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Tuesday, April 7, 2015

The Mediterranean Diet Reduces Mortality From All Causes

The Mediterranean Diet Reduces Mortality From All Causes


by: Barbara L. Minton

Scientists are finding that those who choose to eat according to the principles of the Mediterranean diet have a lowered rate of death from all causes. Research has shown that the Mediterranean diet has a beneficial effect against cardiovascular disease and is a preventative against a second heart attack. Now we are seeing that this diet extends longevity by reducing deaths from all diseases including cancer.

The NIH-AARP Diet and Health Study

Researchers reported in the December 10, 2007 Archives of Internal Medicine a prospective study to investigate the Mediterranean dietary pattern in relation to mortality, confirming suggestions that the diet plays a beneficial role for health and longevity.

The study participants included 214,284 men and 166,012 women in the National Institutes of Health-AARP Diet and Health Study. During follow up for all-cause mortality from 1995 to 2005, 27,799 deaths were documented. In the first 5 years of follow up 5,985 cancer deaths and 3,451 cardiovascular disease deaths were reported. The researchers used a nine point score to assess conformity with the Mediterranean diet pattern with components including vegetables, legumes, fruits, nuts, whole grains, fish, monounsaturated fat-saturated fat ratio, alcohol, and meat. They calculated hazard ratios and 95% confidence intervals using age and multivariate adjusted Cox models.

Results indicated that the Mediterranean diet was associated with reduced all-cause and cause-specific mortality. In men, the multivariate hazard ratios comparing high to low conformity for all-causes, CVD, and cancer mortality were 0.79, 0.78, and 0.83. In women, an inverse association was seen with high conformity within this pattern: decreased risks that ranged from 12% for cancer mortality to 20% for all-cause mortality.

Results from this study provide strong evidence of a beneficial effect from higher conformity with the Mediterranean dietary pattern on risk of death from all causes, including deaths due to cardiovascular disease and cancer in the a U.S. population. Read more

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