Mediterranean Diet

Acciaroli, Italy is known for two things: its stunning seaside beauty and the fact that 1 in 10 people who inhabit the village are classed as centenarians – someone who lives to be 100 years old or more. Eighty-one of its 7,000 citizens are over 100, not to mention a large population of those living healthily in their 80’s and 90’s.
Drawn to understand the secret of their longevity, scientists at Rome’s Sapienza University and the San Diego School of Medicine spent 6 months studying the locals and unveiled their findings at a conference in the village. [1]

The Mediterranean diet is looking more and more appealing these days. Earlier this month, scientists said that adding a small amount of pasta to your Mediterranean diet wouldn’t help pack unwanted pounds onto your frame. In fact, they said, it could even help you slim down a bit.

Pasta isn’t what you normally think of as a weight-loss food. Many distance runners and other athletes use pasta to load up on carbohydrates to give them fuel before a competition, but you don’t hear of people gorging on spaghetti in order to drop a few pounds for a wedding, unless it’s some crazy fad diet. Pasta’s image, however, may get a reboot from a new study by Italian researchers, who say pasta might help people lose fat.

Neutralizing the breakdown of gut microbes may be the key to maintaining a healthy heart. How? A compound in some red wines, olive oils, balsamic vinegars, and grape seed oils known as DMB can alter gut microbes in a way that might help prevent heart disease.

The notoriously-healthy Mediterranean diet – with a heaping helping of olive oil – has been associated with a decreased risk of breast cancer in a new study.