Longevity & A Mediterranean Diet. Live Longer w/ Tasty Biochem?

mediterranean diet longevity white wall chairs Greece

Photo: Alexandre Chambon, Unsplash

Can A Better-Than-Average Diet Actually Make You Live Longer?:

Back about 2,000 years ago, an Ancient Greek doctor advised us to use food as medicine.

While we might look on this today as quaint, it still might be true.

One theme that comes up a lot recently is getting your vitamins from your diet and not in pill form.

There are even a few scary pieces of research out there as to why.

Equally scary is the research on Health & Wellness’ polar opposite, Ultra-Processed Food, which seems like a gut-bomb of serious proportions.

But something that can get easily overlooked is what happens when you start eating better instead of just not eating junk…

The Short Answer:

Different cultures are a great way to run many experiments at once.
The Mediterranean Diet one thing that’s showing some great results.
Researchers from BWH studied 25,000 women for 25 years.
Those who followed a Mediterranean Diet had a 23% reduced chance of early-mortality.
This includes reductions in Heart-Disease and Cancer.
The two most powerful channels found were: 1)Inflammation and 2)Metabolism.
So the diet seems to reduce inflammation, cardiovascular problems, and some weight issues.
Previous work shows the Olive Oil in the diet protects cells in the gut, possibly elsewhere, and acts like an antioxidant.
This is important, because some foods create harmful oxides called ROS.
Olive Oil brings other helpful compounds into the body that are stored and then released later.
Small changes can make big differences.
It’s possible that The Med Diet and Olive Oil should be put on the list of things that will help you live to 100.

Read on to find out the details…

→ Show/Hide Table Of Contents ←

Lots Of Experiments Get Us To Better Answers Faster:

One of the things we’re really lucky to have is a collection of different cultures around the world that all do things a little bit differently.

That way, we get many experiments running all at the same time.

One of those experiments getting great results right now is The Mediterranean Diet.

That plan encourages: Fruits, Vegetables, Olive Oil, Nuts, Seeds, Legumes, and Whole Grains.

It suggests moderate intake of: Poultry, Fish, Some Dairy, Eggs, and Red Wine.

It also discourages: Red Meat, Butter, Salt, Sweets, Full-Fat Dairy, and Processed Foods.

Sizeable Study, Big Results On Mediterranean Diet’s Magic:

Eating in the Med Diet’s specific ways look like they’re not only healthier than losing the junk food.

They look like they’re even better than an average “good” diet as well.

And here’s the evidence.

Researchers from Brigham & Women’s hospital conducted a study on 25,000 women that included data spanning 25 years.

They found that women who followed The Mediterranean Diet had a 23% lower risk of early-mortality vs. the average.

What’s surprising and significant in these results is they include the top two causes of early mortality as well! (Heart-disease and The Big C)

How Does The Magic Work? Fig Big Factors:

Not only did they find that, the researchers also looked at 40 biomarkers.

The ones that stood out the most for the observed changes were:
1) Inflammation
2) Metabolism

After that, the next most significant changes were:
3) Fat levels in the blood
4) Being Overweight or Obese
5) Insulin-resistance

A few others were mentioned, but their effects appeared to be small in-comparison.

So somehow, The Mediterranean Diet may extend lifespan just by reducing inflammation and being better for the heart and waistline.

Previous Research Shows More Small-Scale Wonders:

Adding to that, previous to this came up with a few findings.

1) The type of fats in The Med Diet’s Olive Oil protect at least the gut cells from damage
1a) This was A/B-tested to show trans-fats actually hurting them.
2) They can create a protective physical barrier around tissues of the body.
3) Those fats also work similar to anti-oxidants, creating a second type of defense
3a) This is important, because metabolism of some foods can create a harmful opposite of an anti-oxidant.
4) These effects might not be limited to the gut because that diet has also been shown to preserve brain-function with age.
5) It’s also been found that olive oil has beneficial compounds the body stores and then re-releases under certain circumstances.
5a) These lead to a whole other set of benefits.

So aside from the pathways found in the Brigham study, there are many others that are going on.

A Few Study Limits, But It Should Work For Everyone:

Now for the limits.

The study was done mostly on white non-Hispanic women who were middle-aged or older, and also health professionals.

And as many nutritional studies, it was based on self-reported data.

But the whole point of-course, is that the results won’t just be reserved for women.

This might be especially helpful, since women tend to live longer than men.

That’s the hope anyway.

How To Live To 100. Eat Mediterranean & Use Olive Oil:

Since all these large-scale improvements are coming from small changes in biochemistry repated in tiny baby-steps over time,

Who knows how far this could go?

Maybe it’s no coincidence that people from Sardinia are some of the longest-lived people in the world.

And since Okinawans are also, maybe The Mediterranean Diet’s tendency toward fish is another helpful trend as well.

There’s no telling if it qualifies for Dietary Diversity, which was just identified as another component of long life.

But it’s looking like with all the small changes adding up to big results, we might just have to put it on the list of things you have to do if you want to Live To 100!