Between 1993 and 1996, researchers examined 25,315 women’s health records, including blood samples, biomarker assessments, and dietary information. We kept track of these women for twenty-five years.
The chance of dying from all causes decreased by 23%, which could be attributed in part to cardiometabolic risk factors. These include body mass index (BMI), insulin resistance, inflammation, and metabolic indicators.
Advantages of the Mediterranean Diet for Health
According to Nicole Roach, a registered dietitian at Northwell Lenox Hill Hospital, “there are various risk factors which are modifiable – meaning we have control over them” when it comes to cardiovascular disease. “A major modifiable risk favor is diet.”
The Mediterranean diet is frequently suggested as a treatment for cardiovascular disease. The Mediterranean diet has a number of advantages.
reducing the “bad cholesterol” Avoiding foods high in saturated fat, also referred to as “bad cholesterol,” will help reduce LDL cholesterol.
Our “Good Cholesterol,” or HDL, can also be increased with a Mediterranean diet.
By encouraging the consumption of healthier, more nutrient-dense foods, this diet may aid in weight loss. If you’re not trying to lose weight, it can also help you maintain a healthy weight.
By staying away from processed foods, which frequently have high sodium levels from added salt, this diet may help lower blood pressure.
Because a Mediterranean diet is high in whole fruits and vegetables, it can also aid improve intake of fiber. In addition to helping blood sugar levels stay within desired ranges and promoting satiety, which can support weight reduction or maintenance, fiber also improves bowel movements and gastrointestinal health.
Selecting meals with anti-inflammatory qualities may help reduce the body’s overall level of inflammation. Decreased inflammation lowers the risk of several cancer types and is good for the heart.
may benefit mood, memory, and the aging of the brain healthily.
According to Roach, “All of the above benefits of a Mediterranean diet can result in improved heart health as well as improved over all health,”
According to this study, a diet may help lower body mass index, triglyceride-rich lipoproteins, insulin resistance, and inflammation. These elements probably had a part in the lower mortality risk observed in those who adhered to this diet more closely.
Mediterranean Diet and Lowered Risk of Death from all Causes
A portion of the benefits of the Mediterranean diet on mortality was explained by the detected blood metabolites.
Dr. Marie-Pierre St-Onge, associate professor of nutritional medicine at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, said, “This included having lower molecules that are involved in inflammation and lipids that cause deposits in arteries that can lead to heart disease.” “Lower blood pressure and better glucose control also contribute to the reduced risk of mortality.”
Sports cardiologist John Higgins, MD, of UTHealth Houston, concurred.
Higgins stated, “Improved cardiovascular risk factors (blood pressure, cholesterol, blood glucose) as well as improved vascular function, improved coagulation profile, and less chance of an angry plaque (lower inflammatory markers) would result in lower rates of cardiovascular events (heart attack, stroke, peripheral arterial disease),”
In the current study, researchers discovered that while several other indicators were more significantly associated with decreased mortality risk from adherence to the Mediterranean diet, improvements in blood pressure, HDL and LDL cholesterol, and blood glucose control, such as hemoglobin A1C, were not. They did, however, accept that similar connections had been found in earlier research.
More precisely, the researchers discovered that body mass index, triglyceride-rich lipoproteins, insulin resistance, and indicators of inflammation and metabolism may all be major factors in the lower mortality risk linked to the Mediterranean diet.
According to St-Onge, the Mediterranean diet is high in minerals and dietary components with anti-inflammatory qualities, such as polyphenols. “It is high in fiber and low in sugar, which contribute to better glucose control, and is low in saturated [fat] while being higher in monounsaturated fat, which are known to produce [a] better lipid profile with lower LDL cholesterol and triglycerides and higher HDL cholesterol.”
Fruit, vegetables, legumes, nuts, extra virgin olive oil, and fatty fish are the mainstays of the Mediterranean diet.
When paired with foods that reduce inflammation, like legumes, fruits, and vegetables, foods high in omega-3 fatty acids, like some fish, walnuts, flax seeds, and chia seeds, “have been shown to reduce blood sugars, reduce insulin, improve gut health and regularity,” according to registered dietitian Julia Zumpano of the Cleveland Clinic Center for Human Nutrition.
Zumpano advises consuming whole grains along with meals that have undergone little processing. Because commercial baked goods, sugar-sweetened beverages, and processed meats have been demonstrated to elevate blood sugar, lipids, inflammation, weight, and the risk of chronic diseases, Zumpano advises against consuming these foods.