Mediterranean diet may be better but not the best

Mediterranean diet is being the hot topic in nutrition that attracts media attention in the recent years. We’re often confused about the diet that should be followed for a healthy life. Mediterranean diet may be better but not the best, says researchers and nutrition experts. They said all diets need extensive research studies, and recent research study published in the New England Journal of Medicine (2013) on Mediterranean diets was seriously flawed.

For a good study design, to assess the health benefits of Mediterranean diet, it should be compared with a proven, low-fat diet with heart-protective foods, rich in omega-3 fatty acids.

In a recently published study, Mediterranean diet was compared with ‘low-fat’ diet. However, in real, it was not a ‘low-fat’ diet. The trial participants who consumed so-called ‘low-fat’ diet were on 39% fat diet, prior to the study, and they reduced to just 37% while participating the study.  

Several nutritionists questioned the study-design of the research. Actually, it was not a real low-fat diet but very high-fat food, the experts concerned. Some of the so-called ‘low-fat’ foods used to compare with Mediterranean diets were sugary sodas, red meat, baked foods with refined flour and fats with low-fat cheeses.

The study particularly excluded the foods rich in omega-3 fatty acids such as Pacific cods.

In essence, the study didn’t compare Mediterranean diet with really nutritious low-fat diets. In fact, the study compared Mediterranean diet with a typical American diet but not a real ‘low-fat’ diet.

So, based on the study results, Mediterranean diet can be better than American diet in terms of health and heart benefits.