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Mediterranean diet fights diabetes A Mediterranean diet rich in fruits and vegetables -- already known to protect against heart disease -- also appears to help ward off diabetes, say Spanish researchers. The study published in the British Medical Journal showed that people who stuck closely to the diet were 83 percent less likely to develop type 2 diabetes than those who did not. "The new thing is that we have been able to assess adherence to a Med diet and the incidence of diabetes in people who were initially healthy," said Miguel Martinez-Gonzalez, an epidemiologist at the University of Navarra in Spain, who led the study. "We didn't expect such a high reduction." The World Health Organisation estimates more than 180 million people worldwide have diabetes -- a number likely to more than double by 2030 as more nations adopt a Western lifestyle. Type 2 diabetes accounts for 90 percent of all cases and is closely linked to obesity and heart disease. The condition accounts for an estimated 6 percent of all global deaths. For their study the Spanish researchers recruited 13,000 former students at the university with an average age of 38 who had no history of diabetes. They tracked their dietary habits and health over an average four years. The volunteers also initially completed a food frequency questionnaire to measure the kinds of food they ate. The list included questions on the use of fats and oils, cooking methods and dietary supplements. People who strictly adhered to a Mediterranean diet full of vegetables, fish and healthy fats such as olive oil, and low in red meat, dairy products and alcohol had lower odds of diabetes. Only about 40 people in the study developed diabetes, but the fact that the protection appeared to extend to older people, smokers, and volunteers with a family history of diabetes -- a group all the more prone to the disease -- shows the diet works, said Martinez-Gonzalez. "These higher risk participants with better adherence to the diet, however, had a lower risk of diabetes, suggesting that the diet might have a substantial potential for prevention," the researchers concluded. Dr. Cinque's comments: An example of a Mediterranean diet is the one that my maternal grandfather, Jack DiMeglio, ate growing up on the Italian island of Ischia in the Bay of Naples. He told me that as a boy he ate lots of fruits and vegetables, pasta, lentils, garbonzos, and also nuts such as pignolis (Italian pine nuts). Once a week, on Sundays, they had a big dinner that included meat (typically rabbit) or fish. And that was it. And on that diet, he grew up to be healthy and strong and remained that way for most of his 91 years. So, to my mind, the Mediterranean diet, in the best sense of the term, is a plant-based diet (which means consisting mostly of natural, unprocessed plant-foods) with limited amounts of animal food (particularly fish) and also healthy fats, such as extra-virgin olive oil and raw nuts. It does not demonize fats, but rather distinguishes between "good fats" and "bad fats," and includes the former and eschews the latter. It is the diet that I follow, and the great thing about it is that it's easy to follow. It is much, much easier to follow than a low-fat diet, and that's because humans have a natural craving for dietary fats, and to avoid them completely goes against our very nature. Eating fat is satisfying, and we should just admit it and find healthy ways to do it rather than deny it or condemn it. A plant-based, moderate-carb, moderate-fat diet (Mediterranean) is truly a diet to last a lifetime. E-mail to a friend Previous Article |
