Thursday, April 19, 2007

Adherence to the Mediterranean food pattern helps

Adherence to the Mediterranean food pattern predicts the prevalence of hypertension, hypercholesterolemia, diabetes and obesity, among healthy adults.

A diet score (range 0–55) has been developed that assesses adherence to the Mediterranean diet. For the consumption of items presumed to be close to Mediterranean dietary pattern (non-refined cereals, fruits, vegetables, legumes, olive oil, fish and potatoes) scores 0 to 5 for never, rare, frequent, very frequent, weekly and daily consumption were assigned, while for the consumption of foods presumed to be away from this pattern (red meat and products, poultry and full fat dairy products) scores on a reverse scale were assigned.

The Mediterranean diet was a strong predictor of non-occurence of these diseases.

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