Eat Mediterranean Style And Be Physically Active, You Will Live Longer

Editor's Choice
Main Category: Nutrition / Diet
Also Included In: Sports Medicine / Fitness;  Obesity / Weight Loss / Fitness;  Public Health
Article Date: 11 Dec 2007 - 13:00 PDT

email to a friend   printer friendly   view / write opinions

If you adopt a Mediterranean diet and become as physically active as US national recommendations advise, over a 5-year period your chances of dying will be significantly lower, according to two reports in Archives of Internal Medicine (JAMA/Archives), December 10/24 issue.

The two studies used data from the NIH (National Institutes of Health) AARP Diet and Health Study, which was carried out during the 1995/1996 year. It involved 566,407 AARP members, aged 50-71 from six US states.

First Study

Panagiota N. Mitrou, Ph.D., National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, Md. (at that time), University of Cambridge, England (now), and team examined 380,296 participants, using a nine-point scale to gauge adherence. None of the participants had any history of chronic disease.

The diet included..

-- vegetables
-- legumes
-- fruits
-- nuts
-- whole grains
-- fish
-- monounsaturated fats ratio
-- alcohol
-- meat

Over a five-year period 12,105 people died, of which 5,985 died from cancer, while 3,451 died from cardiovascular disease. The researchers found that those who followed a Mediterranean diet were significantly less likely to die of any cause, including cancer or heart disease.

Second Study

Michael F. Leitzmann, M.D., Dr.P.H., National Cancer Institute, and team looked at the results of two physical activity questionnaires, involving 252,925 participants, of which 110,97 were men, and 142,82 were women. During the follow-up period 7,900 of them died. Those who took part in 30 minutes of physical activity five times per week, in line with US national guidelines, had a 27% lower chance of dying, compared to those who did not. People who managed to do even more vigorous physical activity for 20 minutes per day, five days per week, had a 32% lower risk of dying, the researchers reported. Even those who just did a bit of physical activity appeared to have a lower risk of death, compared to people who did nothing at all.

"Physical Activity Recommendations and Decreased Risk of Mortality"
Michael F. Leitzmann, MD, DrPH; Yikyung Park, ScD; Aaron Blair, PhD; Rachel Ballard-Barbash, MD; Traci Mouw, MPH; Albert R. Hollenbeck, PhD; Arthur Schatzkin, MD, DrPH
Arch Intern Med. 2007;167(22):2453-2460
Click here to view abstract online

Written by - Christian Nordqvist
Copyright: Medical News Today
Not to be reproduced without permission of Medical News Today