Mediterranean diet lengthens Americans' lives
Mon Dec 10, 6:29 PM ET
Eating the Mediterranean way could help you live
longer, according to the first study to look at how
the dietary pattern relates to mortality in a US
population.
Men whose diets were closest to the Mediterranean
ideal were 21 percent less likely to die over five
years than men whose diets were least
Mediterranean-like. Similar results were seen in
women.
"These results provide strong evidence for a
beneficial effect of higher conformity with the
Mediterranean dietary pattern on risk of death from
all causes, including deaths due to cardiovascular
disease and cancer, in a US population," Dr.
Panagiota N. Mitrou of the University of Cambridge
in the UK and colleagues conclude.
A number of studies have linked the Mediterranean
diet, which is rich in fish, fruits and vegetables
and nuts and low in dairy foods and red meat, to
health benefits, the researchers note in the
Archives of Internal Medicine.
They looked at diet and mortality in 380,296 men
and women, 50 to 71 years old, who were
participating in the National Institutes of
Health-AARP Diet and Health Study.
For both men and women, the researchers found,
the risk of death from any cause over the five-year
follow-up period was lower for those with the most
Mediterranean-like diets. Deaths from cancer or
cardiovascular disease were also significantly lower
in this group.
The benefit was especially strong in smokers who
were not overweight, who nearly halved their risk of
death if they closely followed the Mediterranean
diet pattern. Smokers may have had the most to gain
from the antioxidant and blood fat-lowering effects
of Mediterranean-style eating, Mitrou and colleagues
suggest.
SOURCE: Archives of Internal Medicine, December
10/24, 2007.
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