Is Mediterranean diet healthy? In this era where people are searching different – different ways to loose weight, you must have heard the term ‘Mediterranean diet’ . What is this?
In Mediterranean diet we eat traditional food of countries such as France ,Spain ,Greece ,Italy etc. Countries that are bordering the Mediterranean sea. This is one of the reason that this diet is known as Mediterranean diet.
It is found that people who are following Mediterranean diet are much healthier and have low risk from chronic condition.
In this diet it is preferred to eat fruits vegetables whole grains legumes nuts seeds and heart healthy fats. Same like any other diet, you have to avoid process food added sugar and refined grains in this diet as well. There is no strict restriction or abstinence for following this Mediterranean diet. Mediterranean diet is helpful in many ways. It will encourage weight loss, prevent heart attack, helpful in treating stroke type 2 diabetes and premature death as well.
Health benefits
Heart health:
One of many benefits of Mediterranean diet is it promotes heart health.
Some researches also shows that Mediterranean diet lower the risk of heart attack, heart disease and stroke.
Once in an experiment which was done between a Mediterranean diet and a low fat diet, it is found that Mediterranean diet was working better to slow down the progression of plaque which was building in arteries. By slowing down plaque progression, it shows that it is very helpful for heart .
Some researches also shows that Mediterranean diet is proven to be beneficial in lowering the diastolic and systolic blood pressure which is very beneficial for your heart health.
Blood sugar level:
As we know that this Mediterranean diet includes a lot of nutritious foods such as fruits vegetables nuts seeds whole grains and heart healthy fat.
If we implement this diet by taking all these nutritious foods in our diet it will not only help in stabilizing blood sugar level but also prevent us from type 2 diabetes. Many studies have found that Mediterranean diet can reduce fasting blood sugar levels with improving hemoglobin A1C level which is a marker that is used to measure a long term sugar control.
After all these benefits Mediterranean diet has also the capability to decrease insulin resistance by which body will not be able to use it to regulate bodies blood sugar level effectively.
Brain health:
According too many studies Mediterranean diet is also helpful in treating many brain disease and maintaining our brain health. It is found that this that is even helpful in cognitive decline as you get older.
One research was done in which it was found that 512 people who were using Mediterranean diet in there daily life were having an improved memory that is they can remember things for longer time and reduction in several Alzheimer’s disease was also found.
Many other studies have found that by using Mediterranean diet we will be at a lower risk of dementia cognitive impairment and Alzheimer’s disease.
Cognitive function, memory, attention and processing speed was founded to be increased after using Mediterranean diet in daily basis, this was shown by one of the largest review for people following the Mediterranean diet. It is beneficial for specially healthy older adults.
Conclusion–
So coming back to our question, “is Mediterranean diet healthy?”
Recently US News and World report compared between all the best diets for 2023. Among which the Mediterranean diet was at the top of the scale and from then it was proven as the best diet over the whole year that is annually. It was its 6th consecutive year to top the best diet rankings.
So the answer is YES, according to several great researches with all of them supporting the use of Mediterranean diet and titling it as a healthy eating pattern.
Mediterranean diet is said to prevent cardiovascular disease , premature death beneficial in increasing lifespan and aging healthy. If this diet is used in conjunction that is with restriction for the calories this diet is also proven to support weight loss healthy.