By Lisa Rapaport
A new study confirms that a diet focused on seafood, olive oil, and other healthy ingredients may help people live a whole lot longer.
Key Takeaways
• Women who closely followed a Mediterranean diet were 23 percent less likely to die prematurely compared with women who never ate this way.
• A Mediterranean diet emphasizes fruits, vegetables, whole grains, beans, nuts, fish, and healthy fats.
• Even small swaps can make a big difference in terms of longevity, experts say..
Women who closely follow a Mediterranean diet are significantly less likely to die prematurely than women who don’t, a new study suggests.
Researchers examined medical data and dietary information collected over about 25 years from more than 22,000 women, starting when they were 56 years old on average. During the study period, a total of 3,879 people died.
The women who most closely adhered to a Mediterranean-style diet were 23 percent less likely to die from any cause during the study period than women who rarely if ever ate this way, according to study results published today in JAMA Network Open.
[1]
Women who followed this diet less strictly were still 16 percent less likely to die during follow-up than participants who only occasionally ate this way.
In addition, women who most closely followed a Mediterranean diet were 17 percent less likely to die from heart disease–related causes and 20 percent less likely to die of cancer during the study period.
“This study provides further evidence to support the health benefits of a Mediterranean diet in reducing mortality,” says Frank Hu, MD, PhD, a professor and chair of the department of nutrition at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston.
A Diet Rich in Healthy Foods Can Promote Longevity
A Mediterranean diet can boost longevity due to the health benefits of the foods it emphasizes, like fruits, vegetables, nuts, whole grains, beans, fish and seafood, and healthy fats like olive oil — but also for the things it discourages people from consuming, like sugary beverages and red or processed meats, says Dr. Hu, who wasn’t involved in the new study.
To assess how often participants ate this way, researchers rated adherence to a Mediterranean diet on a 9-point scale, with 0 indicating a participant never ate this way, and a 9 indicating that they always ate this way. Then, they grouped participants into three categories from lowest adherence to highest. Even lower scores had longevity benefits, the study findings suggest. Each one-point increase in dietary scores reduced the risk of dying prematurely during follow-up by approximately 5 to 6 percent.
