Mediterranean Diet Promotes Heart Health

The Western world has added much to the lives of others through science, culture and more, but in terms of nutrition--not so much. As other parts of the world adapt their eating styles to that of the Western world--chiefly the United States--the incidence of obesity, cardiovascular disease and metabolic syndrome has skyrocketed due to those adaptations.

Scientific research has proven through vigorous study that the food choices and lifestyle of the Mediterranean diet reduce the risk for cardiovascular disease. The American Heart Association promotes the Mediterranean diet and lifestyle as being heart-healthy--a significant endorsement by a valued health source.

In an article published in the "American Journal of Clinical Nutrition" December 2009, a group of researchers from Tufts University in Boston, Massachusetts wrote that a Mediterranean style diet may protect against metabolic syndrome in Americans. Further research needs to be done to substantiate these findings.

The Mediterranean style diet advocates eating a diet rich in fruits and vegetables, beans, grains, nuts and seeds. Dairy in the form of yogurt or cheese is in the daily diet in low to moderate amounts. Fish, poultry and eggs replace red meat for the most part. This diet style is low in saturated fat, with most of the fat coming from olive oil and nuts. Daily physical activity is also part of the lifestyle.

If you're considering changing your eating habits to something healthier, the Mediterranean style diet's choices and patterns may fit the bill. Remember, you don't have to change everything at once. You can make diet and lifestyle adaptations gradually, perhaps by adding more fruits to your daily diet initially or switching from vegetable oil to olive oil for your cooking. As you begin to make healthier food and physical activity choices, you'll feel empowered to be in charge of your health.

In a first of its kind study, researchers in Melbourne, Australia's St. Vincent's Hospital followed 12 study participants for six weeks, monitoring the effects of the Mediterranean diet versus the National Heart Foundation diet. Each of the study participants was verified to have non-alcoholic fatty liver disease via liver biopsy prior to the study.

After the six week period, participants who had followed the Mediterranean diet experienced a 39 percent decrease in liver fat; those following the heart diet had no significant change in liver fat. The Mediterranean diet also increased insulin sensitivity after the trial, an important factor in preventing the onset of Type 2 diabetes.

Interestingly, the participants following the Mediterranean diet experienced these improvements even in the absence of weight loss.

A recent study performed at Rush University Medical Center looked into the dietary habits and cognitive function of almost 4,000 Midwesterners aged 65 and older. The study scored the participants on how well they followed the traditional Greek diet and another score for how well they adhered to the 2005 Dietary Guidelines for Americans.

The study, funded by the National Institute on Aging, re-tested study participants' cognitive functions and relation of scores for both the Mediterranean diet and U.S. dietary guidelines every 3 years, with an average follow-up time for each participant of more than seven years. The research team found that higher scores for adherence to the Mediterranean diet resulted in the smallest declines in cognitive function, while such scores on adherence to U.S. dietary guidelines did not. This suggests that the Mediterranean diet may be useful in slowing cognitive decline. Further studies will need to be done before definitive determinations can be made.

In the October 11, 2011 edition of PLOS Medicine, a peer-reviewed medical journal published by the Public Library of Science, the results of research involving medical records of over 27,000 individuals suggested that eating a diet high in raw fruits and vegetables modified a genetic risk factor involved with myocardial infarction (heart attack) and cardiovascular disease. These findings would suggest that even individuals without this genetic predisposition to these heart-related conditions will also benefit from such eating habits.