A Mediterranean diet rich in extra-virgin olive oil and nuts could help reduce conditions such as metabolic syndrome.
Metabolic syndrome is characterized by factors such as a large waist circumference, high blood pressure, high blood sugar, and high cholesterol; the condition affects about 25 percent of adults across the globe and significantly increases the risk of diabetes, heart disease and death, the Canadian Medical Association Journal reported.
To make their findings researchers looked at 5,801 men women between the ages of 55 and 80 who had a high risk of heart disease. About 64 percent of the participants already had metabolic syndrome at the start of the study. The participants were randomly assigned to either the Mediterranean diet supplemented with extra-virgin olive oil, the Mediterranean diet supplemented with nuts, or a low-fat diet as the control.
After a follow up period of about 4.8 years the researchers observed people in the Mediterranean diet groups decreased their obesity and blood glucose levels, and 28.2 percent of these participants effectively reversed their metabolic syndrome.
"In this large, [multicenter] randomized clinical trial involving people with high cardiovascular risk, a Mediterranean diet supplemented with extra-virgin olive oil was associated with a smaller increase in the prevalence of metabolic syndrome compared with advice on following a low-fat diet," wrote Dr. Jordi Salas-Salvadó, Human Nutrition Unit, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Universitat Rovira i Virgili and Hospital Universitari de Sant Joan de Reus, IISPV, Reus, Spain, with coauthors.
The Mediterranean diet did not appear to have an effect on the number of new cases of metabolic syndrome.
"Mediterranean diets supplemented with olive oil or nuts were not associated with a reduced incidence of metabolic syndrome compared with a low-fat diet; however, both diets were associated with a significant rate of reversion of metabolic syndrome," the authors concluded.
The findings were published in a recent edition of the Canadian Medical Association Journal.
