Wholegrains prevent cancer

You do not limit your calorie intake, but a Mediterranean diet still ensures that you lose weight and reduces the risk of blood clots, cancer, and perhaps even dementia.

Eat like an Italian, and live longer. Mediterranean food is based on the diet that people consumed in Greece, Southern Italy, and Spain prior to the 1950s, consisting of coarse vegetables, wholegrains, fish, nuts, avocado, etc.

Scientists have not yet made a major study which shows that the diet ensures 1950s, has become particularly popular. Back then, meat, eggs, milk, cheese, and sugar were luxury goods, and people particularly consumed coarse vegetables, wholegrains, a little fish, and single-unsaturated fat from olive oil and nuts. In spite of the humble diet, people were more healthy and lived longer than much wealthier people in Northern Europe and the US, and several scientists have subsequently studied Mediterranean diets.

Their conclusion is that the diet’s individual components protect against cardiovascular disease, cancer, etc. Moreover, a large quantity of dietary fibres fill the stomach and provide the brain with a prolonged feeling of satiety in spite of the fewer calories. A major study from 2016 longevity, but they have shown that it is better than a traditional diet, when it comes to weight loss and reduced risk of diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

Moreover, scientists have reason to believe that the individual elements of the diet have a positive effect on body cells. Antioxidants from vegetables and wholegrains reduce oxidative stress, whereas the lack of protein from red meat stabilizes the cells' liberation of hormones. Both reduce the risk of individual cells converting into cancer cells, which develop into a lethal tumour. showed that the diet’s slimming effect was much greater than in the case of a traditional, calorie-counting diet. People who consumed a Mediterranean diet lost 4-10 kg, whereas those on a traditional diet only lost 3-5 kg. The result is surprising in many ways, as the Mediterranean diet contains more fat than the average – 40 % as compared to 34 %. The decisive difference is that the fat consists of unsaturated fatty acids from olive oil, nuts, etc. The unsaturated fat contributes less than saturated fat to the building of the body’s fat tissue.

Protein diet affects food pyramid

Some diets are more extreme, when it comes to changing our eating habits. One of them is the Atkins diet that turns the food pyramid upside down. It brutally reduces the number of carbohydrates, so instead of making up 55 % of the daily energy intake, it only makes up 5 %. On the other hand, the quantity of fat and protein is doubled.

The dramatic change of diet has made several doctors and scientists doubt whether the diet is healthy. The question has not yet been answered – primarily because the diet has only been used by many people for about a decade, and scientists hence do not yet know its long-term effects. On the other hand, there is no doubt that it is an efficient diet.

In a major comparison of 10 groups of researchers' results, it turned out that the

Atkins diet averagely causes a weight loss of 7.7 kg over six months. The cause of the weight loss is probably that the food makes you feel more full than carbohydrates, and the lack of carbohydrates makes the liver release ketones, which also have a satiety effect.

Lack of carbohydrates in the food also has another important effect. Your body will absorb less glucose, which is the primary break-down product of carbohydrates, and so, the pancreas will release less insulin to regulate the quantity of glucose in the blood. Decreasing insulin levels is an advantage, as a high level will make the cells of the body less sensitive to the hormone over time. Lacking insulin sensitivity could cause type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, infection, and other conditions, and several studies indicate that the Atkins diet could reduce the risk of those diseases.

Scientists ponder paradox

Excess weight is bad for your heart. The extra kg could cause elevated blood pressure, curb the blood supply to the heart muscle, or cause heart failure. Still, new research indicates that overweight people apparently stand a greater chance of surviving cardiovascular disease than people with a normal weight. Scientists have named the phenomenon the obesity paradox and have not yet been able to explain it. According to one theory, our measure of excess weight – a BMI of 25+ – does not accurately reflect the size of the person’s fat deposits. However, the obesity paradox seems to hold water, no matter if scientists use BMI or simply measure the quantity of body fat.

The paradox gets more complicated by the fact that the excess weight could improve their chances of survival even more – by losing weight. So, scientists still advise both sick and healthy overweight people to slim down.

However, that does not necessarily mean that scientists urge you to use any type of diet. Mouse and rat experiments have shown that quick weight loss might affect the hormone balance, so the animals will eat more after the diet and end up with a higher weight than before the diet began.

Similar trends are observed in humans. In 2017, a major study compared the long- term consequences of a series of diets. The study included 26,000 test subjects who were all dieting for 6+ months. Those on a traditional diet had lost five kg after six months, and over the following 2.5 years, they regained two kg. The people on a powder diet with very few calories lost 18 kg over the first six months, but had gained 12 kg after 2.5 years. According to some scientists, the weight fluctuation can be harmful to the body, but it is still debated, and scientists do not yet have a clear answer.

Bacteria are the answer

The key to avoiding weight fluctuation is to find a diet that is efficient and not too hard on the body, causing the brain to retaliate. Such a diet probably exists, but it's hard to fine: according to new research, it must be customised for individual people.

All diets affect the metabolism, and one single diet can affect different people very differently. Some of the explanation of the latter phenomenon was uncovered in 2015 by scientists Eran Elinav and Eran Segal from the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel. The scientists observed 800 test subjects closely for one week, continuously measuring their blood sugar levels with a mobile device. When they analysed the results, they were quite surprised.

One person could eat cookies without having very much sugar in his blood, while the same thing made the blood sugar level hit the roof in another person. Further studies revealed that the difference was due to differnces of the subjects’ intestinal floras. Intestinal bacteria play an important role in our metabolism, and based on the intestinal flora, scientists managed to customize diets for each of the 25 test subjects, so their blood sugar levels could be kept under control. The method can probably be used to customise effective diets.