Mediterranean diet AARP
<p>Dec 18, 2008 9:53 PM
 
Harvard Heart Sept 2008
 
A Mediterranean eating pattern was
first identified more than 50 years ago
as part of a study of health and habits
in seven countries—Greece, Finland,
Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, the United
States, and Yugoslavia. One of its
most intriguing findings was that
people living in Crete, other parts of
Greece, and southern Italy lived longer
and had the lowest rates of heart disease
in spite of a high-fat diet and limited
medical care.
Traditional diets—A Mediterranean eating pattern was
first identified more than 50 years ago
as part of a study of health and habits
in seven countries—Greece, Finland,
Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, the United
States, and Yugoslavia. One of its
most intriguing findings was that
people living in Crete, other parts of
Greece, and southern Italy lived longer
and had the lowest rates of heart disease
in spite of a high-fat diet and limited
medical care.
Traditional diets—plenty of plantbased
foods and unsaturated fats
<b>(mainly from olive oil)</b> and relatively
little red meat and sweets—undoubtedly
contributed to the relative dearth
of heart disease in the Mediterranean
region. But so did the high amounts
of physical activity, relative rarity of
smoking, and generally healthy weights.
Genes may have contributed, too.
 
Transplanting the diet without these
trimmings could have been a bust. But
it turns out that a Mediterranean eating
pattern benefits an Iowa accountant as
much as a Greek farmer in preventing
heart disease, treating it, and even for
losing weight.
More support
<b>Confirmation comes from a long-term
study of the 400,000 men and women
participating in the U.S. National Institutes
of Health–AARP Diet and
Health Study. Those whose eating patterns
most closely matched a Mediterranean
diet were about 20% less likely
to have died of heart disease, cancer, or
any cause over a five-year follow-up
period (Archives of Internal Medicine,
December 10/24, 2007).</b>
A Mediterranean-type diet seems to
be as good for treating heart disease as
it is for preventing it. In The Heart Institute
of Spokane Diet Intervention and
Evaluation Trial (THIS-DIET), heart
attack survivors following this type of
diet were less likely than their counterparts
on a more typical American diet
to have died or suffered a second heart
attack, a stroke, or an episode of unstable
angina over two years (American
Journal of Cardiology, June 1, 2008).
Are you trying to lose weight? A
Mediterranean diet trumps a low-fat
diet. Results of a two-year head-to-head
comparison showed that the Mediterranean
diet yielded greater weight loss
and was better at easing low-grade inflammation,
a process linked to heart
disease. Among the volunteers with diabetes,
the Mediterranean diet yielded
better fasting blood sugar and insulin
levels (New England Journal of Medicine,
July 17, 2008).
What’s Mediterranean?
There’s no such thing as the Mediterranean
diet. You may already be following
one and not know it (see “Mediterranean
quiz”). Here are the general
characteristics:
• Four or more servings of vegetables
a day. A serving is ½ cup of raw or
cooked vegetables, 1 cup of raw leafy
greens, or ½ cup of vegetable juice.
• Four or more servings of fruit a day.
A serving is ½ cup of fresh, frozen,
or canned fruit, ¼ cup of dried fruit,
one medium-sized piece of fruit, or
½ cup of fruit juice.
• Six or more servings of grain—mostly
whole grain—a day. A serving is
1 cup of dry breakfast cereal; ½ cup
of cooked cereal, rice, or pasta; or one
slice of bread.
• Two or more servings of fish a week.
A serving is 4 ounces.
• One serving of yogurt or cheese a day.
• One serving of beans or nuts a day. For
cooked beans, ½ cup is a serving; for
nuts it’s a handful (about 1½ ounces).
• If you enjoy alcohol, limit yourself to
one (for women) or two (for men)
drinks a day. One drink is 5 ounces of
wine, 12 ounces of beer, or 1½ ounces
 
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