Rapid Fat Loss Diets

Friday, March 6, 2009

Foods That Equate to Health

By Dr. Lorna Mistranski

Research has shown that a traditional Mediterranean diet provides assistance in protecting the body from type 2 diabetes.

A Mediterranean diet is abundant in olive oil, grains, fruits, nuts, vegetables, and fish, but low in meats, dairies, and alcohol.

The current studies are showing that the body has a positive effect in regards to cardiovascular disease when a diet such as the one explained is implemented.

Researchers gathered 13,000 graduates from the University of Navarra in Spain with no history of diabetes and recruited between December 1999 and November 2007; each graduate had their dietary habits and health were subsequently tracked.

The subjects started the study off by answering a questionnaire that was designed to gauge their overall dietary habits. The 136 questions that were given to the participants, specific questions were asked on how they cooked their foods, what types of oils they used, and dietary products they used.

Researchers were able to gather information from the participant's lifestyle, risk factors, diet, and other medical conditions by administering a series of questionnaires every two years. From this data, scientist were able to pick up cases of the 13,000 that developed diabetes.

The researchers found that participants who stuck closely to the diet had a lower risk of diabetes. A high adherence to the diet was associated with an 83% relative reduction in the risk of developing diabetes.

An important thing to note is that participants who stuck strictly to the diet were thought to have the highest prevalence of risk factors for diabetes such as older age, a family history of diabetes, and a higher proportion of ex-smokers.

This assumption proved to be false; If fact, say the authors, they had a lower risk of diabetes, suggesting that the diet might provide substantial protection.

The characteristics of the diet include a high intake of fiber and vegetable fat, a low intake of trans fatty acids, and a moderate intake of alcohol.

In addition, a key element of the diet is the abundant use of virgin oil for cooking, frying, spreading on bread, and dressing salads.

The scientist finished by calling for larger cohorts and trials to confirm their findings. - 17273

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