The diet is largely plant based with moderate amounts of chicken and poultry and low amounts of red meat
A new study has found that women who adopt the Mediterranean diet experience a drastic reduction in cardiometabolic risk factors and this shows in a significant drop in their all cause mortality over a period of time.
The study looked at 25 315 participants, with a baseline age of 54.6 years, with 329 (1.3%) Asian women, 406 (1.6%) Black women, 240 (0.9%) Hispanic women, 24 036 (94.9%) White women, and 95 (0.4%) women with other race and ethnicity. It found that there is a 25% reduction overall in all cause mortality. The study was published in Jama Network Open.
The findings are in line with multiple earlier studies that looked at the benefits of switching to a Mediterranean diet. “Our findings of lower risk of all-cause mortality among women with higher adherence to the Mediterranean diet are consistent with the data from prior studies in US populations, which reported that higher Mediterranean diet consumption was associated with 16% reductions in all-cause and CVD mortality, and other cohorts based in the US and non-US populations have reported beneficial effects of the Mediterranean diet. Another meta-analysis of 21 cohort studies, which included 883 878 participants, reported that higher Mediterranean diet adherence was associated with 21% reduced risk of CVD mortality,” the researchers wrote.
Mediterranean diet is rich in green leafy vegetables, nuts, legumes, good fat. Processed foods and alcohol consumption are discouraged. It has been shown to have an effect on body weight while also calming cardiometabolic risk factors such as cholesterol, blood pressure and blood sugar.
In the present study the researchers assigned points for various levels of adherence. “This Mediterranean diet score is commonly used for assessing adherence to the Mediterranean diet and is based on regular intake of 9 dietary components. Higher-than-median intake of vegetables (excluding potatoes), fruits, nuts, whole grains, legumes, and fish and the ratio of monounsaturated-to-saturated fatty acids was given 1 point, while the less-than-median intake of red and processed meat was given 1 point. In addition, participants were given 1 point if their intake of alcohol fell within the range of 5 to 15 g/d (otherwise 0 points were assigned),” they reported.
