Mediterranean Diet Good for Syndrome X

A recent study found the Mediterranean diet enriched with nuts may be usefully in managing metabolic syndrome (Arch Intern Med. 2008;168(22):2449-2458). A total of 1,224 participants were recruited from the PREDIMED (Prevención con Dieta Mediterránea) Study, a multicenter, three-arm, randomized clinical trial to determine the efficacy of the Mediterranean diet on the primary prevention of cardiovascular disease. Participants were older subjects at high risk for cardiovascular disease. Interventions were quarterly education about the Mediterranean diet plus provision of either 1 L/week of virgin olive oil (Mediterranean diet + VOO) or 30 g/d of mixed nuts (Mediterranean diet + nuts), and advice on a low-fat diet (control diet). All diets were ad libitum, and there was no increase in physical activity for any of the interventions.

At baseline, 61.4 percent of participants met criteria for metabolic syndrome. One-year prevalence was reduced by 6.7 percent, 13.7percent and 2.0 percent in the Mediterranean diet + VOO, Mediterranean diet + nuts, and control diet groups, respectively. Incident rates of metabolic syndreom were not significantly different among groups (22.9 percent, 17.9 percent and 23.4 percent, respectively). After adjustment for sex, age, baseline obesity status and weight changes, the odds ratios for reversion of metabolic syndrome were 1.3 (0.8-2.1) for the Mediterranean diet + VOO group and 1.7 (1.1-2.6) for the Mediterranean diet + nuts group compared with the control diet group.