Will a Mediterranean diet help you live longer?

Options
Sabine_Stroehm
Sabine_Stroehm Posts: 19,263 Member
edited December 2014 in Food and Nutrition
Will a Mediterranean diet help you live longer? A new study finds more evidence that the Mediterranean diet of vegetable, fruits, nuts and fish can help you live longer. CBS News' Dr. Tara Narula, a cardiologist at New York's Lenox Hill Hospital, sits down with "CBS This Morning" to discuss the findings.

http://www.cbsnews.com/videos/will-a-mediterranean-diet-help-you-live-longer/

Fabulous. Hope there's further research in this area in the future.
«134

Replies

  • Need2Exerc1se
    Need2Exerc1se Posts: 13,576 Member
    Options
    I thought it was pretty common knowledge that a Mediterranean diet was good for heart health. But why do all these studies always compare to a low-fat diet? I mean, okay, we get it already! Low fat is bad. So, why not compare other diets?

    Low carb is widely touted, why not compare to that? That, to me, would be an interesting study, since the Med diet is pretty high carb.
  • ninerbuff
    ninerbuff Posts: 48,509 Member
    Options
    If it was just about eating, then probably. But there are so many other factors. Eating better in a high crime area isn't going to decrease risk of life. Same if one worked on building high rise buildings.
    But since nutrient quality seems to be higher in a Mediterranean diet than a lot of the others out there, then it makes sense to try to follow it.

    A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
    IDEA Fitness member
    Kickboxing Certified Instructor
    Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
    9285851.png
  • snowflake954
    snowflake954 Posts: 8,400 Member
    Options
    I know there are studies going on in certain areas of Italy--Sardinia for one---where there are numerous incidents of people that live to be more than 100 years old. Researchers are especially looking at diet in these towns. The Mediterranean diet has protection status. It was in all the papers here recently. I don't think a low carb diet can say the same. Sorry. :)
  • Sabine_Stroehm
    Sabine_Stroehm Posts: 19,263 Member
    Options
    Need2Exerc1se wrote: »
    I thought it was pretty common knowledge that a Mediterranean diet was good for heart health. But why do all these studies always compare to a low-fat diet? I mean, okay, we get it already! Low fat is bad. So, why not compare other diets?

    Low carb is widely touted, why not compare to that? That, to me, would be an interesting study, since the Med diet is pretty high carb.

    That would be great future research.
  • Need2Exerc1se
    Need2Exerc1se Posts: 13,576 Member
    Options
    Sabine_Stroehm wrote: »
    Need2Exerc1se wrote: »
    I thought it was pretty common knowledge that a Mediterranean diet was good for heart health. But why do all these studies always compare to a low-fat diet? I mean, okay, we get it already! Low fat is bad. So, why not compare other diets?

    Low carb is widely touted, why not compare to that? That, to me, would be an interesting study, since the Med diet is pretty high carb.

    That would be great future research.

    Or a head to head comparison of Mediterranean and it antithesis, Paleo. Though I doubt you'd ever get anyone to stick to Paleo long enough to get good results.
  • eric_sg61
    eric_sg61 Posts: 2,925 Member
    edited December 2014
    Options
    snowflake954 wrote: »
    I know there are studies going on in certain areas of Italy--Sardinia for one---where there are numerous incidents of people that live to be more than 100 years old. Researchers are especially looking at diet in these towns. The Mediterranean diet has protection status. It was in all the papers here recently. I don't think a low carb diet can say the same. Sorry. :)

    Sardinia is one of the "Blue Zones". Also, grains and wine were left out of the op
  • Sabine_Stroehm
    Sabine_Stroehm Posts: 19,263 Member
    Options
    eric_sg61 wrote: »
    snowflake954 wrote: »
    I know there are studies going on in certain areas of Italy--Sardinia for one---where there are numerous incidents of people that live to be more than 100 years old. Researchers are especially looking at diet in these towns. The Mediterranean diet has protection status. It was in all the papers here recently. I don't think a low carb diet can say the same. Sorry. :)

    Sardinia is one of the "Blue Zones". Also, grains and wine were left out of the op
    Grains and wine were in the video, weren't they? Wine was.
  • Sabine_Stroehm
    Sabine_Stroehm Posts: 19,263 Member
    Options
    ninerbuff wrote: »
    If it was just about eating, then probably. But there are so many other factors. Eating better in a high crime area isn't going to decrease risk of life. Same if one worked on building high rise buildings.
    But since nutrient quality seems to be higher in a Mediterranean diet than a lot of the others out there, then it makes sense to try to follow it.

    A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
    IDEA Fitness member
    Kickboxing Certified Instructor
    Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
    9285851.png

    ok
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,876 Member
    Options
    Mmmm....wine!
  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
    Options
    Apparently they gave the women in the study a questionnaire and then ranked them based on how closely their diet tracked the Mediterranean diet. In that there's not really one such diet, it would be interesting to see the questionnaire to see how it was defined.
  • Mr_Knight
    Mr_Knight Posts: 9,532 Member
    Options
    Sabine_Stroehm wrote: »
    eric_sg61 wrote: »
    snowflake954 wrote: »
    I know there are studies going on in certain areas of Italy--Sardinia for one---where there are numerous incidents of people that live to be more than 100 years old. Researchers are especially looking at diet in these towns. The Mediterranean diet has protection status. It was in all the papers here recently. I don't think a low carb diet can say the same. Sorry. :)

    Sardinia is one of the "Blue Zones". Also, grains and wine were left out of the op
    Grains and wine were in the video, weren't they? Wine was.

