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Mediterranean Diet May Protect from Diabetes
Thursday, January 9, 2014 @ 4:50 PM

In the latest trial of the ongoing intervention study PREDIMED, Spanish researchers found that following a Mediterranean diet may cut the risk of diabetes by about 30 percnt compared to the control diet, which was characterized as a low fat diet.

The study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, involved 3,541 men and women who were a subgroup of the larger PREDIMED study that enrolled over 7,000 participants from seven communities in Spain since 2003. The men and women for this particular trial were between 55 and 80 years of age and at high risk for heart disease, but without diabetes.

As is standard with the PREDIMED study, the participants were assigned to one of three diets: Mediterranean diet supplemented with extra-virgin olive oil, Mediterranean diet supplemented with nuts, or a control diet (participants were advised to follow a low fat diet). The participants were not asked to exercise or lose weight.

At follow up which was on average 4.1 years, 101 individuals from the control group developed diabetes, while only 80 individuals from the olive oil Mediterranean diet group developed the disease. The researchers noted that adherence was much higher in the Mediterranean diet groups and concluded that a Mediterranean diet enriched with extra virgin olive oil without caloric limitations may reduce diabetes risk in individuals with a high heart disease risk.

This is not the first time that the Mediterranean diet has been found to have a preventative effect against diabetes. In 2011 a smaller trial (418 participants) of the PREDIMED study showed that a Mediterranean diet reduced the risk of type II diabetes by almost 50 percent compared to a low fat diet.

source: olive oil times

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4 Comments

Saninspain said:
Saturday, January 11, 2014 @ 10:48 AM

Having type 2 diabetes myself I was told in the training course I attended that you will only develope diabetes if you have it in your genes so I would be very interested to know if those that were tested knew if there was a background in their families of diabetes if not it could throw up false satistics.
I would like to add though that the diabetes.co.uk have also been discussing the Mediterranean diet on there forum and most seem in favour that it does help with regulating your blood sugar levels.

jamesensor said:
Saturday, January 11, 2014 @ 11:31 AM

Diabetes is certainly hereditary, probably for both types. But that does not mean that you cannot reduce the risk of it developing. I am certain that diet plays a big part in the onset of the condition, which I have had for about 5 years now. I do eat a largely Mediterranean diet, including olive oil and garlic, with most meat grilled to reduce the fat levels. Plenty of studies have shown that Cretans suffer least from heart disease and Lapps most, amongst Europeans. This relates directly to their diet.

There is no question that fruit, vegetables and grilled meat (provided that you avoid grapes and other sweet fruits) help to control blood sugars. On the other hand, I have found that bread and Spanish beer are particularly bad, because of the sugar content. I can drink German beer without problems. And artisanal flat breads seem to have far less sugar than the British loaf.

ned said:
Sunday, January 12, 2014 @ 4:06 AM

jamesensor....it is the starch in bread that turns into sugar. A better bet is to go for gluten free products. You may like to google diabetes and gluten

jamesensor said:
Sunday, January 12, 2014 @ 9:22 AM

That is true. But a lot of commercial breads have huge amounts of sugar as do soups and ready meals made in Britain. If the Mediterranean diet really does reduce the risk of diabetes developing, it must be due to the lesser use of sugar in the artisanal products consumed compared to the sugar-rich commercial products that form part of a typical British diet.

Small amounts of starch and carbo-hydrate are essential in any human diet, especially in cold climates. But so long as the carbo-hydrate breaks down in the stomach gradually, into sugars, it does not overwhelm the reduced processing capacity of the pancreas, which is characteristic of diabetes 2.