The Mediterranean has won
38 monkeys were forced to stick to a diet for two years to compare the Mediterranean with the Western
Maxim Abdulaev, "The Attic"
Scientists conducted a dietetic experiment, which lasted 31 months, on 38 macaques (at first there were 43 of them, but two did not go on a diet, and three died during the experiment). During the experiment, monkeys who sat on a western diet rich in animal fats and proteins gained twice as much weight as the group on the Mediterranean diet. Most of the excess weight of the "Westerners" was fat, although they ate less by the end of the term.
The Mediterranean diet consists mainly of vegetables, fruits, seafood and poultry, unlike the Western one, which is replete with fats and proteins of animal origin, red meat and processed products (which put their consumers at increased risk of cancer). It is believed that the Mediterranean diet is good for health, for example, improves a person's cognitive abilities. However, until recently there have been no long-term studies that have studied the effect of this diet on body weight gain and calorie intake. Scientists from the USA decided to fix this and compared the Mediterranean diet with the Western one, conducting a study on macaques (article by Shively et al. Mediterranean versus Western Diet Effects on Caloric Intake, Obesity, Metabolism, and Hepatosteatosis in Nonhuman Primates published in the journal Obesity).
The study lasted 31 months, which, according to scientists, corresponds to 8-12 years of human life for macaques. Macaques were divided into two groups, which were first fed regular laboratory food for monkeys to "equalize", and then, after 6 months, transplanted to Western and Mediterranean diets.
The composition of the Western diet was calculated by scientists so that it was as similar as possible to what the average American woman 40-49 years old eats (according to the US Department of Agriculture). It included products such as high-fructose corn syrup (an ingredient that is widely used in the USA as a source of sucrose, for example, in Coca-Cola), corn oil, lard (fat melted from lard) and beef fat. The Mediterranean diet included, among others, fishmeal, walnuts, beans, bananas, applesauce, tomato paste and olive oil. In general, both diets were designed so that they had the same number of calories and approximately the same ratio of carbohydrates/proteins/fats and cholesterol content.
During the diet trial, the scientists looked at how the animals' body weight, adipose tissue mass, calorie intake and physical activity changed.
Immediately after the macaques were transferred from their laboratory diet to experimental ones, consumption in the Western diet group jumped sharply: their consumption was 80 kcal per kilogram of body weight versus 68 kcal/kg in individuals from the Mediterranean diet group. But then the appetite of the Mediterranean group began to grow, and the western group began to fall, and approximately at the equator of the experiment, at the 15th month, the groups equaled in energy consumption, and then the "Mediterranean" overtook the "western".
Consumption of calories per kilogram of weight during the experiment. Blue is a group on the Western diet, red is on the Mediterranean. Drawings from the article in Obesity.
The mass of the test subjects changed quite differently. Macaques from the Western diet group immediately went ahead and held the lead until the finish. By the end of the experiment, their body mass index was on average 12% higher than that of macaques from the group with a Mediterranean diet. Macaques were examined in a tomograph and saw that most of the weight gain came from adipose tissue.
Changes in body mass index during the experiment period. Blue is a group on the Western diet, red is on the Mediterranean.
Tracking the behavior of animals showed that macaques who were on a Western diet behaved more actively, but this did not affect weight gain.
Scientists believe that obesity as a result of the Western diet can be explained mainly by the composition of fats that were included in both diets.
Although both diets did not differ in calories and the ratio of carbohydrates to proteins and fats, the differences in the composition of fats were very significant. The Western diet had about a third more saturated fatty acids than the Mediterranean diet. In turn, the Mediterranean had the most monounsaturated fatty acids, and the content of polyunsaturated ones did not differ so much: only 6% more than in the Western diet. Perhaps the good appetite of Western macaques at the beginning of the experiment is associated with the composition of fats - previous studies on rodents have shown that a diet with saturated fats leads to overeating.
In addition to the unpleasant consequences of the Western diet, scientists also noted an increase in the mass of fat in the liver in individuals who were on a Western diet – by 40% versus 14% in the group with a Mediterranean diet – and an increase in the level of insulin in the blood, which can be characterized as a prediabetic condition.
The authors believe that the Mediterranean diet protects against overeating, obesity, reduces the risk of diabetes and may be useful for people with enlarged liver.
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