The Rise and Fall of the Mediterranean Diet and Related Nutrients in Preventing Diabetes

M Mirabelli, A Brunetti Nutrients, 2022•mdpi.com

Nutrients 2022, 14(2), 379; https://doi.org/10.3390/nu14020379

 Published: 17 January 2022

Four years after the successful narrative review of Alkhatib et al.[1], an online search on PubMed using keywords “diabetes” and “functional food” reveals over 2700 studies on the subject: namely 1300 more than in the previous output [1]. As retrieved from the literature, the best known source of (natural) functional foods is the Mediterranean Diet (MedDiet), which is rich in fresh fruits, vegetables, olive oils, fish, poultry, eggs, herbs and nuts and has traditionally been eaten by people from the lands surrounding the Mediterranean Sea, who were found to be blessed with exceptional longevity from the 1960s to the early 2000s [2]. While pioneering observational/epidemiological works failed to provide evidence of causality in the beneficial relationship between adherence to the MedDiet and healthy aging [3], a subsequent long series of clinical randomized trials and post hoc analyses from the landmark PREvención con DIeta MEDiterránea (PREDIMED) study program, conducted in Spain between 2003–2010, conclusively revealed that adults eating non-calorie-restricted MedDiet recipes, enriched with extra virgin olive oil (EVOO) or nuts, achieve half the risk of developing type 2 diabetes (T2D), cancer or cardiovascular disease during a 4-year period of follow-up with respect to those adhering to a typical low-fat diet. Read more