mediterranean diet: a fix for metabolic syndrome?

by Diane Lofshult

Food for Thought:

Many recent studies have examined the health benefits of following the classic Mediterranean diet, which encourages people to eat lots of healthy fruits and vegetables and limit their intake of fatty meats and simple carbohydrates. Now, a new study suggests that this age-old diet may be helpful to people with metabolic syndrome, a constellation of signs and symptoms linked to cardiovascular disease (CVD).

The researchers compared a total of 1,224 participants who were part of an ongoing randomized, clinical trial whose goal is to determine whether the Mediterranean diet is effective in preventing heart disease. Participants were older adults at high risk for developing CVD. They were divided into three groups: one group followed a traditional Mediterranean diet that included virgin olive oil; a second followed a Mediterranean diet augmented with nuts (30 grams [g] per day); and the control group followed a traditional low-fat diet. There was no change in physical activity levels in any of the groups.

At the end of the yearlong trial, the group that ate the combined Mediterranean diet with nuts had the lowest prevalence of metabolic syndrome (13.7%), whereas those who followed the Mediterranean diet plus virgin olive oil plan reduced their prevalence by 6.7%. Participants in the control group saw only a 2% decline in prevalence.

“A traditional Mediterranean diet enriched with nuts could be a useful tool in the management of metabolic syndrome,” the authors concluded in the December 8, 2008, issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine.