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Dear Colleagues and Friends,
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Dietary patterns and lifestyle
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Mediterranean Diet and olive oil
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Nowadays many people are shifting their dietary practices and aligning these to those of a traditional Mediterranean diet for the amount of evidence supporting its health benefits. But… How are these benefits demonstrated by researchers? Nutritional epidemiology has evolved over the past decades in order to design methods to assess and demonstrate -through data- the health attributes of this and other healthful dietary patterns. Through the use of questionnaires, researchers assess the daily consumption of fruits and vegetables, nuts, and whole grains, and most importantly, olive oil of their study participants; all traditional components of the Mediterranean diet. However, regarding olive oil it was noted that additional information was required in order to demonstrate its preventive cardiometabolic qualities.
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Indeed, the overall daily consumption of olive oil within the traditional Mediterranean diet is crucial, but it is equally important to distinguish between the different types of olive oil. This distinction is important as refined olive oil, compared to virgin olive oil, possesses lower levels of bioactive compounds that are beneficial for endothelium function and blood pressure control. In a recent publication from the prospective cohort study ENRICA, all-cause as well as cardiovascular and cancer mortality were analyzed in relation to the amount and type of olive oil consumed. Although no significant effects were observed for cancer mortality risk, consuming 1 to 1.5 tablespoons of virgin olive oil reduced the risk of cardiovascular and all-cause mortality by 57% and 33% respectively. Read the full results here. These and many other food traits are noted by nutritional epidemiologists in order to better understand and recommend the healthiest dietary patterns.
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One aspect of foods that has facilitated the jobs of nutritionists and medics has been the ‘color’ of fruits and vegetables (FV). Through this simple physical attribute, individuals can easily increase the variety and thus the quality of their diets by the number of colors of FV they consume each day. This concept has now been studied within a sub-population of the PREDIMED-PLUS Clinical trial; a trial of elderly subjects at increased cardiovascular risk. Measured with a FV variety index score described here, the PREDIMED researchers found that participants that managed to increase the variety of FVs they consumed over one year also saw significant improvements in blood glucose, body weight and waist circumference; relevant markers of cardiovascular disease risk. Distinguishing between olive oil types and recommending a greater number of colors of the FVs consumed are not only clever approaches to nutritional epidemiology research, but also impactful ways to improve overall health of individuals and populations.
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