2023-08-18 18:28:31
A healthy diet rich in fruit, vegetables and whole grains, constant physical activity but also rest and above all conviviality with friends. They are the main ingredients of a ‘Mediterranean style’, the health benefits of which have been studied in the round – until now, research was almost all focused on nutrition – in a non-Mediterranean context, the United Kingdom. Result: adopting this lifestyle reduces the lower risk of all-cause mortality by 29% and mortality from cancer by 28%. The research, which analyzed the habits of 110,799 people in England, Wales and Scotland, was conducted by the Universidad Autónoma of Madrid and the Harvard School of Public Health, and published in the journal ‘Mayo Clinic Proceedings’.
The benefits – emerges from the study – were found in people who adhered to a Mediterranean lifestyle or a diet rich in fruit, vegetables and whole grains; healthy eating habits such as limiting salt and added sugars; healthy rest, including regular naps; physical activity and socializing with friends. “This study suggests that it is possible for non-Mediterranean populations to adopt their diet, using locally available products and adopt their lifestyle within their own cultural contexts,” said lead author Mercedes Sotos Prieto, Ramon y Cajal researcher at The Universidad Autónoma de Madrid and adjunct assistant professor of environmental health at the Harvard Chan School. “We are now faced with the ‘transferability’ of lifestyle and its positive effects on health”.
Study participants, aged between 40 and 75, from the UK Biobank cohort, provided information on their lifestyle according to the three categories measured by the index: ‘Mediterranean food consumption’ (intake of foods are part of the Mediterranean diet such as fruit and whole grains); ‘Mediterranean eating habits’ (adherence to mealtime habits and practices, including salt restriction and consumption of healthy beverages); and ‘physical activity, rest, social habits and conviviality’ (adherence to lifestyle habits including taking regular naps, exercising and spending time with friends). Each item within the three categories was then scored, with higher total scores indicating greater adherence to the Mediterranean lifestyle.
The researchers looked at the participants’ health outcomes nine years later. Among the study population, 4,247 died of all causes; 2,401 from cancer; and 731 from cardiovascular disease. Analyzing the data, an inverse association emerged between adherence to the Mediterranean lifestyle and the risk of mortality.
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