Mediteranian Diet Can Ward Off Heart Disease

[Stuart G]

Last edited Mon Feb 25, 2013, 04:30 PM - Edit history (1)

Source: Reuters

Reuters Health) - A Mediterranean diet high in olive oil, nuts, fish and fresh fruits and vegetables may help prevent heart disease and strokes, according to a new large study from Spain.

Past research suggested people who eat a Mediterranean-like diet have healthier hearts, but those studies couldn't rule out that other health or lifestyle differences had made the difference.

For the new trial, researchers randomly assigned study volunteers at risk of heart disease to a Mediterranean or standard low-fat diet for five years, allowing the team to single out the effect of diet, in particular.

"This is good news, because we know how to prevent the main cause of deaths - that is cardiovascular disease - with a good diet," said Dr. Miguel Angel Martinez-Gonzalez, who worked on the study at the Universidad de Navarra in Pamplona. He and colleagues from across Spain assigned almost 7,500 older adults with diabetes or other heart risks to one of three groups. Over the next five years, 288 study participants had a heart attack or stroke or died of any type of cardiovascular disease.

People on both Mediterranean diets were 28 to 30 percent less likely to develop cardiovascular disease than those on the general low-fat diet, the researchers reported Monday in the New England Journal of Medicine.


Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/02/25/us-diet-heart-disease-idUSBRE91O0XC20130225

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This study was published today, and is significant because it proves the effectiveness of this diet. Another link:

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/26/health/mediterranean-diet-can-cut-heart-disease-study-finds.html?src=me&ref=general

It is on the front page of the NYT.
http://www.nytimes.com/
And I might add, .... 30 percent is quite a large number indeed.. I wonder if this will ever be adopted by most families in the U.S.A.? I doubt it.

[JustAnotherGen]

1. And don't forget

The Anti-Inflammatory benefits overall. People with AutoImmune disases have been eating like this for years. People need to expand Mediterranean in their minds too - they tend to focus on Italy.

The forget about smelt sauteed in olive oil with a garlic tomato white wine reduction (Cassis, France does this well).
Olive tapenade with crudite.
Etc. Etc.

I'll give props to this - funny - just did a blog post about the book - Mediterranean Diet (among other 'bibles' of mine) this morning.

Great news! Thanks for posting!

ETA - And let them argue. Take 10 antinflammatory (read mediterranean diet) Ankylosing Spondylitis sufferers and put us on the food pyramid for a week. Watch us bend and crinkle and ache. Put us back on Anti-Inflammatory - see us thrive.

When the sickest people thrive on diet as opposed to a shot that gives them cancer (enbrel) - sit up and take notice.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

2. Low scale inflammation is responsible for a number of ills

from Alzheimer disease to heart disease. There are things beyond the Mediterranean diet that help to reduce inflammation as well, like curcumin, dha fish oil, green tea, the Chinese herb stephania tetrandra, and the newly discovered substance found in the tobacco plant called anatabine.

Thanks for bringing up the important issue of inflammation. Great post!

[JustAnotherGen]

3. Your welcome

Ankylosing is a genetic based disease - HLA B27. My Great Grandfather had the same disease. He immigrated from Marseille France to the US at the close of WWI with his disease at 20. I do nothing differently than he did in 1920. His mother brought him from total hunchback - feeding him nothing but by todays standards - "organic veggies". clean fis, and lots of leek broth.

I've found that green tea actually causes hip (sacroilac joint pain). But ginger tea - no problems. Analgesic effect. Fish oil - I get right through my fish intake.

Overall - we want to avoid pills and potions and get right down to solid foods directly from the earth. Having a husband who is an immigrant from Italy and spending time especially with his mother over there, and his aunts, cousins - they still eat VERY different than we do in America in Acri, Italy. And let me tell you - those 70 and change little old ladies are totally schooling me up and down the hill in back of their homes . . . to get the wild berries and fresh spring water. It's like a 45 degree angle at a half a mile's distance.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

6. Funny - my family also comes from Marseille

Corsicans on my mother's side. Hot blood.

[JustAnotherGen]

7. seriously?

Love it! - My french branch - Papa Georges - Marseille. His mother was from Nice and married a Marseille soldier. They moved there in 1890's because of his family businesses in Marseille. We are Boucher's - trace back to the Huns (Charles the Hammer) on George's father's side. It was quite a scandal back then that an 'Italian' (her parents were born Italians) married a Franc. Like a big deal to her parents.

But man oh man - the recipes he handed down from the woman I call the original Adrienne Estelle? Wow! I skip the breads and pastries in the little book he did for my mom and me before he died in the late 1990's and use her fish, meats, veggies.

