Granted Longevity With the Mediterranean Diet

Long life “with” the Mediterranean diet. In fact according to a survey pubblished in the British Medical Journal, looking at 75.000 healthy women and men over the age of sixty and coming from nine European countries, it was showed that those who follow this diet usually enjoy a longer life.
The research was coordinated by Antonia Trichopoulous  belonging to the Health and Epidemiology Departement of Athens University.
According to these researchers, Spain and Greece are countries that get best results from this diet, characterized by a high intake of fruits, vegetables and cereals, limited consumption of milk and meat, average intake of fish, unsaturated fats like those contained in olive oil, little alcohol and above all wine. The researchers analysed a great deal of data regarding lifestyle, diseases, hereditary factors and type of diet followed by the population samples taken into consideration. Epidemiologists established a scale of value to check the benefits of the Mediterranean diet; they found that the higher the score on the scale, the lower the mortality rate recorded.

The link between the Mediterranean diet and longevity shows that every two-point-increase on the value scale corresponds to a 8% decrease of the mortality rate. Every three-or-four-point-increase in people following this diet comes out to an 11% and 14% drop of the mortality rate, respectively. So, for example a sixty-year-old man following the Mediterranean diet faithfully (6 - 9 points on the scale of adhesion) will probably live on average one year longer than a man of the same age not following this diet, but with similar characteristics. According to the Greek experts, the association diet- longevity can be explained by the great quantity of anti-oxidants supplied by our diet; these are able to slow down the damage in our cells, caused by free radicals. Finally the faithfulness to the traditional tastes of our diet is rewarded with greater life-expectations, that is why it is importantant that elderly people follow this diet, among other things,their numbers increase rapidly throughout Europe.