After conducting a review of the results of 50 published studies on the Mediterranean diet with more than 500,000 participants, researchers have found that the Mediterranean food helps in reducing the risk of heart disease, stroke and diabetes.
The findings suggested that the natural foodsbased diet was linked with low risks of high blood pressure, blood sugar and triglycerides and it also helped in reducing the risk of a drop in good cholesterol.
Dr. Demosthenes Panagiotakos, an Associate Professor at Harokopio University of Athens in Greece, said, "It is one of the first times in the literature, maybe the first, that someone looks through a meta-analysis at the cardiovascular disease risk factors and not only the hard outcome of heart disease and other conditions".
Published in the March issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, this study suggested the daily consumption of fruits, vegetables, whole grain cereals, and low-fat dairy products, weekly consumption of fish, poultry, tree nuts, and legumes.
Researchers also linked the consumption of Mediterranean food to the decreased metabolic syndrome risk and they believed that a more advanced study was required to develop more clarity on the issue.
Dr. Ronald Goldberg, Professor of medicine at the Diabetes Research Institute, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, believed that the findings were no surprise as many previous studies had confirmed the role of Mediterranean diet on reducing heart disease.