For dinner yesterday we had braised veggies and smelt - all in cast iron pot with lots of garlic, rosemary and thyme! It was to die for! And all natural. And very easy to make.

[Hestia]

4. I used to counsel patients for a Geriatrician in how to eat on a Mediterranean

Diet and the one thing that the senior's gasped at is the 5 oz of wine with supper. A lot of them were teetotalers and couldn't get over having a doctors office tell them to drink alcohol. The rest of the diet they loved and understood. Some I had to caution to not drink over the 5 oz, which is all that is necessary. because they loved being told it is okay to drink wine. They would come in asking for recipes and I would have to tell them that the Mediterranean is a huge encompassing area, which country did they have in mind? They never thought of that - lol.

[randome]

5. So can eating less, exercising more and refusing to 'reward' yourself with food.

[closeupready]

8. Exercise is essential for good health. But as to eating less junk? Well yes,

but why not simply eliminate junk food altogether, and switch to tasty, filling, and nutritious foods instead, eating as much as you want (within reason)?

Fresh fish, veggies, fruit and chicken, salads ... so much good stuff that is healthy and non-fattening.

If I have one complaint about the "Mediterranean Diet", it's that pasta used to be sold as an essential element to the diet, when in fact, it's fattening, as are most flour-based foods, such as bread, and add little to a balanced diet - other than simple carbs.

These days, I guess you don't see or hear many people tout the 'health benefits of pasta', even though it is an element of the Mediterranean Diet and the people who live around the Mediterranean.

[wordpix]

9. I think pasta (also bread and potatoes) is only fattening when

people add lots of butter, cheese sauce, sour cream, etc.

I have eaten plenty of pasta but usually with a tomato-based sauce and maybe a spoonful of cheese. You also don't have to add a lot of fattening extras to bread or potatoes, as long as they're fresh. A small amt. of butter or cheese will do.


I am 5'5, 113 lb. woman and I've been this same weight since late 20's (now 60 y.o.). Lots of fruits and veggies are a must but I also eat yogurt, cheese, and cream, although in moderation.

[closeupready]

11. Wow, that's amazing. Good for you.

My experience is that I simply can't touch any of those things without overindulging at the same time. I still eat them, but strictly at the weekend.

Cheers.

[RobinA]

12. For Those of You

Who eat this way....how do you deal with the boredom! I can go this route for about a week, but then I start wanting something GOOD and satisfying. I get to the point - My kingdom for a burger! Some pasta! Something actually pleasurable. I like Mediterranean for a meal, but over time I crave something else. Something that satisfies.

[athena]

13. Boredom? Are you serious?

The Mediterranean is a huge region. You must be limiting yourself to a tiny subset of the foods, based perhaps on the stereotypical idea of what Mediterraneans eat. (Hint: have you ever been to a Greek or Lebanese restaurant?)

Consider, for example, the following:
Hummus
Stuffed Grape Leaves (can also be stuffed green peppers, eggplant, etc.)
Baba Ganoush
Ratatouille
Tajine
Falafel
Imam Bayildi
Lentil "Meat" Balls
Latke

Take a look at this cookbook:http://www.amazon.com/Mediterranean-Vegan-Kitchen-Donna-Klein/dp/1557883599

ETA: Sorry; I thought you were responding to the original message. I agree with you that refusing to reward oneself with food is difficult to stick to. However, a strictly vegetarian Mediterranean diet, combined with exercise, is probably much better than yo-yo dieting, as well as being much more pleasurable.

[closeupready]

15. I follow my own souped-up version of the Dukan/Atkins diets -

One day per week, I get to splurge on whatever I want - NOTHING is off-limits.

But the rest of the week, I'm eating low-carb - just for example - omelettes, chicken sausage, salads, chicken dumpling soup (I eat LOTS of chicken), sauteed spinach/creamed spinach, steamed broccoli, sauteed cabbage, and snacking on baby carrots or celery/peanut butter, stuffed olives, cheese cubes.

White wine with meals, water, coffee or tea are okay.

In sum, I can eat most things except white bread, potatoes, pasta, rice or whole milk, and no sugar. Personally, I've never been obese, even when I've let my diet go, but nonetheless, I find I can eat just about whatever anyone else is eating, I just have to pick out the simple carbs.

It's possibly boring, I suppose, if you don't have time to cook or prepare meals - because that really does limit you. Thank God for crockpots and George Foreman! lol

[randome]

19. Part of it is to stop seeing food as a pleasure or part of a reward system.

There are other pleasures in life. Not trying to sound smarmy, just pointing out that if you see food as more of a mechanical necessity instead of a 'pleasure', that's a good first step to ridding yourself of the 'allure' of food.

