[HN Gopher] Mediterranean diet may prevent memory loss and demen...
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Mediterranean diet may prevent memory loss and dementia, study
finds
Author : spekcular
Score : 48 points
Date : 2021-05-08 18:26 UTC (4 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.cnn.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.cnn.com)
| WalterBright wrote:
| Similar information is in the book "The End of Alzheimers".
|
| https://www.amazon.com/End-Alzheimers-Program-Protocol-Cogni...
| krona wrote:
| The nutritional composition of today's vegetables in the average
| supermarket bare little resplendence to the variety of food
| consumed decades ago in the Mediterranean. I wonder if the study
| could account for this unfortunate fact.
|
| Anyone who's compared tomato imported from the Netherlands (the
| worlds second largest exporter of tomato) to a tomato bought in a
| farmers market in Italy knows what I mean.
| bennysomething wrote:
| Genuine question: where can I find info on this? The more
| expensive tomoatos in my super market taste amazing compared to
| cheap ones. Is better taste more nutritious? Would growing my
| own veg in a green house help?
| timeon wrote:
| Well I do not know why some taste so wrong - are not ripe
| enough (I have checked them with my refractometer and Brix
| was lower). Not sure about nutrition but taste is different.
| When I buy some street-food like burger or falafel and see
| those tomatoes in there with white-red flesh I feel so sad.
| Cherry tomatos can be good even in supermarket - just not in
| winter. I do not know why - I think there are LED lights that
| can help - they maybe just do not bother.
|
| Anyway I live in zone 7b and grow them outside (seeding
| inside at the end of February and transplantig them outside
| in May - usually after 15th of May but as weather is changing
| here it can be even sooner). And taste is so good. From
| cherry tomatoes to really big ones. From 20 to 60 plants you
| can be self sufficient. Eat them fresh, preserve tomato sauce
| and dry them.
| simonmales wrote:
| I can't recall what I watched, but it was Michael Polan
| saying that organic food is better for you and also tastes
| better.
|
| Googling "Michael Poland organic food tastes better" might
| get you into the right direction.
| maccard wrote:
| > The nutritional composition of today's vegetables in the
| average supermarket bare little resplendence to the variety of
| food consumed decades ago in the Mediterranean.
|
| I hate being that guy, but citation needed? Have you measured
| this (or can you share a study with us that has)? This is a
| bold claim and definite worth having reinforced.
|
| > Anyone who's compared tomato imported from the Netherlands
| (the worlds second largest exporter of tomato) to a tomato
| bought in a farmers market in Italy knows what I mean.
|
| I can attest to the difference in flavor between a fresh
| Mediterranean product and the basic supermarket version, but i
| can also attest to the flavor difference between a room
| temperature quality beer and an ice cold bottle of the cheapest
| crap imaginable on a beach.
| raffraffraff wrote:
| Pizza!!
| hmahncke wrote:
| This is an observational study, not a randomized controlled
| trial. So it can't really establish causality. A number of
| observational studies have previously shown an association
| between MeDi adherence and cognitive function and dementia risk;
| this went further to establish an association with structural
| brain imaging measures.
|
| We're still waiting for the outcome of the NIH funded randomized
| controlled trial.
| spekcular wrote:
| What's the name of the NIH trial? I'd like to keep tabs on it.
| hmahncke wrote:
| Clinical trials.gov link:
| https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT02817074
| sremani wrote:
| It's not what they eat, its how and when they eat (or not) is
| also important.
|
| One thing Taleb points out is things like practicing lent or
| religious fasting that is component in these cultures.
| raarts wrote:
| I deeply distrust headlines with expressions like 'scientists
| say', 'study finds', or with words like 'may', 'might' or
| 'could'.
|
| In any field.
| cheese_goddess wrote:
| From wikipedia:
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mediterranean_diet#History_and...
