Mediterranean diet reduces metabolic syndrome

Many studies have found that the Mediterranean diet reduces heart disease, but a new review, published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, examined the effects of the Mediterrean diet on the risk factors of cardiovascular diseases.

The researchers reviewed and analysed the results of 50 studies in the English language with more than 500,000 participants, they also evaluated the quality of each study. They found that eating the Mediterranean diet reduced the development of the metabolic syndrome as well as all the individual components such as high blood pressure, high blood sugar, high blood fat, low levels of good cholesterol and large waist circumference - these are the risk factors often precede the development of cardiovascular diseases.

They concluded that thier findings have considerable public health importance but noted several limitations in the study, eg the considerable heterogeneity among the studies which could affect the results - only 8 studies addressed the effects on all the metabolic syndrome risk factors, of which 2 were RCTs, 2 cohort studies and 4 cross-sectional studies.

Source: Kastorini CM, Milionis HJ, Esposito K et al. The Effect of Mediterranean Diet on Metabolic Syndrome and its Components: A Meta-Analysis of 50 Studies and 534,906 Individuals. Journal of the American College of Cardiology, 2011; 57:1299-1313

Mediterranian diet protects against all major diseases

The BMJ published a large scale systematic review and meta-analysis which statistically combined the results of 12 separate studies with over 1.5 million people. The results show that those who follow strictly this style of diet are more likely to live longer, and less likely to die from major diseases such as heart disease, stroke or cancer etc.

The researchers said the results seem “clinically relevant for public health, in particular for encouraging a Mediterranean-like dietary pattern for primary prevention of major chronic diseases.” However they point out that it is important to estimate the effects of the dietary pattern as a whole rather than the individual components of the diet.

Source: "Adherence to Mediterranean diet and health status: meta-analysis." BMJ 2008; 337:a1344 ( published online)

Mediterranean diet can lower mortality rate

According to a large scale cohort study of 380,296 people aged 50 - 71 with no history of chronic disease, eating a Mediterranean diet can cut the risk of dying early.

Participants were divided into three groups according to their dietary habits and were then followed-up over a five-year period. The study found that those who followed a Mediterranean diet closely were less likely to die of cancer or heart disease. The authors concluded that their study provided strong evidence that higher conformity with the Mediterranean diet is associated with lower mortality rate.

Source: "Mediterranean Dietary Pattern and Prediction of All-Cause Mortality in a US Population: Results From the NIH-AARP Diet and Health Study" Archives of Internal Medicine. 2007;167(22):2461-2468