The Mediterranean diet is one of the most popular eating patterns. experts after demonstrating its many benefits in various scientific studies. Also, its benefits seem to go beyond the borders, as a new investigation found that Mediterranean people – which includes this type of diet and other healthy habits such as exercise, proper rest and maintaining social relationships – have lower risk of dying from cancer, cardiovascular disease, and any other cause.
A new study by the Autonomous University of Madrid and the Harvard School of Public Health. T. H. Chan, was focused on analyzing the benefits of the Mediterranean diet and lifestyle in non-Mediterranean contextin particular in the United Kingdom. Their results are published in Mayo Clinic materials.
“This study suggests that non-Mediterranean populations can adopt a Mediterranean diet using local products and embrace the Mediterranean lifestyle in general within their cultural context,” explained lead author Mercedes Sotos Prieto, Ramona’s researcher. University of Madrid and T. H. Chan Associate Professor of Environmental Health at Harvard School. “We are watching lifestyle tolerance and its positive impact on health.
Lifestyle habits that can reduce your risk of death by up to 29%
The Mediterranean diet is rich in fruits, vegetables, and whole grains and limits foods with added salt and sugar, while the Mediterranean lifestyle includes healthy habits that promote good sleep, physical activity, and socializing, that is, spending time together and doing things in your spare time. with friends and family.
The category, which measured physical activity, rest, social and coexistence habits, was also associated with a lower risk of death from cardiovascular disease.
The researchers studied the lifestyles of 110,799 members of the UK Biobank cohort, a population-based study of England, Wales and Scotland using Mediterranean Lifestyle Index (MedLife)score obtained from a questionnaire on lifestyle and diet assessments.
Participants were between the ages of 40 and 75 and provided information about their lifestyle according to the three categories that this index measures:
- Eating Mediterranean foods (eating foods that are part of the Mediterranean diet, such as fruits and whole grains).
- Mediterranean eating habits (observance of habits and practices during meals, including salt restriction and consumption of healthy drinks).
- Physical activity, rest, and social and coexistence habits (adherence to lifestyle habits that include regular sleep, exercise, and spending time with friends).
Higher scores indicated greater adherence to the Mediterranean lifestyle, and after nine years, the researchers examined the results and found that 4,247 people had died from all causes in the study population, 2,401 from cancer, and 731 from cardiovascular disease.
In analyzing these deaths and MedLife figures, they noticed inverse relationship between adherence to the Mediterranean lifestyle and the risk of mortality: Participants with the highest MedLife score had a 29% lower risk of all-cause mortality and a 28% lower risk of cancer death compared to participants with the lowest MedLife score.
Adherence to each of the three MedLife categories was independently associated with a lower risk of cancer and all-cause mortality, but in addition, a category that measured physical activity, rest, social, and coexistence habits was also associated with a lower risk of cardiovascular mortality. – vascular diseases.