|
| > The concept of a Mediterranean diet was developed to reflect
| "food patterns typical of Crete, much of the rest of Greece, and
| Italy in the early 1960s".[43] Although it was first publicized
| in 1975 by the American biologist Ancel Keys and chemist Margaret
| Keys (a husband and wife team),[56] the Mediterranean diet failed
| to gain widespread recognition until the 1990s. Objective data
| showing that the Mediterranean diet is healthy originated from
| results of epidemiological studies in Naples and Madrid,[57]
| confirmed later by the Seven Countries Study first published in
| 1970,[58] and a book-length report in 1980.[59]
|
| > The most commonly understood version of the Mediterranean diet
| was presented, among others, by Walter Willett and colleagues of
| Harvard University's School of Public Health since the
| mid-1990s.[60][61][62][63] The Mediterranean diet is based on a
| paradox: although the people living in Mediterranean countries
| tend to consume relatively high amounts of fat, they have far
| lower rates of cardiovascular disease than in countries like the
| United States where similar levels of fat consumption are found.
|
| Comparing Americans with Italians and Cretans of the 1960's has
| so many confounding factors. For one thing, the Cretans and most
| Italians would have lived in villages and small towns and would
| have been predominantly farmers engaged in physical work (and so
| exercise) whereas most Americans of the '60s would live urban
| lives in large cities and not exercised a lot. I don't know if
| any research attempted to account for this difference in life
| styles, but diet can't have been the only factor that affected
| relative cardiovascular health.
| AdrianB1 wrote:
| My fist visit in Albania 20 years ago: "we produce and use olive
| oil, but is it not as common and cheap as sunflower seed oil
| (most used in the area), so don't think we can replace all oil
| with olive oil because that is not possible".
|
| Mediterranean diet includes olive oil, but it does not exclude
| sunflower seed oil. Maybe CNN is not such a good source of
| information of habits of people across the globe. Even people
| that I know owning olive plantations and processing installations
| don't consume a lot of it, they can't afford to.
| towergratis wrote:
| Raised in Greece. Olive oil is used exclusively in home
| cooking, with the only exception of frying, in which case
| sunflower seed oil is used.
|
| To give you an idea, usually Greeks don't buy olive oil in
| bottles. They buy it in 5lt to 17lt containers
|
| I believe the situation is similar in Italy too. At least
| southern Italy
| UncleOxidant wrote:
| Is some of that olive oil adulterated with other cheaper oils
| like sunflower oil? This is the thesis of the book Extra
| Virginity: The Sublime and Scandalous World of Olive Oil
| bumbada wrote:
| Spaniards or Italians take Olive oil seriously, just like
| in China you could clone or adulterate anything but tea,
| silk or porcelain.
|
| If you fake phones or handbags or sunglasses nobody cares.
| It is forbidden but authorities turn a blind eye. If you
| fake tea in China, you get executed. Period.
|
| The most important thing is that people know and a big
| industry behind. It is easy to trick Americans, but I know
| people that could clearly differentiate between different
| varieties like arbequina or picual and even the year and
| the place it comes from.
| contingencies wrote:
| _... in China ..._
|
| {{citation-needed}}
| cheese_goddess wrote:
| Sorry to disappoint you but olive oil adulteration is
| common and big business:
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olive_oil#Adulteration
|
| > There have been allegations, particularly in Italy and
| Spain, that regulation can be sometimes lax and
| corrupt.[90] Major shippers are claimed to routinely
| adulterate olive oil so that only about 40% of olive oil
| sold as "extra virgin" in Italy actually meets the
| specification.[91] In some cases, colza oil (extracted
| from rapeseed) with added color and flavor has been
| labeled and sold as olive oil.[92] This extensive fraud
| prompted the Italian government to mandate a new labeling
| law in 2007 for companies selling olive oil, under which
| every bottle of Italian olive oil would have to declare
| the farm and press on which it was produced, as well as
| display a precise breakdown of the oils used, for blended
| oils.[93] In February 2008, however, EU officials took
| issue with the new law, stating that under EU rules such
| labeling should be voluntary rather than compulsory.[92]
| Under EU rules, olive oil may be sold as Italian even if
| it only contains a small amount of Italian oil.[93]
|
| Also see:
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olive_oil_regulation_and_ad
| ult...
| [deleted]
| towergratis wrote:
| No self-respecting Greek mom buys anything else other than
| Extra Virgin Olive Oil.
|
| If it does get adulterated illegally, I don't know. But
| haven't heard of any scandal like that.
| pqs wrote:
| Spaniard here. This is the exact situation in Mediterranean
| Spain, at least. At home, we only have olive oil, which we
| buy in 5L bottles.
| bumbada wrote:
| >Even people that I know owning olive plantations and
| processing installations don't consume a lot of it, they can't
| afford to.
|
| I don't know what people you are referring to, but of course
| people owning Olive oil plantations consume lots of it if they
| like it.And workers in those plantations.
|
| I have lots of experience in Spain, Italy and Greece and on
| those countries you have a lot of olive oil, and near
| plantations(like in Jaen or Sevilla) EVERYBODY consumes it.
|
| It is common there to take raw oil with bread for breakfast.
| Some people just don't like it in raw form, but most people
| like the food cooked with it, that is typical in Spain or
| Italy.
|
| They can afford it because olive oil is expensive, but not that
| expensive there, and friends and family give each other oil
| gifts in bulk.
|
| Those prices are not what you find in a shop in California for
| a small bottle. They give each other 10, 20 Litters containers.
|
| Sunflower seed oil is used for frying things in big
| quantities,not just because price but because it has neutral
| flavor,but olive oil is used a lot for cooking in general.
|
| You make fish in the oven, you add olive oil. You make meat,
| you use olive oil.
|
| I live in central Europe most of the year and of course I cook
| with lots of olive oil(and sunflower oil too).
| AdrianB1 wrote:
| Albania and Jordan; both produce olive oil, both are selling
| it to others because it is a source of income they cannot
| ignore. You cannot sell it and eat it at the same time.
| oooooooooooow wrote:
| This is entirely correct. "Oil" in here (Italy) is synonymous
| with EV olive oil, the only reason why households have a
| bottle of sunflower seed or peanut oil is for deep frying.
| towergratis wrote:
| From the article:
|
| > Forget lasagna, pizza, spanakopita and lamb souvlaki -- they
| are not on the daily menu of those who live by the Mediterranean
| seaside.
|
| > The true diet is simple, plant-based cooking, with the majority
| of each meal focused on fruits and vegetables, whole grains,
| beans and seeds, with a few nuts and a heavy emphasis on extra-
| virgin olive oil. Fats other than olive oil, such as butter, are
| consumed rarely, if at all. And say goodbye to refined sugar or
| flour.
|
| > Meat can make a rare appearance, but usually only to flavor a
| dish. Instead, meals may include eggs, dairy and poultry, but in
| much smaller portions than in the traditional Western diet.
|
| > However, fish, which are full of brain-boosting omega-3's, are
| a staple.
|
| That's definitely not today's Mediterranean diet. Maybe it's what
| Mediterranean diet used to be 70 years ago, but as Mediterranean
| countries became richer, so did their diet.
|
| Refined flour bread is present and consumed with almost every
| meal. Meat is very regular too. Foods like lentil soup and bean
| soup are eaten with lots of bread, cheese, and other side dishes
| that make it much less healthy.
| tjr wrote:
| That article description sounds closer to Joel Fuhrman's
| "nutritarian" diet.
| cheese_goddess wrote:
| Meat is not "very regular" in the modern mediterranean diet.
| This site ranks countries by meat consumption (overall and not
| per capita and given with reservations because I don't know
| where the data comes from, but still):
|
| https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/meat-cons...
|
| Ranking of the three countries whose cuisines inspired the
| mediterranean diet, according to the site:
|
| Italy 24
|
| Spain 31
|
| Greece 87
|
| This ranking doesn't say anything about what kinds of meat are
| consumed and this is culturally determined also. For instance,
| counting per-capita consumption, Greeks, Spanish and Italians
| eat more pigmeat than other kinds of meat:
|
| https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/per-capita-meat-consumpti...
|
| https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/per-capita-meat-consumpti...
|
| https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/per-capita-meat-consumpti...
|
| And all three countries raise relatively few cattle (with
| Greece having less than a million):
|
| https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/cattle-livestock-count-he...
|
| I'm bringing this up because, to my knowledge, the traditional
| diet in Greece, while predominantly lacto- ovo- pescaterian
| also included cured pigmeats as a common food item, while lamb
| was eaten only rarely, at religious feasts (particularly Easter
| Sunday and the religious feast of a town's patron saint) and
| cattle were raised primarily for dairy. Similar in Italy and
| Spain.
|
| So the "Mediterranean diet" as it is understood today is only
| "inspired" by the dietary habis of the traditional diets of
| Italians, Spanish and Greeks. In truth, these people
| traditionally consumed meat in larger quantities than assumed
| by the modern "Mediterranean diet". Accordingly, the amount of
| meat that modern Italians, Spanish and Greeks eat has not
| changed as much, from their historical past, than is suggested
| by comparison with the modern "Mediterranean diet".
|
| That said, those three peoples are still far behind other
| developed countries in their consumption of meat today,
| especially beef and particularly so Greece.
|
| You're right about refined flour. In Italy, Spain and Greece,
| bread is always on the table and it is mainly white bread. Pies
| like spanakopita and pasticcio are also today made mainly with
| refined flour. Sugar is also much more widely used today, as is
| salt, compared to the past, because of higher availability
| overall.
| caslon wrote:
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mediterranean_diet
|
| The Mediterranean diet is a diet inspired by the eating habits
| of Greece, Italy, and Spain in the 1960s.[1][2] The principal
| aspects of this diet include proportionally high consumption of
| olive oil, legumes, unrefined cereals, fruits,[3] and
| vegetables, moderate to high consumption of fish, moderate
| consumption of dairy products (mostly as cheese and yogurt),
| moderate wine consumption, and low consumption of non-fish meat
| products. Olive oil has been studied as a potential health
| factor for reducing all-cause mortality and the risk of chronic
| diseases.
| [deleted]
| towergratis wrote:
| > The Mediterranean diet is a diet inspired by the eating
| habits of Greece, Italy, and Spain in the 1960s.
|
| Hmm.. that's what I said too, right?
| JumpCrisscross wrote:
| It isn't a competition. Multiple smart angles on the same
| issue sharpens resolution for everyone.
| towergratis wrote:
| Obviously I thought it was a rebuttal of my point, hence
| the question
| treeman79 wrote:
| Had massive brain fog for a few years, finally got it cleared up.
| One aspect was food related and an undiagnosed autoimmune
| condition. Autoimmune patients often find that diet is an
| effective way to manage disease. Anywhere from some improvement
| to essentially cured.
|
| Autoimmune conditions can take years to decades to diagnosis, so
| a lot of people don't realize they have one.
|
| There is a specific AIP diet for this.
|
| Many of the reduced carb diets are similar.
| noir_lord wrote:
| Curious why you got downvotes - there actually is evidence for
| the AIP diet and using it to control some auto-immune
| disorders.
|
| https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/aip-diet-autoimmune-pro...
|
| This place is strange at times.
| lambdaba wrote:
| My conclusion after years of researching this as someone
| diagnosed with multiple sclerosis at 24 is it's all about gut
| barrier integrity (and thereafter other barriers like the
| blood-brain barrier).
|
| The reason we're seeing people with chronic disease earlier
| and earlier is that the newer generations have grown up with
| deficiencies and toxins (such as seed oils), going back to
| the womb.
|
| One of the references I often give and is downvoted both here
| and on Reddit is a clinic in Hungary called "Paleomedicina"
| (already with "paleo" in the name some reach for the
| downvote). It's unfortunate as they are doing amazing work
| with incredible success for all these "incurable" diseases.
| xvedejas wrote:
| Seed oils are toxins? Maybe I'm living under a rock by
| being perplexed by this, but you'll have to explain
| further.
| lambdaba wrote:
| Check out the work of Dr. Cate Shanahan. Many interviews
| on YouTube.
|
| In short it's to do mainly with the linoleic acid
| (omega-6) content of those oils, these fats are highly
| unstable / subjected to oxidation. When they get
| integrated in our own body fat it wreaks havoc. Can't
| burn fat / inflamed / chronically hungry / tired etc.
|
| I don't have a reference but I read a study showing how
| the fatty acid profile in people's body fat has gradually
| shifted to more and more polyunsaturated fat. This is not
| normal and as Dr. Shanahan explains, the integration of
| seed oil fats in human body fat is unprecedented and a
| massive experiment for which we're seeing the results for
| some decades now, but are slow to realize.
| treeman79 wrote:
| I always imagine that half the people here are some variation
| of Sheldon from Big Bang theory.
| lambdaba wrote:
| I post similar comments and get the same downvotes. Keywords
| are "paleo", "keto" and "carnivore".
|
| I too have fully recovered from an incurable autoimmune
| illness.
| [deleted]
| carlob wrote:
| The pictures include blueberries and salmon which are definitely
| not staples of the Mediterranean diet and are not really
| available locally anywhere near the Mediterranean. If it was
| about Omega-3 they could have shown anchovies, sardines, mackerel
| or even tuna...
| masterphilo wrote:
| Conversely, there are foods like bread & pasta, which you'd
| think are part of a Mediterranean diet, not included in the
| list. I think that list should be renamed to something like
| "Low-carb Mediterranean diet may prevent..."
| hkt wrote:
| I can't imagine eating olives without some focaccia or
| ciabatta to dip in the oil. With balsamic vinegar, naturally.
|
| HN = Hanger News, today.
| towergratis wrote:
| Same in Greece, bread is everywhere. Every household buys
| at least a loaf per day, and of course it's free and as
| much as you can it in every restaurant.
| gg80 wrote:
| Blueberries are actually quite common in the Mediterranean
| area, but you are right about salmon.
| [deleted]
| hawthornio wrote:
| Why not just be vegan and take algae-based Omega-3 supplements???
| If find the News' obsession with the Mediterranean diet very
| strange.
| mrtesthah wrote:
| Why are you assuming that the primary health benefits in the
| mediterranean diet come from omega-3 fatty acids? They could
| just as well come from oleuropin in olives / olive oil.
| hervature wrote:
| Why even bother with tablets? A tablespoon of flaxseed covers
| your Omega 3 and lots of fiber.
| TylerLives wrote:
| Only ~10% of plant based omega 3s is "useful" -
| https://www.health.harvard.edu/heart-health/why-not-
| flaxseed...
| theptip wrote:
| I was under the impression that flax just gives you ALA not
| EPA/DHA, so you won't get all the benefits of fish/krill oil
| with flax. The latter two are the ones that give the biggest
| benefits.
|
| Eg https://www.nordicnaturals.com/healthy-science/is-eating-
| chi...
| cheese_goddess wrote:
| This is an honest question and I would prefer not to start a
| flame war, but would you replace all the food you eat with
| nutritional supplements? Or, if not all, then as many as
| possible? If this is not possible today, is it something that
| you would want to do in the future?
| cies wrote:
| There is no Mediterranean diet. It a huge collections of diets
| and cuisines that have at times very little in common. In the
| Blue Zones, a book on this topic, 2 particularly healthy medi-
| diets/lifestyles are examined.
| DoingIsLearning wrote:
| Also one thing that is often overlooked is how
| 'old'/traditional diets were very seasonal.
|
| You would have tomatoes from June to August. Sardines would be
| the fatest around July. You would have grapes and wine by
| September and chestnuts by early November. You would kill a pig
| for multiple families once a year, eat some of it fresh and
| salt/smoke the remaining.
|
| Perhaps this seasonal scarcity is not a protective factor but
| it seems to me that this a variable that is never discussed
| when looking at traditional diet of <geographic-region>.
| towergratis wrote:
| > Also one thing that is often overlooked is how
| 'old'/traditional diets were very seasonal.
|
| Great point. Also keep in mind that religion plays a critical
| role. Greece in the mid 1900's was a very religious country,
| and most people attended the 40 days diet that they would
| abstain completely from consuming land-animal products.
| doktorhladnjak wrote:
| Mediterranean diet typically refers to a diet put together by a
| cardiologist for his patients suffering from heart disease. It
| really is only loosely related to what people eat in areas
| surrounding the Mediterranean Sea
| aasasd wrote:
| I woundn't be surprised if it also cures depression. Curse this
| here land of potato and wheat.
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(page generated 2021-05-08 23:03 UTC)