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Green vegetables, poultry, fish, researchers point out the benefits of a greener Mediterranean diet.
The Mediterranean diet, you surely know. But have you ever heard of the green Mediterranean diet? This diet contains even more plants and very little red meat and poultry. This diet would be even better for your health than a classic Mediterranean diet. A study, published in the journal Heart, ensures that this variation would be even more beneficial for cardiovascular and metabolic health.
While the Mediterranean diet is linked to a lower risk of heart disease and diabetes, researchers have been studying the benefits of a greener version of this diet. To do this, they randomly divided 294 sedentary and moderately obese people (BMI of 31) with an average age of 51 into three food groups. The first group received advice on increasing physical activity and sticking to a healthy diet. The second group received the same advice on physical activity and advice on following a traditional low-calorie Mediterranean diet (1500-1800 kcal / day for men and 1200-1400 kcal / day for women). In detail, this diet was simple low-carb, high in vegetables. In addition, poultry and fish have replaced red meat. On this diet, participants ate 28 g / day of nuts.
The third group received advice on physical activity and advice on how to stick to a greener, lower-calorie version. This diet included 28g / day of nuts, avoiding red meat and higher amounts of plant matter. It also contained 3-4 cups / day of green tea and 100g frozen cubes of Wolffia globosa, a high-protein form of duckweed, aquatic plants.
Limit your consumption of meat
Conclusion? After six months, the team evaluated the effect of each diet on weight loss and cardiovascular and metabolic risk factors. In detail, those who followed the two types of Mediterranean diet lost more weight (6.2 kg for the green diet and 5.4 for the classic Mediterranean diet against 1.5 kg for a balanced diet). Furthermore, the waist circumference decreased by an average of 8.6 cm in people following the green diet compared to 6.8 cm for those in the classic Mediterranean diet and 4.3 cm for the others.
Another benefit is that the group following the green Mediterranean diet achieved a greater reduction in low-density bad cholesterol of 6.1 mg / dL, or 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 as detailed. MedicalXpress. Likewise, other cardiovascular and metabolic risk factors are improved more in people following the green diet (blood pressure, insulin resistance, etc.).
“Education and encouragement to follow a Mediterranean green diet in combination with physical activity have the potential to be an important contributor to public health as they can improve the balance of cardiovascular risk factors, possibly preventing disease. cardiovascular morbidity and mortality“, Note the authors. Before concluding:”Our results suggest that a further restriction of meat consumption with a parallel increase in plant-based and high-protein foods may further benefit the cardiometabolic state and reduce cardiovascular risk, in addition to the known beneficial effects of the traditional Mediterranean diet.“.
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