A life-extender from the Mediterranean
For years I've been talking about the benefits of a Mediterranean-style diet. It encompasses all of those healthy foods that are actually food, not some mucked- up mock up of the real thing.
A team of researchers, who previously had suggested that a Mediterranean diet could actually lower the risk of Alzheimer's, has now found that it can also help those already diagnosed with Alzheimer's to live longer.
Researchers tracked the dietary patterns of 192 people for 10 years who were in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease. All of the patients were over the age of 65, and went through physical and cognitive exams every 18 months in order to regularly assess their state of health.
The patients also completed food questionnaires, but were given no nutritional guidance that would influence their food choices in any particular way.
The study results showed that those who ate closest to a Mediterranean diet were 76 percent less likely to die during the study period (10 years) than those who followed a more Western-style diet. (They actually lived an average of four more years than their counterparts.)
Even partially following a Mediterranean diet translated into an average of 1.3 years of living longer.
The researchers want a clearer understanding of how this diet provides its beneficial effect, whether it's by altering other disease courses (such as heart disease) that patients may have along with Alzheimer's, or if the nutrients themselves provide the effect.
Regardless of the hows and the whys, the take-away is that it does provide many health-promoting benefits. The Mediterranean diet provides such enormous variety inspired by the regions bordering the Mediterranean Sea. You don't have to think just Italian food with this diet—get your atlas out and see that the Mediterranean region is actually over a dozen different countries. And there are just as many local versions built on a healthy selection of grains, fish, nuts, fruits and vegetables.
Some of my favorite healthful eating guides include Eat, Drink and Be Healthy by Walter Willett M.D. and Eat, Drink and Weigh Less by Mollie Katzen and Walter Willett M.D. Two more include Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon with Mary Enig, Ph.D. and Eat Fat, Lose Fat by the same two authors. The 3rd and 4th books go beyond the Mediterranean diet to cover healthy traditional diets, before the onset of industrial food processing. Nourishing Traditions is actually a recipe book with sidebars on each page providing extensive information supporting this way of eating. Try your local bookshop, or go to www.amazon.com.
