Tag Archives: Mediterranean diet

Paleolithic and Mediterranean Diet Patterns Reduce Markers of Inflammation

Posted on September 26, 2016 | Comments Off on Paleolithic and Mediterranean Diet Patterns Reduce Markers of Inflammation

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Many chronic medical conditions are though to be caused by chronic inflammation in our bodies. Sample conditions include high blood pressure, coronary artery disease (heart attacks), metabolic syndrome, type 2 diabetes, autoimmune diseases, and perhaps some cancers.

Taking the association further: could we prevent or alleviate these conditions by reducing inflammation? If so, diet is one way to do it.

Here’s an abstract from a scientific article I found:

Background: Chronic inflammation and oxidative balance are associated with poor diet quality and risk of cancer and other chronic diseases. A diet–inflammation/oxidative balance association may relate to evolutionary discordance.

“Objective: We investigated associations between 2 diet pattern scores, the Paleolithic and the Mediterranean, and circulating concentrations of 2 related biomarkers, high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP), an acute inflammatory protein, and F2-isoprostane, a reliable marker of in vivo lipid peroxidation.

Methods: In a pooled cross-sectional study of 30- to 74-y-old men and women in an elective outpatient colonoscopy population (n = 646), we created diet scores from responses on Willett food-frequency questionnaires and measured plasma hsCRP and F2-isoprostane concentrations by ELISA and gas chromatography–mass spectrometry, respectively. Both diet scores were calculated and categorized into quintiles, and their associations with biomarker concentrations were estimated with the use of general linear models to calculate and compare adjusted geometric means, and via unconditional ordinal logistic regression.

Results: There were statistically significant trends for decreasing geometric mean plasma hsCRP and F2-isoprostane concentrations with increasing quintiles of the Paleolithic and Mediterranean diet scores. The multivariable-adjusted ORs comparing those in the highest with those in the lowest quintiles of the Paleolithic and Mediterranean diet scores were 0.61 (95% CI: 0.36, 1.05; P-trend = 0.06) and 0.71 (95% CI: 0.42, 1.20; P-trend = 0.01), respectively, for a higher hsCRP concentration, and 0.51 (95% CI: 0.27, 0.95; P-trend 0.01) and 0.39 (95% CI: 0.21, 0.73; P-trend = 0.01), respectively, for a higher F2-isoprostane concentration.

Conclusion: These findings suggest that diets that are more Paleolithic- or Mediterranean-like may be associated with lower levels of systemic inflammation and oxidative stress in humans.”

Source: Paleolithic and Mediterranean Diet Pattern Scores Are Inversely Associated with Biomarkers of Inflammation and Oxidative Balance in Adults

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Which Costs More?: Mediterranean Diet, a Modified Paleo Diet, or Intermittent Fasting

Posted on September 25, 2016 | Comments Off on Which Costs More?: Mediterranean Diet, a Modified Paleo Diet, or Intermittent Fasting

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Click the link at bottom for details. From the study abstract:

“Background: Obesity, and resulting health problems, is a growing issue facing today’s society. Weight-loss diets are popular worldwide but have shown mixed health outcomes. Current research has shown that the Mediterranean (MED) and Paleolithic (Paleo) diets as well as Intermittent Fasting (IF) have positive health outcomes. However, there is very little research surrounding the cost of all three popular diets. One factor that may influence long- term adherence is the cost of the dietary regime.

Conclusion: Although these differences in costs were not significant, the analysis suggests the Paleo diet is a slightly more expensive plan, while the IF plan has emerged as a potentially cheaper weight-loss intervention. Small sample sizes in the Paleo diet plan limits the potential for comparison.”

Source: A Cost Analysis of Three Popular Diets: the Mediterranean Diet, a Modified Paleo Diet and Intermittent Fasting

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Paleolithic and Mediterranean Diets Linked to Lower Incidence of Colon Polyps

Posted on July 2, 2016 | Comments Off on Paleolithic and Mediterranean Diets Linked to Lower Incidence of Colon Polyps

Adenomas in the colon (aka colon polyps) are precursors to colon cancer. Experts think that if we can prevent the onset of colon polyps, we’ll see less colon cancer. A recent study suggests that both a Paleo-type diet and Mediterranean-style diet reduce risk of colon polyps. A sample:

“Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the third most commonly diagnosed cancer and the second-leading cause of cancer mortality in the United States. Rapidly increasing incidence rates in previously low-incidence populations in urban China and Japan and among male Polynesians in Hawaii have coincided with the adoption of a more westernized lifestyle by those populations. These changing incidence rates, along with studies of immigrant populations, point to a strong influence of diet and other lifestyle factors on CRC risk.”

