`Mediterranean Diet Adherence May Reduce Digestive Disorders - Olive Oil Times
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enEnglishfrFrançaiselελληνικάdeDeutscheitItalianozh-CN中文ptPortuguêsesEspañoltrTürkçehrHrvatskija日本語hiहिंदी

Mediterranean Diet Adherence May Reduce Digestive Disorders

By Daniel Dawson
Oct. 20, 2025 14:07 UTC
Summary Summary

A study pub­lished in Gastroenterology found that fol­low­ing a Mediterranean or plant-based diet was linked to a lower risk of chronic con­sti­pa­tion, with par­tic­i­pants who adhered closely to these diets hav­ing a reduced risk. The research, con­ducted by Mass General Brigham hos­pi­tal, ana­lyzed data from over 96,000 adults and found that those who fol­lowed a Western diet had an increased risk of chronic con­sti­pa­tion, while those on a low-car­bo­hy­drate diet had a slightly higher risk.

Following a Mediterranean diet or plant-based diet was asso­ci­ated with a lower inci­dence of one of the most com­mon gas­troin­testi­nal tract dis­or­ders in the United States and Western coun­tries, new research indi­cates. 

In the study, pub­lished in Gastroenterology, researchers from Mass General Brigham hos­pi­tal com­pared five stan­dard diets for their effec­tive­ness in pre­vent­ing chronic con­sti­pa­tion, which affects an esti­mated nine to 20 per­cent of the U.S. pop­u­la­tion and is defined as those who expe­ri­ence symp­toms of the con­di­tion 12 weeks per year.

The researchers exam­ined data for more than 96,000 adults from Nurses’ Health Study, Nurses’ Health Study II and the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study to inves­ti­gate how eat­ing habits impact the risk of devel­op­ing the chronic gas­troin­testi­nal con­di­tion. 

See Also:Health News

The research team iden­ti­fied 7,519 instances of chronic con­sti­pa­tion cases across the three cohorts based on self-reported symp­toms and com­pared the dietary pat­terns of study par­tic­i­pants using val­i­dated qua­dren­nial food fre­quency ques­tion­naires admin­is­tered every four years over a 25- to 30-year period.

The researchers found that par­tic­i­pants who closely adhered to the Mediterranean diet were asso­ci­ated with a 16 per­cent reduced risk of chronic con­sti­pa­tion, while those who fol­lowed a plant-based diet were linked with a 20 per­cent risk reduc­tion.

Conversely, par­tic­i­pants who fol­lowed the Western diet were asso­ci­ated with a 22 per­cent increased risk for chronic con­sti­pa­tion. Adults who closely adhered to a low-car­bo­hy­drate diet were linked with a three per­cent higher risk.

“Our find­ings sug­gest a diet rich in veg­eta­bles, nuts and healthy fats may help pre­vent chronic con­sti­pa­tion in mid­dle- and older-age adults,” con­firmed Kyle Staller, the senior author and a doc­tor in Massachusetts General Hospital’s gas­troen­terol­ogy divi­sion.

While pre­vi­ous research has demon­strated that fol­low­ing healthy diets can improve con­sti­pa­tion symp­toms, Mass General Brigham said this was the first study show­ing that spe­cific diets can pre­vent the con­di­tion.

Staller added that one of the main take­aways was that the ben­e­fit of the Mediterranean and plant-based diets on chronic con­sti­pa­tion was inde­pen­dent of fiber intake, sug­gest­ing other nutri­ents play a promi­nent role in alle­vi­at­ing the con­di­tion.

Based on other data obtained from the cohorts, the researchers fur­ther said the asso­ci­a­tions were inde­pen­dent of ultra-processed food con­sump­tion and there was very lit­tle dif­fer­ence in the results based on sociode­mo­graphic, behav­ioral and health risk fac­tors.

See Also:MedDiet Adherence May Protect Against Gum Disease

The lat­est find­ings from Mass General Brigham come months after a sci­en­tific review paper pub­lished in the jour­nal Foods inves­ti­gated the role of olive oil on gut health.

The researchers sug­gested that the polyphe­nols, sec­oiri­doids and triter­penes found in extra vir­gin olive oil play a more sig­nif­i­cant role than pre­vi­ously thought in main­tain­ing a healthy micro­biota. 

More specif­i­cally, the review con­firmed that extra vir­gin olive oil’s bioac­tive com­pounds boosted ben­e­fi­cial bac­te­ria pop­u­la­tions, espe­cially Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium.

Previous research reported that patients suf­fer­ing from chronic con­sti­pa­tion had lower pop­u­la­tions of both bac­te­ria com­pared to patients in a con­trol group.

Another study pub­lished in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition in 2024 inves­ti­gated the role of exer­cise and fol­low­ing the Mediterranean diet on gut health in older adults.

The researchers iden­ti­fied a cor­re­la­tion between higher adher­ence to the Mediterranean diet and pop­u­la­tions of gut bac­te­ria and metabo­lites attrib­uted to increased anti-inflam­ma­tory responses.

Previous research has found that chronic con­sti­pa­tion is accom­pa­nied by inflam­ma­tion in the intesti­nal bar­rier.

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