Mediterranean Diet Benefits Heart, Even Without Weight Loss: Study

Healthy eating helped men lower bad cholesterol

By Robert Preidt

HealthDay Reporter

WEDNESDAY, May 1 (HealthDay News) -- Men at high risk for heart disease might reduce their "bad" cholesterol by eating a heart-healthy Mediterranean diet, even if they don't lose weight, a small new study suggests.

The study included 19 men, aged 24 to 62, with metabolic syndrome, which means they had three or more major risk factors for heart disease and stroke. The risk factors among men in this study included large waist size, high blood pressure, low levels of "good" HDL cholesterol and high triglyceride and fasting glucose levels.

For the first five weeks of the study, the men ate a standard North American diet, which is high in fats, carbohydrates, refined sugar and red meat. For the second five weeks, they ate a Mediterranean diet, which is high in fruits, vegetables and whole grains; low in red meat; and includes olive oil and moderate amounts of wine.

This was followed by a five-month weight-loss program, then another five weeks of a Mediterranean diet.

Regardless of whether they lost weight, the men had a 9 percent decrease in levels of "bad" LDL cholesterol when they ate a Mediterranean diet, according to the study, scheduled for presentation Wednesday at a meeting of the American Heart Association in Lake Buena Vista, Fla.

The Mediterranean diet "may be recommended for effective management of the metabolic syndrome and its related risk of cardiovascular disease," said lead study author Caroline Richard, a registered dietitian and doctoral candidate in nutrition at Laval University in Quebec, Canada. The study, however, showed only an association between a Mediterranean diet and lowered cholesterol, not a cause-and-effect relationship.

Data and conclusions presented at meetings typically are considered preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed medical journal.

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Another Study Says Mediterranean Diet Good for the Heart

By Kathleen Doheny

HealthDay Reporter

MONDAY, Feb. 25 (HealthDay News) -- Score another heart-health win for the Mediterranean diet.

Eating a diet rich in olive oil, nuts, fresh fruits and vegetables, along with red wine, helped those at high risk for cardiovascular problems avoid heart trouble better than those eating a low-fat diet, a new Spanish study has found.

During a follow-up period of about five years, study participants on a Mediterranean diet that emphasized either olive oil or nuts had a 30 percent greater reduction in relative risk of a heart attack, stroke or death from cardiovascular disease, said study lead author Dr. Miguel Angel Martinez-Gonzalez. He is chairman of preventive medicine and public health at the Universidad de Navarra in Spain.

"This is a moderate-to-high benefit," he said. "The low-fat diet also helped, but to a lesser degree."

The new findings are published online Feb. 25 in the New England Journal of Medicine. They will also be presented Monday at the International Congress on Vegetarian Nutrition in Loma Linda, Calif.

The findings echo those from previous research.

Martinez-Gonzalez's team evaluated nearly 7,500 men and women. They ranged in age from 55 to 80 when they enrolled in the study, which began in Spain in 2003. Fifty-seven percent of the participants were women.

While the men and women had no history of heart attack or stroke or other cardiovascular problems at enrollment, they did have risk factors such as type 2 diabetes, smoking, high blood pressure or high cholesterol.

The researchers assigned the men and women to one of three groups -- a low-fat diet, a Mediterranean diet that focused on nuts or a Mediterranean diet that focused on olive oil.

On average, the men and women were overweight or obese. In all three groups, the average body-mass index was 30 or close to it, which is defined as obese.

The olive oil group consumed about four tablespoons a day or more. The nuts group ate about three servings a week or more, including walnuts, hazelnuts and almonds. Members of both groups also ate plenty of fruits and vegetables, as well as fish, and drank wine with meals. They could have white meat but were told to avoid red and processed meats.

The low-fat group ate low-fat dairy, breads, potatoes, fruits and vegetables, and lean fish. They were told to avoid oils, baked goods, nuts, red and processed meat, and fatty fish.

At the end of the study, 288 cardiovascular events had occurred. While 109 of those events occurred in the low-fat group, 96 were in the group that ate a Mediterranean diet with olive oil, and 83 were in the Mediterranean diet-with-nuts group.

When the researchers looked separately at stroke, heart attack and death, only the link between the Mediterranean diet and stroke was statistically significant. The researchers found a link between the diets and heart protection, but it did not prove cause and effect, they said.

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