The Mediterranean lifestyle is the envy of many inhabitants of other latitudes. A pleasant climate, sociable people and good food. This last point supports the famous Mediterranean diet. Far from being an empty slogan, various scientific studies carried out over the years confirm the health of our model.
The keys: plenty of plant-based foods , few saturated fats, whole grains, fish, nuts and, of course, our liquid gold, extra virgin olive oil. All this in fair amounts and without abusing. This simple recipe seems to hide many advantages for our body.
Now the benefits of the Mediterranean diet are being evaluated in another line of research, the one that seeks to relate the effect of the diet on mental health .
A team of scientists coordinated by Natalie Parletta , from the University of South Australia , has shown how a group of people suffering from depression improved their symptoms after applying healthy dietary changes in their lives, following a Mediterranean-style dietary pattern and supplementing it with olive oil. fish (rich in omega-3 fatty acids).
This is one of the first randomized controlled trials of its kind, involving 152 adults with depression, ages 18 to 65. The group of people who incorporated the diet reported a greater reduction in depressive symptoms compared to the control group (which made no change in their eating habits), as well as an improvement in quality of life scores after three months after your dietary change.
One of the explanatory possibilities, currently under investigation, that scientists are considering, is that the relationship is linked to the effect of diet on the intestinal microbiota (the set of living microorganisms that we have housed in the intestines), whose alteration can cause different diseases, as well as changes in the immune system and, according to emerging evidence, in the modulation of interactions between microbes that live in symbiosis within us, the gut and the brain (in English, brain-gut-microbiome, BGM ) .
As always in science, caution is necessary before drawing conclusions. The fact that patients have shown improvement after applying the diet does not necessarily mean that the Mediterranean diet is an antidepressant. That point cannot be confirmed or disproved at this time, so it is early to know how diet influences the symptoms of mental illness patients, or if it can help prevent psychiatric disorders. However, the field of study that opens up is very promising.
The science behind the diet
The concept of the Mediterranean diet has its origin in the journalistic dissemination of the studies carried out by the famous American physiologist Ancel Keys from the 1950s.
Keys, considered one of the founding fathers of physiological hygiene , dedicated himself to studying the epidemiology of the incidence of cardiovascular diseases and its relationship with the consumption of saturated fats and cholesterol levels.
He analyzed the nutritional models of the Mediterranean countries, comparing them with the eating habits of other regions of the world, and found that the countries where they consumed more healthy fats, as well as a good amount of vegetables, legumes and fruits, had a lower incidence of cardiovascular diseases .
Subsequent research has not only confirmed the protective benefits of these diets against coronary heart disease, but has also discovered that they are rich in antioxidants , helping to counteract the cellular aging process and reduce the chances of suffering from certain types of cancer.
The Mediterranean diet also wins over mere low-fat diets, since it is not so much about eliminating fat intake, something impossible since it is necessary to live, as it is about consuming the right fat and in its ideal proportions.
The trick lies mainly in the properties of the monounsaturated fats contained in olive oil and the polyunsaturated essential fatty acids (omega-6 and omega-3).
Diet influences us far beyond what we’ll look like on the beach this summer. Metabolic imbalances, life expectancy, being overweight, a long list of diseases that we could suffer in the future and even the expression of certain genes related to strokes are linked to diet .
But the Mediterranean diet is more than the foods that make it up, it is a lifestyle that is committed to eating calmly, without exceeding calories, varying the sources of nutrients and without abusing the tempting claim of the ultra-processed food industry and fast food hospitality. Physical exercise is also part of the plan.
We must pay attention to what we put in our mouths every day, because without realizing it we are doing preventive medicine with our routines. Prevention is much more profitable, for us and for society, than cure.
The dietary guidelines for aging in the best possible health, following the Mediterranean diet, are familiar to us: prepare dishes with the greatest amount of fresh ingredients, with little salt and little sugar, lots of fruit, legumes, vegetables and oily fish. Nothing new, what we have been doing for so long. It is up to us to maintain good customs .
References:
Martínez-González, M. A. et al. 2019. The Mediterranean diet and cardiovascular health: A critical review. Circulation research, 124(5), 779-798.
Mentella, M. C. et al. 2019. Cancer and Mediterranean diet: a review. Nutrients, 11(9), 2059.
Nordmann, A. J. et al. 2011. Meta-analysis comparing Mediterranean to low-fat diets for modification of cardiovascular risk factors. The American journal of medicine, 124(9), 841-851.
Parletta, N. et al. 2018. A Mediterranean-style dietary intervention supplemented with fish oil improves diet quality and mental health in people with depression: A randomised controlled trial (HELFIMED). Journal of the Australasian College of Nutritional and Environmental Medicine, 37(1), 6-18.
Urquiaga, I. et al. 2017. Origin, components and possible mechanisms of action of the Mediterranean diet. Medical Journal of Chile , 145(1), 85-95.
