Want to live longer? Try the lifestyle from this part of the world…
Updated: Aug 20th, 2023
Plant-based diet (img: IANS) |
Those following a plant-based diet with limited added salts and sugars, adequate rest, exercise, and socialisation were found to have a 29% lower risk of all-cause mortality and a 28% lower risk of cancer mortality compared to others who were non-adherent to this lifestyle, a new research has said.
In a study of adults in the UK, those who adhered closely to a Mediterranean lifestyle had lower risk of all-cause and cancer mortality. The Mediterranean is the biogeographical region that includes the Mediterranean Sea and seven member states, either partially (France, Portugal, Italy, Spain) or completely (Greece, Malta, Cyprus).
The researchers analysed the habits of 1,10,799 members of the UK Biobank cohort, a population-based study across England, Wales, and Scotland using the Mediterranean Lifestyle (MEDLIFE) index, which is derived from a lifestyle questionnaire and diet assessments.
What is MEDLIFE?
MEDLIFE consists of factors including food consumption, physical activity, rest, and social interaction habits.
The study by the Autonomous University of Madrid (AUM) and Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health, published in the journal Mayo Clinic Proceedings suggests that it’s possible for non-Mediterranean populations to adopt the Mediterranean diet using locally available products and to adopt the overall Mediterranean lifestyle within their own cultural contexts.
“We’re seeing the transferability of the lifestyle and its positive effects on health,” added Mercedes Sotos Prieto, study’s lead author and adjunct assistant professor of environmental health at Harvard Chan School.
The findings of the study
Participants in the study, who were between the ages of 40 and 75, provided information about their lifestyle according to the three categories the index measures— Mediterranean food consumption; Mediterranean dietary habits’ and ‘physical activity, rest, and social habits and conviviality’.
Among the study population, 4,247 died from all causes; 2,401 from cancer; and 731 from cardiovascular disease.
The researchers observed an inverse association between adherence to the Mediterranean lifestyle and risk of mortality.
Adherence to each MEDLIFE category independently was associated with lower all-cause and cancer mortality risk.
The “physical activity, rest, and social habits and conviviality” category was most strongly associated with these lowered risks, and additionally was associated with a lower risk of cardiovascular disease mortality, said the researchers.
(Source: IANS)
-Edited for style
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