A traditional Mediterranean diet has high intakes of olive oil, fruit, nuts, vegetables, beans and cereals, moderate intakes of fish and chicken, low intakes of red and processed meats, dairy foods and sweets. They also drink wine in moderation, and only with meals-generally a glass a day is acceptable with food, preferably red wine.
Researchers working on PREDIMED (Prevención con Dieta Mediterranea) trials the results of which were discussed at a nutrition conference in California last week, were conducted on over 7400 participants with high cardiovascular risk. They were asked to follow one of three diets - a Mediterranean diet supplemented with extra-virgin olive oil, a Mediterranean diet supplemented with nuts; the control group was given a standard low-fat diet for five years, starting in October 2003.
None of the volunteers, 43% of whom were men (55- 80) and 57% were women (60-80), had any previous cardiovascular disease when they enrolled in the program but all had high cardiovascular risks, either in the form of type 2 diabetes or at least three from a list of well-known major risk factors such as smoking, high blood pressure, obesity and family history of heart disease.
During the five years of follow-up, 288 participants reportedly, had a cardiovascular event. Statistical analysis showed that compared with the control group following the low-fat diet, participants on the Mediterranean diet with extra-virgin olive oil were 30% less likely to experience a cardiovascular event, and those on the Mediterranean diet with nuts were 28% less likely to experience heart attack, stroke or cardiovascular death.
Participants were not given rigid menus or calorie goals since weight loss was not the aim. That could be why they found the prescribed diets easy to follow; only about 7% dropped out within two years while there were twice as many dropouts in the low-fat group than among those eating the Mediterranean-style diet.
Ramon Estruch, of the Hospital Clinic of Barcelona and general coordinator for PREDIMED, says that the results of the trial are of utmost importance because they convincingly demonstrate that a high vegetable fat dietary pattern is superior to a low-fat diet for cardiovascular prevention."
Miguel Angel Martinez-Gonzalez of the Universidad de Navarra in Pamplona, another member of the study, agrees. He adds that people wanting to move toward such a diet should start with small changes, such as not eating meat on two days a week, shift to using olive oil for cooking, and replacing hard alcohol with red wine, and drinking it only with meals.
Mediterranean diet has long been considered heart-healthy, but based on observational studies only. The new research is more meaningful because the participants were assigned diets to be followed for a long time and carefully monitored. Doctors even conducted tests in the lab to verify that the subjects were consuming more olive oil or nuts as recommended.
Tags: olive oil, PREDIMED |