Posts Tagged ‘Mediterranean diet’
Mediterranean Diet Lowers Seniors Cholesterol
Image by grobery via Flickr
The popular health news reports are typically full of suggestions that are designed to lower your cholesterol. Usually they do not tell you about the form of cholesterol of LDL cholesterol that is more likely to cause the health problems that lead to heart attacks or strokes. The type of LDL cholesterol that is the deadly form is oxidized cholesterol. The oxidized cholesterol is the form that typically causes the process that leads to narrowing of the arteries that results in heart attacks or strokes later as the narrowing or clogging of the arteries increases. Seniors who are concerned about fostering their cardiovascular health want to take preemptive antiaging steps to protect their senior health. Here is the good news for seniors who have these concerns. The Mediterranean Diet provides a tasty, healthy path for seniors to preempt the development of the deadly oxidized cholesterol. The Mediterranean Diet does this through the foods that it provides. It stresses eating more vegetables, nuts, herbs, and fish. It uses virgin olive oil for cooking. It suggests eating more white meat instead of red meat or processed meat. For those who drink alcohol it recommends drinking moderate amounts of red wine. In a recent study that involved over 370 seniors, those who followed the Mediterranean Diet showed a significant decline in their levels of oxidized cholesterol compared with the seniors who just followed a low fat diet.
Which Diet Preempts Skin Cancer?
- Image by grobery via Flickr
According to archaeologists and anthropologists we humans started out in one of the sunniest regions of planet earth. Our ancestors bodies were bathed in sunshine and it was healthy for our ancestors. Fast forward to the 21st Century and we are bombarded with warnings against skin cancer caused by sunlight. These warnings are based on data obtained by studying the results for folks who spend a lot of time in the sun. We are told that we must stay out of the sun or put on high SPF sunscreen. It turns out that all these results were based on studies of folks that followed a typical “Western” diet. More telling is the fact that the folks in sunny Greece have the lowest rate of the worst skin cancer, namely melanoma. The folks in Greece follow the “Mediterranean” diet and have low rates of that deadly skin cancer.
By way of contrast the folks in Australia have one of the highest rates of melanoma in the world. Similarly when Greeks emigrate to Australia and adopt the typical “Western” diet, they show a higher rate of melanoma than those who remain in Greece eating a “Mediterranean” diet. The bottom line here is that our choice of diet and not our location that determines what keeps us healthy or makes us sick. The parts of the “Mediterranean” diet that appear to be the most helpful in preventing melanoma and all types of UV induced skin damage are as follows. The list includes fish and shellfish, tea, lots of citrus fruits and vegetables, especially the cruciferous vegetables and carrots and tomatoes. The cruciferous vegetables include broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, Brussels sprouts and kale. This is good news for seniors who are concerned about taking preemptive steps to protect their senior health.
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Try Mediterranean Diet for Longevity
- Image by leoniewise via Flickr
For seniors who are looking for a longevity diet the Mediterranean diet is a sure fire answer. It has been used to preempt aging in the Mediterranean world for centuries. Recent European studies have confirmed what the ancients already knew and practiced successfully. A US-based study has confirmed the proven life-extension benefits that were known in the ancient world and confirmed by the recent European studies. The US researchers were from a cancer institute, but they tracked the diets of over 375,000 men and women between the ages of 50 to 71. The researchers particularly tracked who would die from cancer and cardiovascular disease.
The folks who scored 66% or higher on a nine point system based on the elements of the Mediterranean diet had a much greater chance of living over ten years after the start of the study compared with those who scored below 44%. The elements in the Mediterranean diet included fruits, vegetables, whole grains, fish, legumes, nuts and seeds, fats such as olive and canola oil, small amounts of red meat and alcohol. The study did not measure any dairy products, but the Mediterranean diet usually includes small amounts of dairy products typically cheese and yogurt.
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Dynamic Combo Defeats Atherosclerosis
- Image via Wikipedia
The nutrition health literature is full of reports about the health benefits of drinking green tea. The polyphenols in green tea are known to contribute to cardiovascular health. Olive oil which is used in the Mediterranean diet is known to contribute to preventing cardiovascular disease. In a recent study olive oil and green tea polyphenols were used in lab tests to study the heart healthy effects of olive oil versus the effects of combining olive oil with green tea polyphenols. Earlier research had shown that consuming extra-virgin olive oil raised the level of the beneficial high-density lipoprotein (HDL) which benefits cardiovascular health by removing potentially harmful cholesterol from the bloodstream. Olive oil is known to produce a second heart healthy effect which is the reduction of lipid peroxidation.
In the study olive oil increased the removal of cholesterol by more than 40%. When the extra-virgin olive oil was combined with the green tea polyphenols the cholesterol removal was increased by more than 135% compared with a placebo. In terms of reducing atheriosclerosis, olive oil by itself reduced the size of the atherioschlerotic lesions by more than 10% and the dynamic combo of olive oil and green tea polyphenols achieved a 20% reduction.
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Olive Oil Completes the Mediterranean Diet
- Image via Wikipedia
The health benefits of the Mediterranean diet are well known and many folks have adopted the foods that are the basis for it. We know that it is loaded with fruits, vegetables, and omega-3 fatty acids that contribute to cardiovascular health. The Mediterranean diet is probably the ultimate diet necessary to benefit preemptive aging. What is not as well known is that the component that together with the other foods is the source of many of the Mediterranean diet’s health benefits. It turns out that particular compounds in olive oil, namely the olive oil polyphenols, contribute greatly to the diet’s health benefits.
The history of the Mediterranean diet stretches back thousands of years and its health benefits are well documented. This diet is rich in fresh vegetables and fruits, fish, wine, lean meat, whole grains and especially olive oil. The benefits have been documents over many years up to the present time. The health benefits include a reduction in the risk of cardiovascular disease, lower incidences of cancers, and neurological disorders. Recent research has verified that the polyphenols in olive oil, combined with the omega-3 from fish and resveratrol from red wine work synergistically to produce the health benefits of the Mediterranean diet.
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