It's a mindset as much as anything else. 'Embrace the hunger' has been my motto. That doesn't mean starve yourself or take chances with your health if you have any cardiovascular conditions, it means seeing hunger -when you KNOW you aren't going to starve to death or collapse- as a good thing.

[Populist_Prole]

20. There's tons of variety in the Med diet, and it's all tasty stuff

IMO, The US hasn't got anything on the Medditerranean, or the rest of the world for that matter ( excepting maybe Britain ) as far as appetizing food is concerned. I'll take grilled shrimp or marinated chicken over a hambuger or even steak any day.

[JustAnotherGen]

10. NO

Not that simple

Putting this out there so you understand - it's deeper than that. . .

http://www.mynextfortyyears.com/my-anti-inflammatory-bibles/
◦How To Eat Away Arthritis – Lauri M. Aesoph
◦The Inflammation Free Diet Plan – Monica Reinagle
◦Anti-Inflammatory Foods For Health – Rowe and Davis
◦The Mediterranean Diet – Marissa Cloutier and Eve Adamson
◦The Ultra Simple Diet – Mark Hyman


Sure - you can eat less Hamburger Helper and bagged salad with Hidden Valley Ranch Dressing for Dinner. You can do that. You can even take a walk after dinner.


But I bet you if you do that for a year and - me - with a severe auto immune disease follow my path of eating for a year - . . . I bet I can beat you in a race. And my blood pressure is lower. It's athletic now. All I do is the glider for a total of 60 minutes a week and hit up a yoga or reformer class two or three times a week. I betcha my R.A. factor is non existent. I betcha I'm never irregular, have gas, or heart burn. I betcha my skin is clear, my eyes are clear, and I have the energy to go, go, go. Half teasing, but just saying - eat less and exercise more?


That's why we are fat, and sick, and out of shape in America. It's why we are all half dead. We eat for shit and it's something kids are having shoved down their throats from day one.

I'm very passionate about this because I've seen what happens - you can barely hold a tootbrush, you can LITERALLY not hold your head up, you can be completely hunched over, and take NSAID and Enbrel - or you can woman up and do something daring . . . like eat well. h

[otherone]

24. thanks for the post

as an RA sufferer myself I find it very interesting.

[Skittles]

16. actually, that is EXACTLY what I do (including rewarding myself with junk food)

and I have never been overweight and am very healthy

[JustAnotherGen]

25. You are very lucky

I've never been overweight - but some of us have/had ticking time bombs waiting to go off in our bodies. You're very lucky to have dodged those bullets and not be impacted by the preservatives and such in our food supply.

[brooklynite]

14. Don't forget the mediterranean wine...

[Liberal_in_LA]

17. please summarize / describe the mediterranean diet

[FailureToCommunicate]

18. Here is the Mediterranean food pyramid...

from Oldways:
http://oldwayspt.org/



It's not a "diet" so much as just better/healthier food choices, PLUS exercise/activity...
And it works!!

[Not a Fan]

21. Heart Disease

Good diet is important. We can't ignore that what we put into our bodies matters. But there should also be more talk about Vitamin D3. VD3 deficiency is a major factor in heart disease.

Vitamin D and Cardiovascular diseases (Nonprofit VD Council)
http://www.vitamindcouncil.org/health-conditions/cardiovascular-diseases/

Ten Easy Steps to a Heart Attack
(by award-winning Heart Health Blogger, Cardiologist
William Davis)
http://blog.trackyourplaque.com/2010/06/how-to-have-a-heart-attack-in-10-easy-steps.html

HDL 80 mg/dl (Cardiologist William Davis)
http://blog.trackyourplaque.com/2011/11/hdl-80-mgdl.html

High Dose Vitamin D3 (Cardiologist William Davis)
http://blog.trackyourplaque.com/2008/12/high-dose-vitamin-d.html

[PasadenaTrudy]

22. Hmmm...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-dean-ornish/mediterranean-diet_b_2755940.html

[bmbmd]

26. To be perfectly honest,

Dr. Ornish is attacking the methodology of the study rather than the diet. Ornish's business is selling his own Ornish Diet and lifestyle, so you can see why he would vigorously defend his point of view. He makes some valid points, but the study was obviously important enough to be published by one of the world's most prestigious peer review journals.

Here's what Mayo thinks:

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/mediterranean-diet/CL00011

[DeschutesRiver]

23. Thank you for sharing this. nt