Source: Paleolithic and Mediterranean Diet Pattern Scores and Risk of Incident, Sporadic Colorectal Adenomas

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Seafood May Lower Your Risk of Dementia

Posted on June 11, 2016 | Comments Off on Seafood May Lower Your Risk of Dementia

…according to an article at the Journal of the American Medical Association. The study involved Chicago-area residents who had provided information about their eating habits. After death, their brains were biopsied, looking for typical pathological findings of Alzheimers Disease.

fresh salmon and lobsters

Rich sources of omega-3 fatty acids include salmon, sardines, herring, trout, and mackerel

Participants who ate seafood at least once a week had fewer Alzheimers lesions in their brains, but only if they were carriers of a particular gene the predisposes to Alzheimers. The gene is called apolipoprotein E or APOE ε4.

You’ve heard that seafood may be contaminated with mercury, right? The seafood eaters in this study indeed had higher brain levels of mercury, but it didn’t cause any visible brain damage.

The Mediterranean diet, relatively rich in seafood, has long been linked to a lower risk of dementia.

A weakness of the study is that the researchers didn’t report results of clinical testing for dementia in these participants before they died. You can have microscopic evidence of Alzheimers disease on a biopsy, yet no clinical diagnosis of dementia.

Steve Parker, M.D.

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Paleolithic Diet Improved Metabolic Syndrome in Just Two Weeks

Posted on January 6, 2015 | 3 comments
Wish I were here

Wish I were here

A Paleolithic-type diet over two weeks improves several heart disease risk factors in folks with metabolic syndrome, according to Netherlands-based researchers.

The investigators wondered if the paleo diet, independent of weight loss, would alter characteristics of the metabolic syndrome. They seem to be the first scientists to do a study like this.

“Metabolic syndrome” may be a new term for you. It’s a collection of clinical features that are associated with increased future risk of type 2 diabetes and atherosclerotic complications such as heart attack and stroke. One in six Americans has metabolic syndrome, including almost one in four of adults. The most common definition of metabolic syndrome (and there are others) is the presence of at least three of the following characteristics:

  • high blood pressure (130/85 or higher, or using a high blood pressure medication)
  • low HDL cholesterol: under 40 mg/dl (1.03 mmol/l) in a man, under 50 mg/dl (1.28 mmol/l) in a women (or either sex taking a cholesterol-lowering drug)
  • triglycerides over 150 mg/dl (1.70 mmol/l) (or taking a triglyceride-lowering drug)
  • abdominal fat: waist circumference 40 inches (102 cm) or greater in a man, 35 inches (88 cm) or greater in a woman
  • fasting blood glucose over 100 mg/dl (5.55 mmol/l)

These five criteria were identical to the ones used in the study at hand. But the study participants were required to have only two of the five, not three, for unclear reasons. I found no consensus definition elsewhere that would define metabolic syndrome as only two of the five conditions. Study participants ate either a paleo-style diet or a reference/control diet. Those eating the reference diet didn’t quite have the metabolic syndrome since they had a mean (“average”) of 2.7 metabolic syndrome characteristics. The paleo group had 3.7 characteristics.

How Was the Study Done?

Average age of the 34 study participants was 53 and they were generally healthy. None had diabetes, cardiovascular disease, or systolic pressure over 180 mmHg. Smokers were excluded. Mean body mass index was 32 (obese). Only 9 of the 34 subjects were men. Subjects were randomized to either a Paleolithic-type diet (n=18) or a “healthy reference diet based on the guidelines of the Dutch Health Council” (n=14). Efforts were made to keep body weight stable during the two-week study. Participants were nearly all caucasian.

All meals were home-delivered free of charge by a catering service.

The Paleolithic-type diet “…was based on lean meat, fish, fruit, leafy and cruciferous vegetables, root vegetables, eggs and nuts. Dairy products, cereal grains, legumes, refined fats, extra salt and sugar were not part of it.” [I like their version of the paleo diet.] Protein supplied 24% of calories while carbohydrate was 32% and fat 41%.

You can consult the full text of the published article for details of the Dutch Health Council diet. Calories were 17% from protein, 50% from carbohydrate, and 29% from fat. Alcohol isn’t mentioned at all.

