My weekly visit to the clinical stops on my food news rounds this morning revealed a wealth of new information concerning the ever-strengthening bonds between the Med Diet, obesity and aging. Science has revealed some of the ‘whys’ associated with this relationship…
Adhering to the Medi9terranean Diet can help you fend off
the effects of aging and control your weight.
Obesity effects mirror those of aging
What do obesity and aging have in common? A lot, researchers from Concordia University say. An abstract of their report goes as far as to pro9pose that obesity be consifered equivalent to premature aging:
“Globally, an estimated 1.9 billion adults and 380 million children are overweight or obese. According to the World Health Organization, more people are dying from being overweight than underweight. Researchers at Concordia are urging health authorities to rethink their approach to obesity.
“In their paper published in the journal Obesity Reviews, the researchers argue that obesity should be considered premature aging. They look at how obesity predisposes people to acquiring the kinds of potentially life-altering or life-threatening diseases normally seen in older individuals: compromised genomes, weakened immune systems, decreased cognition, increased chances of developing type 2 diabetes, Alzheimer’s disease, cardiovascular disease, cancer and other illnesses.”
Team leader Dr. Sylvia Santosa and her associates looked at more than 200 learned papers that examined the effects of obesity from the cellular level to the whole body level, then compared those effects to those associated with aging. She hopes her research will stimulate ideas about how to treat obesity.
“I’m hoping that these observations will focus our approach to understanding obesity a little more, and at the same time allow us to think of obesity in different ways. We’re asking different types of questions than that which have traditionally been asked.”
Secret of the Mediterranean Diet finally exposed?
Researchers at the University of Minnesota say main ingredient in the Med Diet has been spotlighted as the reason that the popular eating regime consistently fights obesity and age-related diseases. Can you guess which ingredient they’re talking about?
Red Wine has long been touted as an aid to healthier living. It contains a substance called Reservatrol which activates certain cell pathways that are to known to increase lifespan and prevent aging-related diseases. But a team under Dr. Doug Mashek at the University of Minnesota Medical School now insists it’s the unique fat in Olive Oil that makes the difference.
Mashek notes that simply consuming Olive Oil is not going get you the best results; you have make some life3style changes, too.
“We found that the way this fat works is it first has to get stored in microscopic things called lipid droplets, which is how our cells store fat. And then, when the fat is broken down during exercising or fasting, for example, is when the signaling and beneficial effects are realized,” Mashek said.
He also stressed that more research is required, to extend his discovery into clinical practice.
“We want to understand the biology, and then translate it to humans, hopefully changing the paradigm of healthcare from someone going to eight different doctors to treat his or her eight different disorders,” Mashek said. “These are all aging-related diseases, so let’s treat aging.”
Med Diet boosts healthy gut bacteria
A new report in the British Medical Journal, relating the findings of a large number of researchers from 5 countries, says that eating the Mediterranean Diet for a year can boost healthy gut bacteria that help fight systemic inflammation and some key effects of aging.
According to an abstract of the report, “Previous research suggests that a poor/restrictive diet, which is common among older people, particularly those in long term residential care, reduces the range and types of bacteria (microbiome) found in the gut and helps to speed up the onset of frailty. […] The researchers therefore wanted to see if a Mediterranean diet might maintain the microbiome in older people’s guts, and promote the retention or even proliferation of bacteria associated with ‘healthy’ ageing.”
The researchers analysed the gut microbiome of 612 people aged 65 to 79, before and after 12 months of either eating their usual diet or a Mediterranean Diet rich in Fruits, Vegetables, Nuts, Legumes, Olive Oil and Fish, and low in Red Meat and Saturated Fats, and specially tailored to older people (NU-AGE diet).
Those study participants who stayed on the Med Diet for a full year were found to have healthier, more diverse gut microbiomes than those who continued to eat their regular diet.
According to an abstract of the study report, “[The Med Diet] was associated with stemming the loss of bacterial diversity; an increase in the types of bacteria previously associated with several indicators of reduced frailty, such as walking speed and hand grip strength, and improved brain function, such as memory; and with reduced production of potentially harmful inflammatory chemicals. […] More detailed analysis revealed that the microbiome changes were associated with an increase in bacteria known to produce beneficial short chain fatty acids and a decrease in bacteria involved in producing particular bile acids, overproduction of which are linked to a heightened risk of bowel cancer, insulin resistance, fatty liver and cell damage.”
The takeaway?
Switch to the Med Diet now, to fight the effects of aging and obesity. Use Olive Oil whenever an opportunity arises. And don’t necessarily stop drinking Red Wine. Hundreds of millions of French, Spanish, Italian, Greek and North African folks can’t be wrong!
~ Maggie J.