That The Mediterranean diet is one of the most touted dietary patterns by experts after showing its many benefits in various scientific studies. Moreover, it seems that the benefits go beyond borders, as new investigations reveal that people who follow the Mediterranean lifestyle –which includes this type of diet and other healthy habits, such as physical exercise, good rest and maintaining social relationships– have less risk of death from cancer, cardiovascular disease, and any cause.

This new study was led by the Autonomous University of Madrid and Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health and focuses on analyzing the benefits of the Mediterranean diet and lifestyle in a non-Mediterranean context, in particular, in Great Britain. The results have been published in Mayo Clinic Proceedings.

“This study shows that it is possible that non-Mediterranean populations adopt a Mediterranean diet using locally available products and adopt a Mediterranean lifestyle in general within their own cultural context,” explained lead author Mercedes Sotos Prieto, Ramón y.Cajal researcher at Autonomous University. of Madrid and Adjunct Professor of Environmental Health at the TH Chan School of Harvard. “We are looking transferability of lifestyles and their positive effects on health..

Lifestyle habits that can lower your risk of death by up to 29%

The Mediterranean diet is rich in fruits, vegetables, and whole grains, and limits foods with added salt and sugar, and the Mediterranean lifestyle includes healthy habits that promote good sleep, staying physically active, and socializing, i.e. sharing time and activities at leisure. with friends and family.

Categories that measure physical activity, rest, and social habits and coexistence were also associated with a lower risk of death from cardiovascular disease.

Researchers studied the lifestyle habits of 110,799 members of the UK Biobank cohort, a population-based study of England, Wales and Scotland using mediterranean lifestyle index (MedLife)scores obtained from the lifestyle and diet evaluation questionnaire.

That participants were between 40 and 75 years old and provide information about their lifestyle according to the three categories that this index measures:

• Eat a Mediterranean diet (intake of foods that are part of the Mediterranean diet, such as fruits and whole grains).
• Mediterranean dietary habits (adherence to customs and practices around food, including limiting salt and consuming healthy drinks).
• Physical activity, rest, and social habits and coexistence (adherence to lifestyle habits that include taking regular naps, exercising, and spending time with friends).

Higher scores indicated greater adherence to a Mediterranean lifestyle, and after nine years the researchers examined the results and found that 4,247 people had died from all causes in the study population, 2,401 from cancer and 731 from cardiovascular disease. .

When analyzing these deaths and the MedLife scores, they observed a inverse relationship between adherence to the Mediterranean lifestyle and risk of death: Participants with the highest MedLife score had a 29% lower risk of all-cause death and a 28% lower risk of cancer death compared to those with the lowest MedLife score.

Adherence to each of the three MedLife categories was independently associated with lower risks of cancer and all-cause mortality, but, in addition, categories measuring physical activity, rest, and social habits and coexistence were also associated with lower rates. risk of death from cardiovascular disease.