`Achieve Nutrient Adequacy by Following the Mediterranean Diet - Olive Oil Times
enEnglish
enEnglishfrFrançaiselελληνικάdeDeutscheitItalianozh-CN中文ptPortuguêsesEspañoltrTürkçehrHrvatskija日本語hiहिंदी
enEnglish
enEnglishfrFrançaiselελληνικάdeDeutscheitItalianozh-CN中文ptPortuguêsesEspañoltrTürkçehrHrvatskija日本語hiहिंदी

Achieve Nutrient Adequacy by Following the Mediterranean Diet

By Sukhsatej Batra
Feb. 20, 2014 17:30 UTC

It is no secret that the multi-bil­lion dol­lar dietary sup­ple­ment indus­try helps many peo­ple meet their nutri­ent require­ments. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 50 per­cent of the adults in the United States take dietary sup­ple­ments, and a recent arti­cle in Pediatric Research reports that as many as 31 per­cent of American chil­dren also take them.
See Also:Health Benefits of Olive Oil
Dependence on dietary sup­ple­ments increases when diets fail to sup­ply suf­fi­cient amounts of nutri­ents. Findings of a recent study pub­lished in the jour­nal Nutrients reveals that inad­e­quate nutri­ent intake stems from foods con­sumed in the Western diet. The authors stated that as more peo­ple replace their tra­di­tional diets with the low nutri­ent-dense Western diet, their needs for essen­tial nutri­ents are not met. It is, there­fore, not sur­pris­ing that dietary sup­ple­ments worth $96 bil­lion were bought glob­ally in 2012, with num­bers esti­mated to increase to $104 bil­lion in 2013, accord­ing to The Nutrition Business Journal.

In con­trast, the authors of the arti­cle, ​“The Mediterranean Diet and Nutritional Adequacy: A Review,” reported that ade­quate nutri­ent needs can be achieved by adher­ing to the Mediterranean diet. The results, pub­lished ear­lier this year, are based on lit­er­a­ture reviewed from MEDLINE (National Library of Medicine, Bethesda, MD, USA) span­ning a 13 year period start­ing from 2000 through 2013.

The Mediterranean diet, rich in olive oil, fruits, veg­eta­bles, fish, poul­try, low-fat dairy and legumes is very dif­fer­ent from the Western diet, which mainly con­sists of fast foods, soft drinks, red meat, processed meat, pre­cooked foods, pota­toes, eggs, sauces, sweets, and whole dairy. The study reports that iodine, vit­a­min E, mag­ne­sium, iron, vit­a­min A, sele­nium, vit­a­min C and folic acid were some of the essen­tial nutri­ents lack­ing in sub­jects who reg­u­larly con­sumed the Western diet.

On the other hand, sub­jects who strictly fol­lowed the Mediterranean diet were more likely to meet their needs for all nutri­ents from their diet. This included suf­fi­cient intake of folic acid; vit­a­mins A, B1, C and E; as well as min­er­als such as zinc, iodine, mag­ne­sium, iron and sele­nium. Consumption of the Mediterranean diet also increased intake of monoun­sat­u­rated fatty acids but decreased energy intake from total and sat­u­rated fats. Although the amount of car­bo­hy­drates con­sumed by these sub­jects was low, their intake of fiber was high.

The trend of meet­ing nutri­ent needs was also observed in chil­dren between the ages of 6 to 14 who fol­lowed the Mediterranean diet. This included daily con­sump­tion of olive oil, fruits, veg­eta­bles, cheese or yogurt; cereal or grain-based and milk or other dairy prod­uct for break­fast.

In addi­tion, adher­ence to the Mediterranean diet included intake of pasta or rice at least five times a week; fish and nuts 2 to 3 times a week and legumes once a week. The study reports that as com­pli­ance to the Mediterranean diet increased so did their intake of fiber, cal­cium, iron, mag­ne­sium, potas­sium and all vit­a­mins except vit­a­min E.

The authors also found that the pos­i­tive effects of the Mediterranean diet are reflected in increased plasma con­cen­tra­tion of beta-carotene, folates, vit­a­min C, alpha-toco­pherol and HDL cho­les­terol or good cho­les­terol.

Although the authors acknowl­edge that there were lim­i­ta­tions to the study, it is clear that the Mediterranean diet enhances nutri­tional ade­quacy and may decrease depen­dence on dietary sup­ple­ments. Additionally, the Mediterranean diet pro­vides bet­ter dietary fat in the form of olive oil; has anti-inflam­ma­tory prop­er­ties; and increases intake of antiox­i­dants that are ben­e­fi­cial to health.


More articles on:  ,

Advertisement
Advertisement

Related Articles