Olive oil-rich Med diet may protect against diabetes

Eating a traditional Mediterranean diet may reduce the risk of developing diabetes by a whopping 83 per cent, says a new study.

In our work on providing the Mediterranean diet for Americans, we have found the same thing … that hallmarks of diabetes, such as high blood sugar, are controlled with the Mediterranean dietary approach. And the best part is that they end up keeping their new lifestyle behaviors in the long term.

According to this study, people who adhered strictly to the diet were also found to have the highest prevalence of risk factors for diabetes such as older age, a family history of diabetes, and a higher proportion of ex-smokers.

Despite being expected to have the higher incidence of diabetes, but this was not the case.
“These higher risk participants with better adherence to the diet, however, had a lower risk of diabetes, suggesting that the diet might have a substantial potential for prevention,” wrote the authors from University of Navarra, the Hospital Virgen del Camino, and the Hospital of Navarra, all in Pamplona, Spain.

The study is published on the British Medical Journal’s website bmj.com.