What’s top of your shop?

About two years back the Mediterranean diet (MedDiet) was high on the shopping list of good eating strategies. Should recent research alter our outlook?

The MedDiet is diverse with nine key elements in its ‘food network’. But is diversity alone a good test? It seems not, since a diet that is diverse but based on highly processed meats along with starchy foods and snacks is said to be more likely to lead to dementia years later.
A study involving people 65 and over showed that closer adherence to the MedDiet prolonged their survival. Good for length but what about quality of life?
A large study of obese or overweight people between 55 and 70 concluded that adherence to a MedDiet regime was positively associated with vitality and mental health.
Improved sleep quality was associated with adherence to the MedDiet by obese people.
As a medical term, frailty means increased vulnerability associated with low energy, strength, activity and unintentional weight loss. A higher adherence to the MedDiet was associated with lower odds of frailty.
A study of people prescribed statins for previous cardiovascular conditions suggested that the MedDiet is an effective choice to reduce the risk of mortality, especially from cardiovascular causes.

How good are these studies?

This list covers a range of studies. Almost all of them acknowledge the difficulty of teasing out the impact of the MedDiet on people who are already individually different with a wide range of health, surroundings and social conditions.

However, the ‘straws in the wind’ seem to be blowing the same way, supporting the value of a MedDiet for many issues that surface in later life.

Is the MedDiet the only choice?

Specialised diets can positively or negatively influence specific medical conditions.

This article shares some published information about a diet that is increasingly being studied to understand its impact on wellness and longevity.

Although the MedDiet could well underpin your shopping list, talk with your own medical professionals before making drastic changes in your diet.

More information?

You can review our previous MedDiet article with more about the diet here.

The Knowledge library available to every Subscriber of the Longevity Plan has over 60 such references with links to many more, supporting the decisions you can make with each Longevity Plan.