Yet another reason to think about adopting a Mediterranean diet. New research in the journal Diabetes Care suggests that older people who stick to this eating plan might just be reducing diabetes risk.
The Mediterranean diet is nothing like the typical American diet. What’s often hard for people to understand is that it’s not all about the food… the Mediterranean diet is also about eating meals with family and friends, enjoying the experience and companionship as well as the food on the table.
This way of eating is…
- Very low in red meat and poultry
- Uses olive oil as the main fat source
- Very high in fruits, nuts, legumes, vegetables and cereals
- High in fish
- Permits low to moderate intake of wine
Experts believe that having so much of the population eating this way could explain why countries in the Mediterranean have lower rates of heart disease and some cancers (breast cancer, for example) compared to the rest of Europe or the U.S.
The most recent study, conducted by a team led by Dr. Jordi Salas-Salvado of Spain’s University of Rovira i Virgili, included 418 Spanish adults aged 55 to 80 years old who had at least three risk factors for heart disease, but were free of diabetes.
At the start of the project, the subjects were randomly assigned to follow one of three eating plans.
The first was a Mediterranean diet that boosted consumption of olive oil with a free allotment of the oil (1 liter/week). The second was the same Mediterranean diet at the core, with a focus on getting polyunsaturated fats from nuts, and these subjects were given enough mixed nuts to eat about one ounce a day. The third eating plan was a low fat diet that encouraged subjects to cut down on all types of fat, but gave them no special food.
None of the groups were told to limit their calorie intake or get more exercise. This does not mean that limiting calories or being encouraged to exercise aren’t important… just that neither was emphasized in any special way to the study participants.
Over the four years of follow up, the team found that the subjects who were assigned the Mediterranean diet were less likely (10% developed the disease) to develop diabetes than those (18%) who followed a low fat eating plan. What’s more, the subjects didn’t have to lose weight to get the benefit.
When the team accounted for other diabetes risk factors, such as weight, smoking history and exercise levels, the Mediterranean diet itself was shown to bring a 52% reduction in risk compared to the low fat eating plan.
Both Mediterranean diet groups (olive oil and nuts) were found to have a lower diabetes risk over time. For those subjects that did end up with diabetes, the researchers saw that average weight and exercise levels were the same in the two groups at the end of the research.
To be fair, those on the low fat plan who stayed free of diabetes did lose a few pounds. But those in this group who did develop diabetes gained a few pounds.
The findings support the thinking that parts of the Mediterranean diet have health benefits that aren’t tied to any impact on weight.
Continues below…
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Diabetes Risk Reduced with Mediterranean Diet… Continued…
Back in 2008 the same team saw that subjects on the Mediterranean diet had improvements in blood sugar levels and sensitivity to insulin, even though they hadn’t lost any weight. The work was published in late 2008, in the journal Archives of Internal Medicine, finding that the Mediterranean diet blunted the risk of metabolic syndrome, a collection of risk factors for developing diabetes. Weight loss didn’t impact risk in these earlier findings either.
It may be that the anti-inflammatory effects of a Mediterranean diet are involved. Experts do believe that chronic, low level inflammation may be to blame in any number of disease processes, including diabetes. Diabetes now affects about 20 million people in the U.S., around 7% of the population. Beyond the changes to your health and lifestyle, diabetes ups the risk of heart disease, cancer and other serious, life altering health problems. Doing all you can towards reducing diabetes risk is a smart move.
