The latest dispatch from the food wars: For those at high risk of heart disease, following the Mediterranean diet results in 30 percent fewer heart attacks and strokes. Focused on nuts, beans, fatty fish, fruits and vegetables – all washed down with olive oil and wine (separate glasses, please) – the diet is said to be more effective in combating cardiovascular disease than the low-fat regimens now in vogue.
Thus reports The New England Journal of Medicine to cheers from many, though not all, advocates of healthy eating. Understandably holding their applause are backers of low-fat diets, including the famed Dr. Dean Ornish of the Preventive Medicine Research Institute, in Sausalito, Calif.
Clapping with one hand are skeptics like your author, who, though no medical expert, has read one too many authoritative report on how to live forever, if not longer, only to see it subsequently blasted by another authoritative report.
Anyhow, the Mediterranean diet emphasizes the traditional foods of Italy, Spain, Greece and elsewhere in the region. Their people are known to suffer relatively low rates of heart disease.
Ornish complained on The Huffington Post that “the researchers appear to have done everything they could to bias the outcome in favor of the Mediterranean diet by encouraging the ‘low-fat’ diet to increase consumption of foods that are known to increase the risk of cardiovascular disease, including bread, potatoes, pasta and rice ...”
He wrote that the low-fat group didn’t cut its fat consumption enough to matter much and was discouraged from eating fish rich in omega-3 fatty acids. “We have recommended for decades that patients take 4 grams/day of fish oil or flax oil to provide the omega-3 fatty acids.” Yum.
One problem in comparing the diets was that many in the low-fat control group couldn’t stay with the program. One can sympathize.
Again, I’m no expert, but I suspect that the Mediterranean diet seems to work in part because Mediterraneans eat it. They live in a communal culture where people know how to relax. There’s no hup-hup-hup, “How’s my career going?” to interfere with digestion.
There’s also the curious fact of folks living to hardy old ages in the northern Great Plains, where Chianti and pesto are hardly mainstays. One doubts that promoters of either the low-fat or the Mediterranean diet would recommend kolaches, pork dumplings and cheese-breaded lamb chops as the key to prolonging good health.
So I may be on to something, as suggested in a decade-old news story about elderly people thriving in Ashley, N.D. Public health officials credited low stress, physical exertion, long marriages and tight community for their longevity. Said the town’s doctor, a native of Thailand: “The diet surprises me. They have a high meat diet, but they live long.”
Adding to the conversation, a new study out of Penn State suggests that upon reaching the age of 75, it doesn’t matter much what you eat. That includes sugar, eggs, hamburger and – may they survive their new private-equity ownership – Twinkies.
“The results suggest that if you live to be this old, then there may be little to support the use of overly restrictive dietary prescriptions, especially where food intake may already be inadequate,” said Gordon Jensen, head of Penn State’s Department of Nutritional Sciences.
The study didn’t go into what the subjects ate in their younger days. But the scientists assume the survivors didn’t radically overhaul their diets at age 75.
So what goes into making a centenarian is clearly complicated. But I still like to read the studies, because even though I may not have much control over all this, I like to think I do.
To find out more about Froma Harrop, and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate web page at www.creators.com.
© 2013 THE PROVIDENCE JOURNAL CO.
DISTRIBUTED BY CREATORS.COM
Viewpoints
Related Photos
-
Froma Harrop
How to live long is everybody’s guess
- Viewpoints
-
-
Graduation Day
It is that time of year again.
Some years ago, I was invited to speak at the graduation ceremonies of a liberal arts college. Later, many in the audience told me they expected a very political speech. Some of them were relieved; others were disappointed. I don't do politics at graduation.
Graduation is about life.
My high school graduation was OK. I gave a speech. My family was there, intact, probably as happy as they ever were (But did I know?). We went out for Chinese food afterward. -
Coal problem worth tackling in Washington and Frankfort
Despite hysterical cries from radical environmentalists, neither Sen. Rand Paul’s Defense of Environment and Property Act nor Sen. Mitch McConnell’s Coal Jobs Protection Act would allow activities that bring harm to Kentucky’s wildlife or waterways for the sake of propping up the coal industry.
-
Peter Perlman — Life lessons from a lawyer’s lawyer
One of the great moments of my life was sitting next to legendary Louisville attorney Frank Haddad at a luncheon when he learned he had received the first Peter Perlman Outstanding Trial Lawyer award from the Kentucky Academy of Trial Lawyers.
As they started his bio, the surprised Frank started crying like a baby. A sudden heart attack took him less than a year later. Winning the Perlman award was the crowning achievement of his career. -
Credit score insanity
Frequently, people stop me and ask me personal finance questions.
The most common is how to improve their credit history score.
If you need to improve your credit score, it means you have lousy credit. Before fixing the score, people need to ask how their credit got so bad to begin with. -
‘Tells’ about who will blow their money
Kentucky Derby week is one where gambling takes a forefront in my life. Along with the non-stop activities in my home state, I am speaking at a dinner for the Society of Settlement Professionals in Las Vegas and a film crew from Italy is flying in from Rome to interview me for a documentary about lottery winners.
-
Viewpoints change when critics gain power
Scandals like those roiling Washington often look more or less nefarious as time and facts unfold. After all, what at first looked like a third-rate burglary turned into Watergate.
I doubt the scandals around Benghazi, the IRS and subpoenas of Associated Press phone records reach Watergate status — but we must await more information and time to know. -
Trouble’s last ride
When announcing my retirement, I made reference to letting “Trouble” having one last ride.
-
Going from school to work requires preparation, faith
(Editor’s Note: After graduating from EKU on Saturday, Seth Littrell came to work Monday at the Richmond Register as a reporter/photographer.)
This past Saturday weekend I graduated from Eastern Kentucky University with my bachelor’s in journalism.
It was the single goal I had been working toward for the past four years, and as I walked across that stage I realized I was the first person in my family to do so. -
Report on former EKU Center for the Arts director called 'biased, unfair'
I am writing in response to the Richmond Register’s May 3, 2013, article concerning the former Executive Director of the EKU Center for the Arts. The article I reference appeared on the front page of your newspaper with the headline “Sexual harassment, other offenses alleged in Hoskin’s records in 740 pages of documents.”
-
Recognizing those who provide care
How fitting it is that the beginning of National Nursing Home Week is Mother’s Day, May 12.
- More Viewpoints Headlines
-
Raw: Train Derails After Overpass Collapse
Raw: Rescues From San Antonio Flooding
Raw: French Soldier Stabbed in Throat Near Paris
Mayor: Person Killed in San Antonio Flooding
Raw: Apple 1 Computer Sells for More Than $650k
Hagel Urges Cadets to End Scourge of Sex Assault
Raw: Gay Rights Activists March in Ukraine
Bus Fire Kills 16 Children, Teacher in Pakistan
Raw: Pakistan Election Results Protested
Raw: Trucker Bumps I-5 Bridge Before Collapse
Raw: Texas Deputy Shot by Colo. Suspect Honored
Major Detours Following Wash. Bridge Collapse
American Held in Grisly Czech Murders
Raw: Jersey Shore Reopens for Summer
UK-bound Pakistan Plane Diverted, 2 Men Arrested
