8 Scientific Health Benefits of the Mediterranean Diet
If there’s one so-called diet that is widely acclaimed for its health benefits, it’s the Mediterranean diet. In fact, U.S. News & World Re-
port ranked the Mediterranean diet No. 1 on its 2019 41 Best Diets Overall list, citing a “host of health benefits, including weight loss, heart and
brain health, cancer prevention, and diabetes prevention and control.” (1)
More of an eating pattern than a calorie-restricted diet, the Mediterranean regimen emphasizes eating lots of vegetables, fruits, nuts, legumes,
seeds, and fish, with liberal use of olive oil, a moderate amount of dairy foods, and a low amount of red meat — a way of eating common in
Mediterranean countries such as Spain, Italy, and Greece, noted an article published in June 2018 the journal Current Atherosclerosis Reports.
(2)
Followers avoid processed foods that are high in sugar, refined carbohydrates, and unhealthy fats (think: chips, cookies, cake, white bread,
white rice, and the like). But they do drink a little red wine socially during meals. The Mediterranean pattern focuses on enjoying food and drink
with loved ones, along with being physically active, and always keeping moderation in mind. Notably, though, there’s no counting — be it calo-
ries, fat grams, or glycemic load — by which to gauge that moderation. (2)
“I look at it as a Mediterranean lifestyle. It’s not so much what they eat, which is beneficial and anti-inflammatory; it’s in how they eat it,”
says Robert E. Graham, MD, MPH, an integrative medicine physician at Physio Logic in Brooklyn, New York. “They eat it with gusto, flavor.
They eat it with family members.”
Regardless, you can’t really say there’s one uniform Mediterranean lifestyle or eating pattern, because its followers don’t live in the same
place. That complicates the effort to assess the potential health benefits of the diet. “Did you live in Italy? Did you live in Greece? Did you live
in Spain? So then, when you do research studies, the diet might be a little different in each,” says Jo Ann Carson, PhD, a clinical nutrition pro-
fessor at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas who is a past Nutrition Committee chair for the American Heart Association.
Dr. Carson adds that eating and drinking in moderation may be harder for those living on this side of the Atlantic to adopt — particularly be-
cause the Mediterranean diet does not set calorie intake guidelines. "I get concerned that someone from the United States will try to add ¼ cup
of olive oil to their diet, but they’re not going to cut out some of the sweets … and then they’re going to be getting too many calories,” she says.
With those caveats in mind, here is a look at eight of the touted health benefits of the Mediterranean diet — and the science behind them.
1. The Mediterranean Diet May Help Reduce Your Risk for Heart Disease
Numerous studies suggest the Mediterranean diet is good for your ticker, noted a meta-analysis published in November 2015 in the jour-
nal Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition. (3)
Perhaps the most convincing evidence comes from a randomized clinical trial published in April 2013 in the New England Journal of Medicine,
known as the PREDIMED study. (4) For about five years, authors followed 7,000 women and men in Spain who had type 2 diabetes or a high
risk for cardiovascular disease. Those who ate a calorie-unrestricted Mediterranean diet with extra-virgin olive oil or nuts had a 30 percent low-
er risk of heart events. Researchers didn’t advise participants on exercise.
The study authors reanalyzed the data at a later point to address a widely criticized flaw in the randomization protocol, and reported similar
results in June 2018 in the New England Journal of Medicine. (5)
“That is probably the biggest scientific evidence to say that a Mediterranean diet is healthful, in terms of reducing the risk of cardiovascular
disease,” Carson says.
2. Eating a Mediterranean Diet May Reduce Women’s Risk for Stroke
We already know from the PREDIMED study that eating in a Mediterranean fashion can help lower the risk of cardiovascular disease in some
people. Well, the diet may also help reduce stroke risk in women, though researchers didn’t observe the same results in men, according to a
cohort study published in September 2018 in the journal Stroke. (6)
Researchers looked at a predominantly white group of 23,232 men and women ages 40 to 77 who lived in the United Kingdom. The more
closely a woman followed a Mediterranean diet, the lower her risk of having a stroke. However, researchers didn’t see statistically significant
results in men. Most notably, in women who were at high risk of having a stroke, following the diet reduced their chances of this health event by
20 percent.
Study authors don’t know the reason for the difference, but they hypothesize that different types of strokes in men and women may play a
role. A good next step toward understanding the reasons behind the differences would be a clinical trial, Carson says.
3. A Mediterranean Diet May Prevent Cognitive Decline and Alzheimer’s Disease
As a heart-healthy diet, the Mediterranean eating pattern may also help to reduce a decline in your memory and thinking skills with age. “The
brain is a very hungry organ. To supply all of those nutrients and oxygen [that it needs], you have to have a rich blood supply. So, people who
are having any problems with their vascular health — their blood vessels — are really at increased risk for developing problems with their
brain, and then that frequently will present itself as cognitive decline,” says Keith Fargo, PhD, director of scientific programs and outreach for
the Alzheimer’s Association. For now, Dr. Fargo identifies the Mediterranean diet as one way of eating that can help stave off cognitive decline.
But he does not necessarily recommend it over other well-studied diets, such as the MIND diet (MIND stands for Mediterranean–DASH Diet
Intervention for Neurodegenerative Delay), which is a hybrid of the Mediterranean pattern and the blood-pressure lowering DASH diet, noted
an article published in September 2015 in the journal Alzheimer's and Dementia. (9) “What the Alzheimer’s Association recommends is a heart
-healthy pattern of eating,” he says.
He also urges caution in drawing conclusions about the current body of research into how diets affect the development of Alzheimer’s disease,
saying that the exact mechanisms at play are still unclear.
Wellness Newsletter Issue 36/ January/February 2020
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