Despite randomization, the paleo diet group had more metabolic syndrome characteristics than the reference diet group. For instance, 78% of the paleo group had elevated fasting glucose compared to 44% of the reference group. And 67% of the paleo group had low HDL cholesterol compared to just 13% of the reference group. These glucose and HDL differences were statistically significant. 39% of the paleo had high triglycerides compared to 19% of the others. Furthermore, the paleos’ average body weight was 98 kg (216 lb) compared to 86 kg (189 lb) in the others. The paleo group had 3.7 characteristics of the metabolic syndrome versus 2.7 in the other cohort.

Go John trail at Cave Creek Regional Park in Scottsdale, Arizona

Go John trail at Cave Creek Regional Park in Scottsdale, Arizona

Results

Compared to the reference diet, the paleo-style diet:

  • lowered systolic pressure by 9 points and diastolic by 5
  • total cholesterol fell by 0.52 mmol/l (20 mg/dl)
  • triglycerides fell by 0.89 mmol/l (79 mg/dl)
  • HDL cholesterol (good) rose by 0.15 mmol/l (6 mg/dl)
  • body weight fell by 1.32 kg (3 lb)
  • one metabolic syndrome characteristic resolved

No significant changes were seen in intestinal permeability ( by differential sugar absorption test on urine), salivary cortisol, and inflammation (hsCRP, TNFα).

Fasting plasma insulin and HOMA-IR fell in the paleo group but not the other.[Good news for folks with diabetes or prediabetes.] Yet the authors write, “Regarding glucose intolerance we did not find significant changes in our study.”

Fasting blood glucose for the group as a whole at baseline was about 1o8 mg/dl (6.0 mmol/l). Fasting glucose fell in both groups: 16 mg/dl (0.9 mmol/l) in the paleo group, 6 mg/dl (0.35 mmol/l) in the other. This was not a statistically significant difference between the groups. These numbers are from the text of the report; looking at the tables, I calculate different and less impressive reductions. The falls in fasting glucose from baseline were statistically significant for both diets.

Nearly all the statistical analysis focused on comparing the paleo diet group to the reference diet group.

My Comments

Overall, I’m not very pleased with this study. My biggest problems are 1) the unfortunate randomization that created dissimilar experimental groups,  2) the use of two diet protocols, 3) some of the study participants didn’t even have metabolic syndrome, and 4) as is typical for paleo diet studies, not many experimental subjects were involved.

The randomization led to significant differences in the metabolic syndrome patients in the two diet groups. I’m puzzled why the authors don’t comment on this. It’s a problem with clinical studies involving low numbers of participants. Ideally, you want to apply the two different diets to groups of people that are as similar as possible. These groups weren’t that similar.

The investigators’ main goal was to study whether a paleo-style diet, independent of weight loss, alters characteristics of the metabolic syndrome. Then why introduce another variable, the Dutch Health Council diet? Is it the gold standard for treating metabolic syndrome? Has it even been used to treat metabolic syndrome? The authors don’t tell us. And why not restrict participation to subjects who meet the common international definition of metabolic syndrome (at least three of the five characteristics)? Why not just take all your subjects and switch them from their standard Netherlands diet to the paleo diet? That would increase your statistical power, and would have avoided the randomization mis-match in which some in the reference diet group didn’t even have metabolic syndrome.

Here we’ve got two different experimental groups, and we’re applying a different diet to each group. The results are going to be messy and difficult to interpret. It’s always better if you can alter just one variable.

Since the paleo and reference diet cohorts were so different at baseline, why not make it easy to simply compare the paleo diet group’s “before and after numbers”? Maybe the analysis is there and I’m just not smart enough to see it.

There weren’t enough men in the study to tell us anything about the paleo diet in men with metabolic syndrome.

The statistical analysis was difficult for me to read and understand. There’s a good chance I’ve missed or misinterpreted something.

This paleo diet reduced fasting blood sugar significantly, making me think it may help in management of diabetes and prediabetes.

I estimate that as much as a quarter of the experimental subjects didn’t even have metabolic syndrome, so the study title is a bit of a misnomer.

This paleo diet did result in resolution of one metabolic syndrome characteristic, which is a good thing. So you could say the diet improves metabolic syndrome, even resolves it in some folks if it drops their metabolic syndrome characteristics from three to two. It predominantly helps lower blood pressure and triglycerides, and reduces excess weight modestly. In white women. Compared to the healthy Dutch Health Council diet.

