GUT HEALTH: Mediterranean diet improves microbiome
March 03, 2020 • 1 min read
-- Another big tick for the Mediterranean diet, long considered one of the healthiest in the world
The link between gut microbiome and human health and disease is widely accepted.
Given the prevalence of chronic lifestyle diseases (around half of all Americans suffer from at least one) western diets are rightly identified as a root cause of our ill health.
But turning things around could be as simple as ordering from a Mediterranean food menu.
A recent study of 612 elderly people from France, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, and the United Kingdom showed that eating a Mediterranean diet for just one year altered their microbiome in ways that improved brain function and longevity.
Scientists said the diet inhibited production of inflammatory chemicals that undermine cognitive function, in the process arresting the development of chronic diseases, such as diabetes, cancer and atherosclerosis.
The study is part of a larger trial of 1,200 people called the European Project on Nutrition in Elderly People or NU-AGE.
Additional findings indicate that those who followed the Mediterranean diet improved their episodic memory and overall cognitive ability. Higher adherence to the diet also reduced the rate of bone loss in people with osteoporosis and improved blood pressure and arterial stiffness.
Why, why? Couscous.