Having fulfilling and meaningful social relationships is one of the aspects of the Mediterranean lifestyle that helps promote a longer life. — AFP
With a balanced diet, physical activity, fulfilling social relationships, and of course, the art of the siesta, the Mediterranean lifestyle seems to check all the boxes for a good quality of life.
But it could also be good for health, according to a new study, which, for the first time, examined the potential benefits of this kind of lifestyle in participants who do not live in the Mediterranean region.
Countless scientific studies have examined the virtues of the Mediterranean diet, which is characterised by a healthy, balanced eating pattern, rich in fruit and vegetables, and complemented by whole grains, vegetable oils and fatty fish, to the detriment of meat, fatty foods and salt.
A team of researchers from the Universidad Autonoma de Madrid in Spain, and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in the United States, decided to extend their research to the Mediterranean lifestyle as a whole.
The study included 110,799 participants aged between 40 and 75 from the UK Biobank cohort in England, Wales and Scotland – countries located far from the Mediterranean.
The researchers used the Mediterranean Lifestyle Index (Medlife) to determine the participants’ habits in terms of specific criteria: consumption of foods from the Mediterranean diet, and adherence to Mediterranean lifestyle practices around meals, physical activity, social habits and rest time.
All of which resulted in a score indicating – or not – their adherence to such a lifestyle.
These data were coupled with those obtained from the participants’ health follow-up, nine years after the start of the research.
Published in the medical journal Mayo Clinic Proceedings, the study reveals that adopting a Mediterranean lifestyle – based on a healthy, balanced diet with more fruit, vegetables and cereals, and fewer added salts and sugars, as well as habits favouring rest, physical activity and meaningful social relationships – was associated with a lower risk of death.
In detail, participants who embraced this lifestyle had a 29% lower risk of death from all causes, and a 28% lower risk of death from cancer, than those who did not.
Every aspect of this lifestyle was associated with a lower risk of death from all causes, but the researchers point out that the category “physical activity, rest, and social habits and conviviality” was associated with the greatest benefits.
“This study suggests that it’s possible for non-Mediterranean populations to adopt the Mediterranean diet using locally- available products and to adopt the overall Mediterranean lifestyle within their own cultural contexts,” said lead author Assistant Professor Dr Mercedes Sotos Prieto in a statement.
This is the first research to demonstrate the benefits of this lifestyle on life expectancy outside the region concerned.
However, a wealth of research has already highlighted the health benefits of the Mediterranean diet.
Among the most recent, two studies reported that it may be beneficial in preventing the risk of dementia and cardiovascular (heart) disease, and that it can limit the effects of passive smoking.
As for the Mediterranean lifestyle as a whole, a recent study by researchers at University College London (UCL) in the United Kingdom and the Universidad de la Republica de Montevideo in Uruguay found that short daytime naps could be beneficial to brain health. – AFP Relaxnews