If I had metabolic syndrome, I’d do something about it in hopes of lowering my future risk of diabetes and atherosclerotic complications. Standard physician advice is to lose excess weight and exercise regularly. There’s no consensus on diet yet. I think carbohydrate restriction is important. If the study at hand is reproducible in a larger study population, the paleo diet is a reasonable approach. Dietitian Franziska Spritzler has a great review of nutritional management of metabolic syndrome at her blog. The Mediterranean diet supplemented with nuts helps improve metabolic syndrome. The Spanish Ketogenic Mediterranean Diet may cure metabolic syndrome.

Steve Parker, M.D.

Update: I took a fresh look at this study as if it were simply a paleo diet trial involving 18 subjects who had metabolic syndrome. If I’m interpreting Table 5 correctly, and I think I am, these are the statistically significant changes after two weeks:

  • abdominal circumference decreased by 3.1 cm
  • systolic and diastolic blood pressures dropped by 8.5 and 8, respectively
  • fasting glucose dropped by 0.4 mmol/l (7 mg/dl)
  • fasting insulin fell
  • HOMA-IR decreased (less insulin resistance)
  • total cholesterol decreased from 220 to 193 mg/dl (5.7 to 5.0 mmol/l)
  • LDL-cholesterol decreased from 135 to 124 mg/dl (3.5 to 3.2 mmol/l)
  • triglycerides decreased from 168 to 89 mg/dl (1.9 to 1.0 mmol/l)

HDL cholesterol was unchanged.

The fall in AUC (area under the curve) for insulin approached but didn’t reach statistical significance (p=0.08)

Body weight fell from 98 kg (216 lb) to 95.3 kg (210 lb) but I found no p value. HDL-cholesterol was unchanged (the higher HDL I mentioned above is only in comparison to the reference diet, in which HDL fell)

All of these changes (except the lack of change in HDL-chol) would tend to promote health in someone with metabolic syndrome, prediabetes, or overweight type 2 diabetes.

Reference: Boers, Inga, et al. Favorable effects of  consuming a Palaeolithic-type diet on characteristics of the metabolic syndrome: a randomized controlled pilot-study. Lipids in Health and Disease. 2014 Oct 11;13:160. doi: 10.1186/1476-511X-13-160.

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What’s the Healthiest Diet?

Posted on October 1, 2014 | 2 comments
Steve Parker MD

Not Amby Burfoot

Running guru Amby Burfoot has an article asking, “what is the healthiest diet?”  for the general public. His answer comes from the Journal of Nutrition. Looks like there are four winners. A quote from Mr. Burfoot:

They [the four leading contenders for best diet] differ slightly in the degree to which they favor, or disfavor, certain foods and food types, such as the following:

  • The Healthy Eating Index 2010: Considers low-fat dairy products a plus.
  • The Alternative Healthy Eating Index 2010: Considers nuts/legumes a plus, as well as moderate alcohol consumption. Trans fats, sugary beverages, salt, and red meat get a minus.
  • The Alternate Mediterranean Diet: Considers fish, nuts/legumes, and moderate alcohol a plus; red meat, a minus.
  • The DASH Diet: Considers low-fat dairy and nuts/legumes a plus; sugary beverages, salt, and red meat get a minus.

The four tend to favor whole grains and disparage red meat. I doubt the Journal of Nutrition article even considered the paleo diet because we lack similar extent of clinical data to compete with the others.

Comments are open temporarily.

Steve Parker, M.D.

 

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Five Ways to Preserve Brain Function While Aging

Posted on June 14, 2014 | Comments Off on Five Ways to Preserve Brain Function While Aging

The following quote is from an Instant Expert paper on intelligence. It’s full of interesting facts such as the typical difference in IQ between strangers is 17 points. It answers the question whether an enriched school or home environment can increase intelligence.

There are ways of slowing or reversing losses in cognitive function. The most effective discovered so far is physical exercise, which protects the brain by protecting the body’s cardiovascular health. Mental exercise, often called brain training, is widely promoted, but it boosts only the particular skill that is practised – its narrow impact mirroring that of educational interventions at other ages. Various drugs are being investigated for their value in staving off normal cognitive decline, but for now preventive maintenance is still the best bet – avoid smoking, drinking to excess, head injuries and the like.

