New Season. New You: Analyzing the Mediterranean Diet

This season of blogs will be concentrating more on the many researchers and scientists out there that are focusing their studies on the Mediterranean Diet and its effects on the many individuals that choose to live the Mediterranean life style. Occasionally I will give tips and recipes that you might be interested in indulging your taste buds in. By following and appreciating the research involving the Mediterranean Diet I hope to encourage you or any of your fellow friends, neighbors, and family to give it a try and spread the word on how much impact this diet can have on your life. If you’re currently living the Mediterranean lifestyle I hope that you recognize the importance and how much better the quality of your life could be just by changing some possible nasty habits for instance. It is not hard to follow this life style; take a look at my past blogs and get and idea of what the Mediterranean Diet has to offer. Let’s start this blog off right with research done by Francesco Sofi and colleagues.

The finalized published study done by these researchers titled their work as, “Adherence to Mediterranean diet and health status: meta-analysis,” and the purpose of this study was to review “all the prospective cohort studies that have analyzed the relation between adherence to a Mediterranean diet, mortality, and incidence of chronic diseases in a primary prevention setting.” Basically the study is there to show the benefits of what happens when you stick to a diet such as the ‘Mediterranean Diet’ in regards to the many chronic disease that many individuals continue to suffer with. The analysis focused on research that was done in this field from 1966 to June of 2008.

This included 12 studies on a total of “1,574,299 subjects followed for a time ranging from three to 18 years.” The researchers concluded that the Mediterranean diet reduces the risk of developing Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease and lowers the chances of suffering and dying from a cardiovascular disease or cancer. Overall, by sticking to a Mediterranean diet you are significantly ‘improving your health status.’ Life is about being healthy, happy and doing well for yourself and others. Why not take better care of yourself and start making others aware of the importance of a greater and healthier life.

Reference: (1) Sofi F, Cesari F, Abbate R et al. Adherence to Mediterranean diet and health status: meta-analysis. BMJ 2008; 337: a1344. DOI: 10.1136/bmj.a1344