Mediterranean diet beats even physical exercise in averting heart attack
Mediterranean food is ideal for health. It keeps you away from ageing, gives you longer and healthy life and keeps your heart healthy too.
Now there is a lot more to love this diet. A latest study claims that people who eat Mediterranean diet are saved from heart and cardiovascular diseases. Researchers claim that people who regularly follow Mediterranean diet are around 47 percent less likely to develop heart disease over a 10-year period.
And the best thing about the Mediterranean diet is the fact that it was far more protective than even physical activity.
It is needless to say that researchers are super excited about the findings of the study. Ekavi Georgousopoulou, a PhD candidate at Harokopio University in Athens, Greece says, â€œOur study shows that the Mediterranean diet is a beneficial intervention for all types of people — in both genders, in all age groups, and in both healthy people and those with health conditionsâ€.
While detailing the findings of the report Georgousopoulou further says, â€œIt also reveals that the Mediterranean diet has direct benefits for heart health, in addition to its indirectbenefits in managing diabetes, hypertension and inflammationâ€. The study is based on data from a representative sample of more than 2,500 Greek adults, ages 18 to 89, who provided researchers with their health information each year from 2001 to 2012. Participants also completed in-depth surveys about their medical records, lifestyle and dietary habits at the start of the study, after five years and after 10 years. Overall, nearly 20% of the men and 12% of the women who participated in the study developed or died from heart disease, a suite of conditions that includes stroke, coronary heart disease caused by the buildup of plaque in the heart’s arteries, acute coronary syndromes such as heart attack, and other diseases.
Researchers also analyzed different foods. The researchers scored participants’ diets on a scale from 1 to 55 based on their self-reported frequency and level of intake for 11 food groups. Those who scored in the top-third in terms of adherence to the Mediterranean diet, indicating they closely followed the diet, were 47% less likely to develop heart disease over the 10-year follow-up period as compared to participants who scored in the bottom-third, indicating they did not closely follow the diet. Each one-point increase in the dietary score was associated with a 3% drop in heart disease risk, researchers said. The study will be presented at the American College of Cardiology’s 64th Annual Scientific Session in San Diego, March 14 to March 16.