The XX Brain by Lisa Mosconi PhD & Maria Shriver

Author:Lisa Mosconi PhD & Maria Shriver
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2020-03-09T16:00:00+00:00

THE MEDITERRANEAN DIET: A CLASSIC

Extensive research points to the Mediterranean diet as an excellent example of a dietary regimen exquisitely suited to women’s health. It is telling that this diet has been around for thousands of years. Unlike so many other diets, it wasn’t concocted by a celebrity chef or popularized by a media frenzy. It is instead a millennia-long culmination of the enduring lifestyle behaviors of a variety of Mediterranean civilizations. From the ancient Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans to the Arabs and Turks, each left their mark on the development of this delightful cuisine. By interacting with and learning a few tricks from one another, these peoples learned to utilize the best food sources of the rich Mediterranean basin to grow and prosper their cultures while at the same time enriching their health. The women of these cultures are excellent examples of these benefits, to this day ranking at the very top of our world’s life-expectancy charts.

Some of the most convincing evidence for the Mediterranean diet comes from studies that looked at its effects on telomere lengths. Telomeres are repetitive DNA sequences found at the ends of our chromosomes, their lengths acting as markers of cellular aging. It turns out that, in a study of close to 5,000 healthy women, the greater the adherence to the Mediterranean diet, the longer the telomeres, a positive sign for longevity. In a nutshell, the women who followed the Mediterranean diet were biologically younger than those who didn’t.

Perhaps as a result, women who follow a Mediterranean diet are less likely to develop diabetes, obesity, and heart disease, and also have a much-reduced risk of cognitive impairment and Alzheimer’s as they age. One example, a large-scale study of over 78,000 women, showed that those who followed a Mediterranean-style diet enjoyed a 24 percent lower risk of heart disease and a 26 percent lower risk of stroke than those who ate a Western diet high in processed foods, meat, sweets, and sugary beverages. Additionally, when the Mediterranean dieters combined healthy eating with regular exercise, they boasted an outstanding 83 percent risk reduction.

Clinical trials also support the Mediterranean diet as a substantial aid in disease prevention. For example, PREDIMED (Prevención con Dieta Mediterránea), the largest trial to date, randomly assigned 772 asymptomatic people at risk for heart disease to follow one of three diets: a Mediterranean diet supplemented with extra-virgin olive oil, a Mediterranean diet supplemented with nuts, or a low-fat diet. Three years later, both Mediterranean diet regimes had reduced the patients’ risk of heart attack and stroke, improved blood glucose levels, stabilized blood pressure, and lowered cholesterol levels. The icing on the cake? These patients also had much less cognitive decline than those on the low-fat diet.

Thanks in part to its beneficial effects on the heart, the Mediterranean diet does a whole lot of good for your brain, too. In a series of brain imaging studies gathering hundreds of participants, we found that those who followed a Mediterranean diet had healthier and younger-looking brains than people of the same age who had been eating a Western diet.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.