The Mediterranean diet is one of the dietary patterns most praised by experts after having demonstrated its multiple benefits in various scientific studies. In addition, it seems that its benefits transcend borders, since new research has revealed that people who follow a Mediterranean lifestyle -which includes this type of diet and other healthy habits, such as physical exercise, a good rest and maintaining social relationships – have less risk of dying from cancer, cardiovascular disease and any cause.
The new study has been led by the Autonomous University of Madrid and the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health and has focused on analyzing the benefits of the Mediterranean diet and lifestyle in a non-Mediterranean context, specifically, in the United Kingdom. . Their results have been published in Mayo Clinic Proceedings.
“This study suggests that it is possible that non-Mediterranean populations adopt the Mediterranean diet using locally available products and adopt the Mediterranean lifestyle in general within their own cultural contexts,” explained lead author Mercedes Sotos Prieto, Ramón y researcher. Cajal at the Autonomous University of Madrid and Adjunct Professor of Environmental Health at the TH Chan School of Harvard. “We are seeing the transferability of the lifestyle and its positive effects on health.”
Lifestyle habits that can reduce the risk of death by up to 29%
The Mediterranean diet is rich in fruits, vegetables, and whole grains, and limits foods with added salts and sugars, and the Mediterranean lifestyle includes healthy habits that promote good sleep, staying physically active, and socializing, that is, sharing time and activities leisure with friends and family.
The category that measured physical activity, rest, and social and coexistence habits was also associated with a lower risk of mortality from cardiovascular diseases.
Researchers studied the lifestyle habits of 110,799 members of the UK Biobank cohort, a population-based study of England, Wales and Scotland using the Mediterranean Lifestyle Index (MedLife), a score derived from a lifestyle questionnaire. of life and diet evaluations.
Participants were between the ages of 40 and 75 and provided information about their lifestyle according to the three categories that this index measures:
- Consumption of Mediterranean foods (intake of foods that are part of the Mediterranean diet, such as fruits and whole grains).
- Mediterranean dietary habits (compliance with habits and practices around meals, including salt limitation and the consumption of healthy beverages).
- Physical activity, rest, and social and coexistence habits (adherence to lifestyle habits that include regular naps, exercise, and spending time with friends).
Higher scores indicated greater adherence to the Mediterranean lifestyle, and after nine years the researchers examined the results and found that 4,247 people had died from all causes among the study population, 2,401 from cancer and 731 from cardiovascular disease. .
When analyzing these deaths and the MedLife scores, they observed an inverse association between adherence to the Mediterranean lifestyle and the risk of mortality: participants with the highest MedLife score had a 29% lower risk of all-cause mortality and a 28% lower risk of mortality. lower risk of cancer mortality compared with those with the lowest MedLife scores.
Adherence to each of the three MedLife categories was independently associated with a lower risk of cancer and all-cause mortality, but, in addition, the category that measured physical activity, rest, and social and coexistence habits was It was also associated with a lower risk of mortality from cardiovascular diseases.
