The myth of the Mediterranean diet
The Mediterranean diet does not affect the course of aging
Researchers from Russia, Poland and the Czech Republic have shown how the diet of elderly citizens of these countries correlates with their motor abilities. In the course of large-scale work, scientists have found that the ease of performing everyday actions in those whose diet is close to the Mediterranean diet decreases at the same rate as in the rest of their peers. This means that switching to a diet with lots of fruits, vegetables, olive oil, etc. in old age probably does not contribute to maintaining health – but it does not worsen it either. The scientific article was published in the journal PLoS ONE.
In the countries of Eastern Europe (in the sense defined by the UN Statistical Committee), older people often eat unhealthy food and, as a result, are far from being in the best physical shape. To get more accurate information about the eating habits and aging of Eastern Europeans, an international team of scientists interviewed 9,042 residents of Novosibirsk, 9,247 citizens of Krakow and 7,215 residents of small Czech cities – what they eat and how physically easy they are given daily tasks: vacuuming a room, washing dishes, climbing stairs to a certain floor, walk 1 or 2 km, bring home bags with groceries, etc. (physical functioning subscale, PF-10, 100-point scale for 10 questions – VM). The survey involved men and women who were between 45 and 69 years old at the time of the start of the study. Each participant filled out the questionnaires three times – in 2002-2005, 2006-2008 and 2009-2012.
The search for correlations showed that people whose diet initially had more elements of the Mediterranean diet (a lot of pasta and other foods with complex carbohydrates, vegetables, fruits, olive oil and dairy products; little meat, eggs and fish), at the first survey, regardless of age, were in better physical shape than those who I'm used to eating differently. Nevertheless, over the next 10 years, the physical indicators of adherents of the Mediterranean diet deteriorated in the same way and at the same rate as the rest of the study participants. This applied to both men and women.
Changes in the physical form of three groups of survey participants depending on the degree of compliance of their diet with the Mediterranean principles – VM.
Thus, the nutrition most consistent with the principles of the Mediterranean diet does not slow down physical aging. But it should be explained by the fact that initially lovers of the Mediterranean diet were stronger and more resilient. The authors of the article suggest that this may be due to the eating habits of such people in the past. Probably, for some reason (beliefs or a larger income), they adhered to proper nutrition and a healthy lifestyle from their youth, and due to this, their motor characteristics were preserved better by the beginning of aging than the rest.
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