Researchers Review Benefits of Mediterranean Diet to Reduce Obesity

Some of the most com­mon con­di­tions trig­gered by obe­sity might be mit­i­gated or pre­vented by adopt­ing the Mediterranean diet, a new meta-study has found.

The researchers con­ducted a wide-rang­ing review of the cur­rent sci­en­tific lit­er­a­ture. They found that fol­low­ing the Mediterranean diet could yield many ben­e­fits for obese peo­ple and peo­ple at risk of obe­sity.

The authors of the meta-study, pub­lished in Current Obesity Reports, noted that hyper­ten­sion, type 2 dia­betes mel­li­tus, sev­eral types of can­cers or dys­lipi­demia, a lipid imbal­ance that often pre­cedes car­dio­vas­cu­lar con­di­tions, are among the many dis­eases fre­quently diag­nosed in obese peo­ple.

By review­ing the cur­rent sci­en­tific lit­er­a­ture, the authors found that adopt­ing the Mediterranean diet might reduce oxida­tive stress, inflam­ma­tion, throm­bo­sis and endothe­lial dys­func­tion.

Following the diet was also linked with weight loss, mod­u­lat­ing the gut micro­biome and improv­ing lipid pro­file, immu­nity and insulin sen­si­tiv­ity.

By lim­it­ing inflam­ma­tion and reg­u­lat­ing cho­les­terol, the Mediterannenean diet was also proven to be a prac­ti­cal step in can­cer pre­ven­tion and reduc­ing car­dio­vas­cu­lar dis­ease risks.

According to the World Health Organization, 650 mil­lion adults were obese in 2016. Obesity-related dis­eases are esti­mated to kill more peo­ple than those asso­ci­ated with being under­weight in most coun­tries. In addi­tion, WHO data show that 39 mil­lion chil­dren under the age of five are over­weight or obese, dou­ble the amount deemed obese in 1980.

The researchers described the Mediterranean diet as char­ac­ter­ized by a ​“high con­sump­tion of veg­eta­bles, fruit, nuts, cere­als, whole grains and extra vir­gin olive oil, as well as a mod­er­ate con­sump­tion of fish and poul­try and a lim­ited intake of sweets, red meat and dairy prod­ucts.”

In the meta-study, the researchers ana­lyzed the proven effects of fol­low­ing the Mediterranean diet on the most com­mon obe­sity-related con­di­tions.

They found that the Mediterranean diet is not asso­ci­ated with weight gain, even with no energy restric­tions. A high-fat, unre­stricted-calo­rie Mediterranean diet also was asso­ci­ated with lit­tle weight change and less cen­tral adi­pos­ity com­pared with a low-fat diet in the long term.

“The Mediterranean diet has the poten­tial to reduce abdom­i­nal adi­pos­ity, in par­tic­u­lar meta­bol­i­cally detri­men­tal vis­ceral fat, inde­pen­dently of weight loss, and can be rec­om­mended as a healthy diet choice to indi­vid­u­als with obe­sity and over­weight, par­tic­u­larly at risk of car­dio­vas­cu­lar and meta­bolic dis­ease,” the researchers wrote.

“The Mediterranean diet may be more effec­tive in Southern European pop­u­la­tions due to bet­ter avail­abil­ity of spe­cific food prod­ucts, cul­tural and other fac­tors,” they added.

Another crit­i­cal health fac­tor of the Mediterranean diet is the com­po­si­tion of its polyphe­nols.

According to the researchers, ​“the plant-based com­po­nents of the Mediterranean diet con­tain polyphe­nols that have been shown to reduce insulin resis­tance and improve car­dio-meta­bolic risk fac­tors.”

“In addi­tion, olive oil and low-to-mod­er­ate alco­hol intake (espe­cially red wine) also con­tribute to the ben­e­fits of the Mediterranean diet via their polyphe­nol con­tent,” they added.

The results of the meta-study are likely to be her­alded as good news in the fight against the global obe­sity pan­demic. Obesity is asso­ci­ated with a high risk of mor­bid­ity and mor­tal­ity from dif­fer­ent non-com­mu­ni­ca­ble dis­eases.

“Of inter­est, the neg­a­tive effects of obe­sity are reversed in part with sub­stan­tial weight loss,” the researchers wrote. ​“The com­po­si­tion of the Mediterranean diet has been related to an excel­lent effect on reduc­ing dys­lipi­demia.”

“Additionally, [the diet] pos­i­tively mod­u­lates the gut micro­biota and immune sys­tem, sig­nif­i­cantly decreas­ing inflam­ma­tion medi­a­tors, com­mon ground for many obe­sity-related dis­or­ders,” they con­cluded. ​“The Mediterranean diet is the health­i­est dietary pat­tern avail­able to pre­vent sev­eral non-com­mu­ni­ca­ble dis­eases, includ­ing car­dio­vas­cu­lar dis­ease and type 2 dia­betes.”

• World Health Organization