    For sure. I'm from one of the Med-Diet countries, and I can assure you grains and wine are consumed regularly.
  • Sabine_Stroehm
    Sabine_Stroehm Posts: 19,263 Member
    Options
    Mr_Knight wrote: »
    Sabine_Stroehm wrote: »
    eric_sg61 wrote: »
    snowflake954 wrote: »
    I know there are studies going on in certain areas of Italy--Sardinia for one---where there are numerous incidents of people that live to be more than 100 years old. Researchers are especially looking at diet in these towns. The Mediterranean diet has protection status. It was in all the papers here recently. I don't think a low carb diet can say the same. Sorry. :)

    Sardinia is one of the "Blue Zones". Also, grains and wine were left out of the op
    Grains and wine were in the video, weren't they? Wine was.

    For sure. I'm from one of the Med-Diet countries, and I can assure you grains and wine are consumed regularly.
    I've been to a few of them, and yep!
  • happieharpie
    happieharpie Posts: 229 Member
    Options
    Why is the MT considered an "antithesis" of Paleo eating?
  • GingerbreadCandy
    GingerbreadCandy Posts: 403 Member
    edited December 2014
    Options
    eric_sg61 wrote: »
    snowflake954 wrote: »
    I know there are studies going on in certain areas of Italy--Sardinia for one---where there are numerous incidents of people that live to be more than 100 years old. Researchers are especially looking at diet in these towns. The Mediterranean diet has protection status. It was in all the papers here recently. I don't think a low carb diet can say the same. Sorry. :)

    Sardinia is one of the "Blue Zones". Also, grains and wine were left out of the op

    Grains are most definitely part of the Mediterranean diet. Albeit whole grains and not the refined sorts, even though we do tend to not consume those anymore. So is wine, in moderate quantities. :)

    Keep in mind, the Mediterranean diet people talk about all the time is the traditional one, aka the one our grandparents were eating, which may or may not correspond to what people are currently eating in those areas. (Which explains why those women were given the questionnaire)

    As far as I recall, the traditional Mediterranean diet is characterised: lots of vegetables, fruits, nuts and legumes, olive oil as main fat source, whole (unrefined) grains, wine in moderate consumption, dairy products immoderate consumption. Little to moderate meat consumption, little to moderate fish consumption. Fish often preferred over meat.
  • GingerbreadCandy
    GingerbreadCandy Posts: 403 Member
    Options
    Looked around a bit for studies comparing low-carb and Mediterranean, but it seems that there are very few direct comparative studies, just some opinion articles saying that nobody really knows the long-term effects of low-carb whereas Mediterranean is proven to be healthy.

    I could find one article comparing low-fat, low-carb and Mediterranean, which however sees to focus mostly on weight loss rather than long-term health benefits.

    http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa0708681
  • Need2Exerc1se
    Need2Exerc1se Posts: 13,576 Member
    edited December 2014
    Options
    GingerbreadCandy wrote: »
    eric_sg61 wrote: »
    snowflake954 wrote: »
    I know there are studies going on in certain areas of Italy--Sardinia for one---where there are numerous incidents of people that live to be more than 100 years old. Researchers are especially looking at diet in these towns. The Mediterranean diet has protection status. It was in all the papers here recently. I don't think a low carb diet can say the same. Sorry. :)

    Sardinia is one of the "Blue Zones". Also, grains and wine were left out of the op

    Grains are most definitely part of the Mediterranean diet. Albeit whole grains and not the refined sorts, even though we do tend to not consume those anymore. So is wine, in moderate quantities. :)

    Keep in mind, the Mediterranean diet people talk about all the time is the traditional one, aka the one our grandparents were eating, which may or may not correspond to what people are currently eating in those areas. (Which explains why those women were given the questionnaire)

    As far as I recall, the traditional Mediterranean diet is characterised: lots of vegetables, fruits, nuts and legumes, olive oil as main fat source, whole (unrefined) grains, wine in moderate consumption, dairy products immoderate consumption. Little to moderate meat consumption, little to moderate fish consumption. Fish often preferred over meat.

    Yep, this ^ Most of the things Paleo says to avoid, Mediterranean says to embrace, most notably, grains and legumes.
  • SnuggleSmacks
    SnuggleSmacks Posts: 3,732 Member
    Options
    Aren't there a lot of pasta and breads in the Mediterranean diet? Are they whole grain? I ask because I have a fairly extensive cookbook divided by country, and there's plenty of bread and pasta, but mostly not whole grain... Lots of semolina flour. And the Mediterranean delis in my area also serve lots of bread and pasta, Turkish lamb pizzas, pita bread, etc.
  • neanderthin
    neanderthin Posts: 9,894 Member
    Options
    It's says Swiss Milk on the side of the bus but the bus doesn't go to Switzerland. :)
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,876 Member
    Options
    All I can say is that my diet is largely modeled after the Med diet...but I would say I consume far more meat and poultry than would be in the traditional Med diet...but other than that, tons of veg, fruit, nuts and legumes, whole grains, etc...and wine...not always in moderation either.

    Personally I think it has done wonders for my blood work. That said, I don't have anything else to compare it to other than the way I was eating before...which actually wasn't all that horribly "bad" or anything...but I definitely didn't get much in the way of fruit and veg...maybe one true serving per day or something...now I get around 8.
  • msf74
    msf74 Posts: 3,498 Member
    Options
    If my style of eating resembles any diet closely it is the Mediterranean Diet although my red meat consumption is a bit higher.

    It has also made me dress more stylishly and made me more sexually attractive (ok, this may be a bit of an exaggeration...)

Categories