Study: Mediterranean diet deters overeating

Eat as much as you want and not gain weight? It seems too good to be true.

But in a study published in the April 23 issue of the journal Obesityscientists at the Wake Forest School of Medicine found that non-human primates on a Mediterranean diet chose not to eat all the available food and maintained a normal weight.

"In comparison, Western diet animals ate far more than they needed and gained weight," said the study's principal investigator, Carol A. Shively, Ph.D., a professor of pathology at the University of Toronto. the Wake Forest School of Medicine.

This is the first preclinical trial to measure the effects of long-term consumption of a Western vs. Mediterranean diet on obesity-related diseases under controlled experimental conditions, Shively said.

Previous research on the effects of diet type on calorie intake relied heavily on human population studies based on self-reported, often unreliable food intake, or rodent studies with non-human type schemes.

The Wake Forest School of Medicine study was a 38-month prevention trial (equivalent to about 9 years for humans). The diets have been formulated to closely reflect the diet of humans with proteins and fats derived largely from animal sources in the Western diet and mainly from plant sources in the Mediterranean diet. However, both diets contained comparable proportions of lipids, proteins and carbohydrates.

The study included 38 middle-aged women who had been randomized according to the Mediterranean or Western diet. Both groups were matched on their basal weight and body fat and were allowed to eat as much as they wanted throughout the study.

"What we discovered is that the Mediterranean diet group actually ate fewer calories, less body weight and less body fat than those in the Western diet," Shively said.

The findings provide the first experimental evidence that a Mediterranean diet is protected against an increase in consumption, obesity and prediabetes compared to a Western diet.

The Mediterranean diet also protects against non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, known as NAFLD. NAFLD can cause cirrhosis of the liver and liver cancer and requires a transplant. Obesity is a major cause of NAFLD. By 2030, one-third of adults in this country are expected to have the disease, and this is the reason for the fastest growth of liver transplants in young adults in the United States.

"Diet composition is a critical contributor to US public health, but unfortunately, those who are at greatest risk for obesity and costly chronic diseases also have low quality nutrition," Shively said.

"The Western diet has been developed and promoted by companies who want us to eat their food, so they make it very appetizing, that is, it affects all our pimples and we consume too much. A Mediterranean diet should allow people to savor their food without eating too much. " which is such a problem in this country.

"We hope our results will encourage people to eat healthy foods, both enjoyable and improving human health."

A weakness of the study was the modest size of the sample.

---

---