|
 More
evidence on the benefits of the traditional
Greek diet
 Researchers
from the University of Athens Medical School
(Trichopoulou and colleagues) conducted
a study on 22,000 adults in Greece and followed
them up after 4 years to determine if sticking
to a traditional mediterranean (Greek) diet
reduced the risk of death. The results were
published in the New England of Journal
of Medicine 2003 (June
vol 348, no 26). The traditional Greek
diet was defined as small amounts of red
and white meat, larger amounts of fish,
lots of vegetables, legumes, fruit and nuts,
moderate alcohol with meals and low dairy
intake in the form of cheese and yoghurt
and fat mostly as olive oil. After taking
into account the exercise levels, body fatness
and smoking they found that a higher degree
of adherence to the traditional dietary
pattern was associated with a reduction
in total mortality, cardiac and cancer mortality.
For the subjects aged over 55 who had substantially
reduced his or her meat consumption and
took in more olive oil, the risk of dying
from any cause fell by 25% during the 4
years. Associations between individual food
groups and total mortality were generally
not significant (except fruits/nuts group)
- in other words one had to follow the total
dietary pattern to get the health benefits.
None of the potentially harmful foods were
associated with significant increases in
risk.
Limitation of this study: only 275 deaths
occurred from a study of 22,000 people and
there was a wide range of intake among the
twelve food groups.
HEC's
Professor Mark Wahlqvist and Dr Antigone
Kouris-Blazos have also published similar
findings on research they conducted on elderly
Greeks in Greece (British
Medical Journal, 1995) and Greek and
Anglo-Celtic Australians (British
Journal of Nutrition, 1999).
For
more information on the Mediterranean
diet see HEC's
fact sheet
Further
information:
Kouris-Blazos
A, Wahlqvist M, Wattanapenpaiboon N. 'Morbidity
mortality paradox' of Greek-born Australians:
possible dietary contributors. Australian
Journal Nutrition and Dietetics, 1999; 56
(2): 97-107; on-line
abstract
Kouris-Blazos A, Wahlqvist ML, Trichopoulou
A, Polychronopoulos E, Trichopoulos D. Health
& Nutritional Status of elderly Greek
migrants to Melbourne, Australia. Age Ageing
1996; 25: 177-189.(on-line
abstract)
Trichopoulou
A, Kouris-Blazos A, Wahlqvist ML, Gnardellis
Ch, Lagiou P, Polychronopoulos E, Vassilakou
T, Lipworth L, & Trichopoulos D. Diet
and overall survival in elderly people.
British Medical Journal 1995; 311 (7018):
1457-1460 (on-line
full text article)
Wahlqvist M,
Kouris-Blazos A, Wattanapenpaiboon N. The
significance of eating patterns: an elderly
Greek case study. Appetite 1999; 32: 23-32;
on-line
full-text article
Last
Updated: Julyt 2003.
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