Also, I think the Mediterranean diet helps preserve brain function, but it’s difficult to prove.

MRI scan of brain

MRI scan of brain

The article mentions overload of patients’ brains when medical care is too complicated:

Given the complexity of self-care regimes, it is hardly surprising that some people make dangerous errors or fail to comply. The effective management of diabetes, for example, requires a person to keep blood sugar levels within a healthy range, which means coordinating diet, exercise and medication throughout the day, which in turn requires planning for contingencies, recognising when blood sugar is veering too high or low, knowing how to regain control and conceptualising the imperceptible but cumulative damage caused by failing to maintain control. There is no set recipe for people with diabetes to follow – their bodies and circumstances differ. Moreover, they get little training, virtually no supervision and no days off. Effectively managing your diabetes is a cognitively complex job and poor performance has serious consequences, including emergency room visits, lost limbs or eyesight, and even death. The lower the diabetic person’s IQ, the greater the risks.

You’ll also learn about the Flynn effect and possible explanations for it:

Over the past century, each successive generation has answered more IQ test items correctly than the last, the rise being equivalent to around 3 IQ points per decade in developed nations. This is dubbed the “Flynn effect” after the political scientist James Flynn, who most thoroughly documented it. Are humans getting smarter, and if so, why? 

I’m more inclined to think Idiocracy describes our future.

Steve Parker, M.D.

h/t James Fulford

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What’s the Single Best Diet for T2 Diabetics?

Posted on December 21, 2013 | 6 comments
Thinking about it...

Thinking about it…

DietDoctor has some ideas based on a recent scientific study:

A new exciting Swedish study provides us with strong clues on how a person with diabetes should eat (and how to eat to maximize fat burning). It’s the first study to examine in detail how various blood markers change throughout the day depending on what a diabetic person eats.

The study examined the effects of three different diets in 19 subjects with diabetes type 2. They consumed breakfast and lunch under supervision in a diabetes ward. The caloric intake in the three diets examined was the same, but the diets differed in the following manner:

  1. A conventional low-fat diet (45-56% carbs)
  2. A Mediterranean diet with coffee only for breakfast (= similar to 16:8 intermittent fasting) and a big lunch (32-35% carbs)
  3. A moderate low-carbohydrate diet (16-24% carbs)

All participants tested all three diets, one diet each day in randomized order.

Click through for results. Hint: Carbohydrate restriction works.

Steve Parker, M.D.

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Book Review: Zest For Life

Posted on October 30, 2013 | Comments Off on Book Review: Zest For Life

A couple years ago I read and reviewed Zest For Life: The Mediterranean Anti-Cancer Diet, by Conner Middelmann-Whitney, published in 2011. Per Amazon.com’s rating system, I give it five stars (I love it).

This post has nothing to do with the paleo diet, yet I see Stella Metsovas has a new program called the PaleoMediterranean™ diet. I’m not familiar with it.

♦   ♦   ♦

The lifetime risk of developing invasive cancer in the U.S. is four in ten: a little higher for men, a little lower for women.  Those are scary odds.  Cancer is second only to heart disease as a cause of death in western societies.  The Mediterranean diet has a well established track record of protecting against cancers of the prostate, colon/rectum, uterus, and breast.  Preliminary data suggest protection against melanoma and stomach cancer, too.  I’m not aware of any other way of eating that can make similar claims.

So it makes great sense to spread the word on how to eat Mediterranean-style, to lower your risk of developing cancer.  Such is the goal of Zest For Life’s author.  The Mediterranean diet is mostly, although by no means exclusively, plant-based.  It encourages consumption of natural, minimally processed, locally grown foods.  Generally, it’s rich in vegetables, fruits, legumes, olive oil, whole grains, red wine, and nuts. It’s low to moderate in meat, chicken, fish, eggs, and dairy products (mostly cheese and yogurt).

Note that one of the four longevity hot spots featured in Dan Buettner’s Blue Zones was Mediterranean: Sardinia.  All four Blue Zones were characterized by plant-based diets of minimally processed, locally grown foods. (I argue that Okinawa and the Nicoya Peninsula dwellers ate little meat simply due to economic factors.)

Proper diet won’t prevent all cancer, but perhaps 10-20% of common cancer cases, such as prostate, breast, colorectal, and uterine cancer.  A natural, nutrient-rich, mostly plant-based diet seems to bolster our defenses against cancer.

