New research suggests that additional restriction of meat intake with a parallel increase in plant-based, protein-rich foods may further benefit the cardiometabolic state and reduce cardiovascular risk, beyond the known beneficial effects of the traditional Mediterranean diet.
A green Mediterranean diet is further enriched with green plant-based foods and lower meat intake. Image credit: Higorhsa.
“The Mediterranean diet, based on higher consumption of plant-based foods, has been proved to be better than the previously widely recommended low-fat diet for reduction in cardiometabolic risk and prevention of cardiovascular diseases,” said Dr. Gal Tsaban, a researcher at the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev and Soroka University Medical Center, and her colleagues.
“Accordingly, the Mediterranean diet has gained popularity in clinical settings and is currently the backbone of clinical cardiology dietary guidelines.”
The scientists wanted to find out whether a greener version of the Mediterranean diet, supplemented with walnuts, green tea and Mankai, and lower in meat/poultry, might be even better for health.
They randomly assigned 294 sedentary and moderately obese people (BMI of 31) with an average age of 51 into three dietary groups.
The first group received guidance on boosting physical activity and basic guidelines for achieving a healthy diet.
The second received the same physical activity guidance plus advice on following a calorie-restricted (1500-1800 kcal/day for men and 1200-1400 kcal/ day for women) traditional Mediterranean diet.
This was low in simple carbohydrates, rich in vegetables, with poultry and fish replacing red meat. It included 28 g/day of walnuts.
The third group received physical activity guidance plus advice on following a similar calorie-restricted green version of the Mediterranean diet.
This included 28 g/day walnuts, avoidance of red/processed meat, and higher quantities of plant matter. It also included 3-4 cups/day of green tea and 100 g frozen cubes of Wolffia globosa (cultivated Mankai strain), a high protein form of the aquatic plant duckweed, taken as a green plant-based protein shake as a partial substitute for animal protein.
After six months, the effect of each of the diets on weight loss and on cardiovascular and metabolic risk factors was assessed.
Those on both types of Mediterranean diet lost more weight: green Mediterranean diet 6.2 kg; Mediterranean 5.4 kg; healthy diet 1.5 kg.
Waist circumference shrank by an average of 8.6 cm among those on the green Mediterranean diet compared with 6.8 cm for those on the Mediterranean diet and 4.3 cm for those on the healthy diet.
The green Mediterranean diet group achieved larger falls in ‘bad’ low-density cholesterol of 6.1 mg/dl, a reduction of nearly 4%.
The equivalent figures were 2.3 mg/dl (nearly 1%) for those in the Mediterranean diet group, and 0.2 mg/dl for those in the healthy diet group.
Similarly, other cardiovascular and metabolic risk factors improved more among those on the green Mediterranean diet, including falls in diastolic blood pressure, insulin resistance, and an important marker of inflammation, C-reactive protein, which has a key role in artery hardening. The ratio of ‘good’ to ‘bad’ cholesterol also increased.
These changes resulted in a substantial nearly 2-fold fall in the 10-year Framingham Risk Score — a calculation used to predict the likelihood of serious heart disease over the next decade — among those on the green Mediterranean diet.
The authors caution that their sample included just 35 women, nor were they able to identify the specific factors in the green Mediterranean diet responsible for the observed effects.
“Education and encouragement to follow a green Mediterranean dietary pattern in conjunction with physical activity has the potential to be a major contributor to public health as it may improve balancing of cardiovascular risk factors, eventually preventing cardiovascular morbidity and mortality,” they said.
“Our findings suggest that additional restriction of meat intake with a parallel increase in plant-based, protein-rich foods, may further benefit the cardiometabolic state and reduce cardiovascular risk, beyond the known beneficial effects of the traditional Mediterranean diet.”
A paper on the findings was published in the journal Heart.
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G. Tsaban et al. The effect of green Mediterranean diet on cardiometabolic risk; a randomised controlled trial. Heart, published online November 23, 2020; doi: 10.1136/heartjnl-2020-317802
Source link: https://www.sci.news/medicine/green-mediterranean-diet-09110.html
