Mediterranean Diet Lays Low Fat Low

The Mediterranean Diet works.

This research is from the Archives of Internal Medicine: A traditional Mediterranean diet that includes a healthy serving of nuts each day may help reverse a cluster of risk factors for heart disease.

Over 1,200 older adults who followed the diet had lower rates of metabolic syndrome — a clustering of risk factors for heart disease, diabetes and stroke, which includes high blood pressure, abdominal obesity, elevated blood sugar and unhealthy cholesterol levels.

This study also showed that the traditional Mediterranean diet was 7 times better at reducing metabolic syndrome than our theoretical approach (eating a “prudent” low fat diet), especially when you add in the consumption of nuts.

The findings suggest that the Mediterranean diet can help manage metabolic syndrome, even without weight loss or exercise, the researchers report in the Archives of Internal Medicine.