Mediterranean Diet Prolongs Life of Seniors

A study from Italy found the key to a longer life might lie in fol­low­ing the Mediterranean diet (MedDiet). Senior par­tic­i­pants whose eat­ing plan most closely adhered to the diet had a 25 per­cent less like­li­hood of death from any cause com­pared to those who adhered to the diet a lit­tle or not at all.

In the research con­ducted by the Department of Epidemiology and Prevention of the IRCCS Neuromed in Molise, Italy, sci­en­tists explored the link between the MedDiet and mor­tal­ity rates. They exam­ined data on 5,000 peo­ple over the age of 65 who were par­tic­i­pants in the Moli-sani Study and fol­lowed them up to eight years. In addi­tion, they reviewed epi­demi­o­log­i­cal stud­ies from sev­eral coun­tries, which brought the total of sub­jects in the research to 12,000.

Analysis of the results clearly showed that the MedDiet sig­nif­i­cantly reduces the risk of death in the elderly. According to the researchers, the link between the eat­ing plan and mor­tal­ity was depen­dent on the degree of adher­ence. The more closely the par­tic­i­pants fol­lowed the diet, the greater the mor­tal­ity reduc­tion they expe­ri­enced.

“The nov­elty of our research is to have focused our atten­tion on a pop­u­la­tion over 65 years old,” said first author Marialaura Bonaccio in a press release. ​“We already knew that the Mediterranean diet is able to reduce the risk of mor­tal­ity in the gen­eral pop­u­la­tion, but we did not know whether it would be the same specif­i­cally for elderly peo­ple.

“Now data from Moli-sani Study clearly show that a tra­di­tional Mediterranean-like diet, (rich in fruit, veg­eta­bles, fish, pulses, olive oil and cere­als, low in meat and dairy prod­ucts, with mod­er­ate wine con­sump­tion dur­ing meals), is asso­ci­ated with 25% reduc­tion of all-cause mor­tal­ity. This effect remains also if we con­sider specif­i­cally car­dio­vas­cu­lar or cere­brovas­cu­lar mor­tal­ity.”

The first author explained that extra vir­gin olive oil (EVOO) is one of the pri­mary fac­tors respon­si­ble for the longevity advan­tage.

“In our study, we found that among the food items included in a MedDiet, a higher con­sump­tion of monoun­sat­u­rated fatty acids (MUFA) over sat­u­rated fatty acids mainly dri­ves the global health ben­e­fit. Of course, EVOO is one of the major food sources of MUFA in the diet,” Bonaccio told Olive Oil Times.

“Previous stud­ies have dis­cussed the mech­a­nisms through which EVOO may pro­long sur­vival. They have pro­posed dif­fer­ent poten­tial path­ways that could be favor­ably mod­u­lated by higher intakes of EVOO. Among them, we acknowl­edge that the evi­dence sup­ports the path­way of inflam­ma­tion, which has been proven to be low­ered by numer­ous com­pounds largely present in EVOO,” added Bonaccio.

Despite the encour­ag­ing results, the study shows a link rather than a cause-effect rela­tion­ship. In addi­tion, the par­tic­i­pants who fol­lowed the diet closely were more likely to exer­cise. Nonetheless, because of the strength of the asso­ci­a­tion found in the cur­rent study together with that of pre­vi­ous research, it’s appar­ent that con­sum­ing the MedDiet is one of the best prac­tices peo­ple can adopt to pro­tect their health.

The study was pub­lished in the British Journal of Nutrition.

• British Journal of Nutrition


• EurekAlert