresh Food News, Right at Your Fingertips!
Find out everything you need to know about clean and healthy eating when you sign up for our FREE email newsletter. Receive the latest news on all the top superfoods, recipes, natural remedies, diets, food tips, and more!
Your privacy is protected. Subscription confirmation required.

Popular articles