- A Mediterranean diet is not just a good idea for people living near the Mediterranean Sea, says a new study.
- The study documents the health benefits of the Mediterranean diet, analyzing data from participants living in the United Kingdom.
- Besides following a Mediterranean diet, a ‘Mediterranean’ attitude toward food and eating was even more important.
Numerous studies of people living in the Mediterranean area have demonstrated the health benefits of the Mediterranean diet — a largely plant-based diet, in which animal proteins play a smaller role than in Western diets.
A new study looks at the value of the Mediterranean diet — and the Mediterranean lifestyle — for people living elsewhere, in this case, the United Kingdom.
The study finds that higher adherence to the Mediterranean diet and lifestyle is associated with a 29% lower risk of all-cause mortality and a 28% lower risk of cancer compared to people who least follow the diet and lifestyle.
Using the questionnaire-based MEDLIFE index, the authors of the study analyzed the diet, habits, and health of 110,799 participants in the UK Biobank cohort.
The participants lived in England, Wales, and Scotland. Individuals were between 40 and 75 years old at the start of their involvement with the study — between 2009 and 2012 — and free of cardiovascular disease and cancer. They were followed until 2021.
The researchers measured people’s adherence to a Mediterranean lifestyle according to three “blocks”:
- consumption of foods typical of a Mediterranean diet
- following Mediterranean eating habits
- having adequate physical activity, rest, social contact, and conviviality associated with Mediterranean cultures.
All three of the above, individually, resulted in a reduction of mortality risk. The strongest reduction of cancer and all-cause mortality was associated with block three.
The study is published in Mayo Clinic Proceedings.
The block the study found brought the greatest health benefit was block three. This…
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