Search Here

In recent years, many fad diets have bombarded the average American, many with dubious claims and questionable health benefits. However, time and time again, the benefits of a diet similar to the diet of people living in and around the Mediterranean Sea have been proven by medical science and health studies of the people who routinely consume foods from this type of diet.

In a soon to be published study in the Endocrine Society's Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism, a diet high in fruit and vegetable consumption and daily amounts of olives and use of olive oil, commonly known as a Mediterranean Diet, is associated with increased serum osteocalcin concentrations, suggesting a protective effect on bone.

Osteoporosis is a degenerative bone disease which affects men and women and leads to weaken bones and increased fractures as we age.

"The intake of olive oil has been related to the prevention of osteoporosis in experimental and in vitro models," said José Manuel Fernández-Real, MD, PhD, of Hospital Dr. Josep Trueta in Girona, Spain and lead author of the study. "This is the first randomized study which demonstrates that olive oil preserves bone, at least as inferred by circulating bone markers, in humans."

The participants in this study were 127 community-dwelling men aged 55 to 80 years randomly selected from one of the Prevencion con Dieta Mediterranea (PREDIMED) study centers who had at least two years of follow-up. The PREDIMED study is a large, parallel group, randomized, controlled trial aimed to assess the effect of the Mediterranean diet on the prevention of cardiovascular diseases.

So it seems that we not only have the Greeks to thank for the Olympic Games, but for paving the way to a healthier and longer life.