More reasons to eat a Mediterranean diet
The Mediterranean diet (Medi Diet) is broadly recognized as a very healthy way to eat. The emphasis on plants, fish, the healthy fat olive oil and a little wine, while lower in animal proteins, is linked to low rates of cardiovascular disease and cancer, and better brain health.
↓ Pain
A new study looked at whether the Medi Diet could help reduce chronic pain. It seems that it can. The benefits were attributed to the diet’s anti-inflammatory properties found in staples like fish, nuts and beans. While the study focused on chronic pain caused by obesity, the diet showed pain-reducing benefits regardless of body-weight.
↓ Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s Symptoms
Another study offered more insights into the Medi Diet’s brain benefits. Researchers at the University of Malta (which is my heritage by the way — go Malta!) found that two common Mediterranean plants — prickly pear and brown seaweed — can reduce Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s symptoms. Remember my post from a few days ago on brain development and seaweeds? Molecules in these plants help keep sticky protein aggregates from binding to your neurons. While it’s only been tested on fruit flies so far, it could pave the way to desperately needed new treatments for these increasingly prevalent age-related diseases in the future (but you don’t have to wait for that info in order to eat a traditional Mediterranean diet today).
↓ heart disease, ↓ cancer, ↓ risk of dying prematurely
Finally, a new study from the Imperial College of London makes the case for a plant-rich Medi Diet even stronger. In fact, if you’re trying to meet the FDA recommended 5-servings of fruits and vegetables a day, you might want to double your effort. Based on a meta-analysis of 95 studies, the researchers found that consuming 10 servings of fruits and vegetables offers even more benefits: 24% reduced risk of heart disease, 33% reduced risk of cancer and 31% reduction in dying prematurely.
It’s practically impossible to unequivocally say which diet is best, but it’s not hard to say which diets are good, and all evidence points to the Medi Diet being great. Stay tuned for more on this subject when we release our course on the this subject (after we release humanOS.me) — it’s mind boggling how good this diet is for the human body. To be notified of the launch of this course, sign up for our updates via our blog (blog.dansplan.com).
