in the British Journal of Nutrition, higher nut consumption is associated with a decreased risk of coronary artery disease and mortality.
Nuts are also high in magnesium, a nutrient many people are lacking in the typical American diet. Mild magnesium deficiency is difficult to diagnose but may be more common than you think. Symptoms include insomnia, muscle cramps, headaches, and nausea.
Drinking more red wine, like many people on the Mediterranean coast do, may be one reason you’re excited about switching to a Mediterranean diet. Red wine has certain properties that research has shown are beneficial for heart health. If you drink alcohol in moderation, add a little red wine in place of other alcoholic beverages. (If you’re not a fan of red wine, drinking grape juice made from Concord grapes and eating purple grapes also provide similar heart-health benefits.)
The cardio protection red wine provides is attributed to the antioxidants from flavonoids found in the skin of the grapes. The flavonoids reduce your risk of heart disease by lowering bad cholesterol, increasing good cholesterol, and reducing blood clotting. A specific flavonoid called reservatol may have additional benefits, including inhibiting tumor development in certain cancers, but that research is still in early stages.
Sulfites are used as preservatives in many food products and also occur naturally in foods. Many people have sensitivities and allergies to sulfites, causing asthma-like symptoms, hives, and swelling. The headache that commonly results from drinking wine may be due to sulfite sensitivity, but it’s more likely a question of overindulgence, dehydration, or lack of food in your stomach while drinking. If your headaches aren’t consistent when you drink wine, you can’t blame the sulfites (sorry). The best way to determine whether you have an allergy is to get yourself tested by an allergist, especially if you already suffer from asthma.
Sadly, you won’t have much luck finding a sulfite-free wine; grape skins themselves are high in sulfites, and more are added in winemaking to give your wine a long shelf life. Without added sulfites, you get vinegar in a few months. Despite popular belief, European wines don’t have fewer sulfites; in some cases, they have more!
The Mediterranean diet is most noticed in the scientific community for its effect on heart health. Heart disease is the number one cause of death in the United States, even though a few lifestyle changes make it easily preventable. Genetics still play a strong role, of course, but making small changes to your diet and exercising make a big difference.
The first research focused on the Mediterranean diet started with a scientist named Ancel Keys and the Seven Countries Study. This study found that southern Europe had far fewer coronary deaths than northern Europe and the United States did, even when factoring in age, smoking, blood pressure, and physical activity. These results made researchers look more closely at the differences in dietary habits. This study is still important today because more people in the Mediterranean regions studied no longer eat in their traditional way, and those regions show higher occurrences of heart disease.
Recent research continues to show a correlation between a traditional Mediterranean diet and lower incidence of heart disease. According to a 2011 review of several studies covering 535,000 people that was published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, a traditional Mediterranean diet is associated with lower blood pressure, blood sugar, and triglyceride levels.
Another study published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2013 observed more than 7,400 individuals who were already at high risk of heart disease. The participants were assigned a Mediterranean diet with olive oil, a Mediterranean diet supplemented with nuts, or a traditional Westernized lowfat diet. After following the participants for five years, the study found the folks following either Mediterranean style diet had a 30 percent reduction in cardiac events. This study highlights that a lowfat diet isn’t necessarily the answer for reducing cardiac events; the type of fats eaten, primarily nuts and olive oil, are more important.
Many more studies have shown the heart health protection of a diet high in fruits, vegetables, legumes, wine, and seafood, which support the idea that the Mediterranean diet is a healthy lifestyle. We’re sure you’ll continue to see more and more research on this topic in the future.
Another area research on the Mediterranean diet has focused on is the diet’s effects on preventing and managing cancer. Specific staples of the diet have been shown to provide cancer-preventing and cancer-fighting benefits:
❯❯ Plant foods: A diet high in plant foods such as fruits, vegetables, legumes, and nuts may provide cancer protection. The high amounts of phytochemicals in these foods provide unique properties that can help inhibit or slow tumor growth or simply protect your cells. Head to the earlier section “Understanding phytochemicals” for details on these powerhouses.
❯❯ Meat: Beginning in 1976, researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health followed 88,000 healthy women and found that the risk of colon cancer was 2.5 times higher in women who ate beef, pork, or lamb daily compared with those who ate those meats once a month or less. They also found that the risk of getting colon cancer was directly correlated to the amount of meat eaten. Additionally, a 2011 report illustrated a link between eating red meat or processed meats and a greatly increased risk of bowel cancer. Its recommendation to consume less than 500 grams (roughly 1 pound of cooked red meats) per week actually aligns with the consumption across the Mediterranean.
❯❯ Olive oil: A study of 26,000 Greek people published in the British Journal of Cancer showed that using more olive oil cut cancer risk by 9 percent.
In addition to these ingredient-specific studies, the diet as a whole has some promising research. A 2008 study review published in the British Medical Journal showed that following a traditional Mediterranean diet reduced the risk of dying from cancer by 9 percent. That same year, the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition published a study that showed that among post menopausal women, those who followed a traditional Mediterranean diet were 22 percent less likely to develop breast cancer. The EPIC study has also published papers on the association between the Mediterranean diet and cancer risk. (Head to the nearby sidebar “Taking in the evidence with the EPIC cohort study” for more on the EPIC study.) A 2011 study published in the British Journal of Nutrition found that those who adhered more closely to a Mediterranean diet had a decreased rate of cancer. Although more research is needed in this area, you can enjoy a Mediterranean diet and know that you’re helping increase your odds against cancer.
