Monday, August 31, 2009

Easy to Digest Diets Prove Beneficial To the Body

By by Dr. Lorna Mistranski

There is substantial research that shows a Mediterranean diet provides protection against type 2 diabetes.

The composites of what make the Mediterranean diet so perfect against type 2 is it is robust in olive oil, grains, nuts vegetables, and fish yet it is low in meat, alcohol, and dairy products.

Studies hint that such a diet plays a major role in cardiovascular disease, however, there are not any current studies in how this diet effects the diabetic population.

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 average follow up period turned out to be 4 years and researchers found that the subjects who stuck closely to the diet had a lower risk of diabetes. The diet was associated with an 83% relative reduction in the risk of developing diabetes.

Interestingly, those participants who stuck strictly to the diet were expected to have the highest prevalence of risk factors for diabetes such as they got older with age, a family history of diabetes, and a higher proportion of ex-smokers.

This did not happen. In fact the participants had a lower risk of diabetes which suggested 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.

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