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RETURN TO THE WORLD SCIENCE HOME PAGE Mediterranean diet cuts death rate, researchers find Posted
Sept.
21
2004 People 70 to 90 years old who follow a Mediterranean-type diet and healthy lifestyle habits have less than half the death rate than those who don't, researchers have found. Kim Knoops of Wageningen University, the Netherlands, and colleagues studied the effect of a Mediterranean diet (rich in vegetables, fruit and fish, low in meat and dairy products), being physically active (half an hour or more of daily activity), moderate alcohol use, and nonsmoking on rates of death in elderly Europeans. The 12-year study included 1,507 apparently healthy men and 832 women, aged 70 to 90 years, in 11 European countries. The researchers found that a Mediterranean diet was associated with a 23 percent lower risk of death from any causes. Similarly, moderate alcohol use was linked with a 22 percent lower risk; physical activity, 37 percent lower; and nonsmoking, 35 percent lower. Similar results were found for death rates when broken down by cause of death: coronary heart disease, cardiovascular diseases, and cancer. Having all four low risk factors lowered death rate from all causes by 65 percent. In total, 60 percent of all deaths, 64 percent of deaths from coronary heart disease, 61 percent from cardiovascular diseases, and 60 percent from cancer were associated with lack of adherence to this low-risk pattern. The findings were published in the September 22/29 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.
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