Ms. Middelmann-Whitney is no wacko claiming you can cure your cancer with the right diet modifications.  She writes, “…I do not advocate food as a cancer treatment once the disease has declared itself….”

She never brings it up herself, but I detect a streak of paleo diet advocacy in her.  Several of her references are from Loren Cordain, one of the gurus of the modern paleo diet movement.

She also mentions the ideas of Michael Pollan very favorably.

She’s not as high on whole grains as most of the other current nutrition writers.  She points out that, calorie for calorie, whole grains are not as nutrient-rich as vegetables and fruits.  Speaking of which, she notes that veggies generally have more nutrients than fruits. Furthermore, she says, grain-based flours probably contribute to overweight and obesity. She suggests that many people eat too many grains and would benefit by substituting more nutrient-rich foods, such as veggies and fruits.

Some interesting things I learned were 1) the 10 most dangerous foods to eat while driving, 2) the significance of organized religion in limiting meat consumption in some Mediterranean regions, 3) we probably eat too many omega-6 fatty acids, moving the omega-6/omega-3 ratio away from the ideal of 2:1 or 3:1 (another paleo diet principle), 4) one reason nitrites are added to processed meats is to create a pleasing red color (they impair bacterial growth, too), 5) fresh herbs are better added towards the end of cooking, whereas dried herbs can be added earlier, 6) 57% of calories in western societies are largely “empty calories:” refined sugar, flour, and industrially processed vegetable oils, and 7) refined sugar consumption in the U.S. was 11 lb (5 kg) in the 1830s, rising to 155 lb (70 kg) by 2000.

Any problems with the book?  The font size is a bit small for me; if that worries you, get the Kindle edition and choose your size.  She mentions that omega-6 and omega-3 fatty acids are “essential” fats. I bet she meant to say specifically that linolenic and linoleic fatty acids are essential (our bodies can’t make them); linolenic happens to be an omega-3, linoleic is an omega-6.  Reference #8 in chapter three is missing.  She states that red and processed meats cause cancer (the studies are inconclusive).  I’m not sure that cooking in or with polyunsaturated plant oils causes formation of free radicals that we need to worry about.

As would be expected, the author and I don’t see eye to eye on everything.  For example, she worries about bisphenol-A, pesticide residue, saturated fat, excessive red meat consumption, and strongly prefers pastured beef and free-range chickens and eggs.  I don’t worry much.  She also subscribes to the “precautionary principle.”

The author shares over 150 recipes to get you started on your road to cancer prevention.  I easily found 15 I want to try.  She covers all the bases on shopping for food, cooking, outfitting a basic kitchen, dining out, shopping on a strict budget, etc.  Highly practical for beginning cooks.  Numerous scientific references are listed for you skeptics.

I recommend this book to all adults, particularly for those with a strong family history of cancer.  But following the author’s recommendations would do more than lower your risk of cancer.  You’d likely have a longer lifespan, lose some excess fat weight,  and lower your risk of type 2 diabetes, dementia, heart disease, stroke, and vision loss from macular degeneration.  Particularly compared to the standard American diet.

Steve Parker, M.D.

Disclosure: The author arranged a free copy of the book for me, otherwise I recieved nothing of value for writing this review.

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Paleo Diet Is More Satiating Than Mediterranean-Style in Small Study

Posted on October 14, 2011 | 4 comments

Swedish researchers reported in 2010 that a Paleolithic diet was more satiating than a Mediterranean-style diet, when compared on a calorie-for-calorie basis in heart patients.  Both groups of study subjects reported equal degrees of satiety, but the paleo dieters ended up eating 24% fewer calories over the 12-week study.

The main differences in the diets were that the paleo dieters had much lower consumption of cereals (grains) and dairy products, and more fruit and nuts.  The paleos derived 40% of total calories from carbohydrate compared to 52% among the Mediterraneans.

Even though it wasn’t a weight-loss study, both groups lost weight.  The paleo dieters lost a bit more than the Mediterraneans: 5 kg vs 3.8 kg (11 lb vs 8.4 lb).  That’s fantastic weight loss for people not even trying.  Average starting weight of these 29 ischemic heart patients was 93 kg (205 lb).  Each intervention group had only 13 or 14 patients (I’ll let you figure out what happened to to the other two patients).

I blogged about this study population before.  Participants supposedly had diabetes or prediabetes, although certainly very mild cases (average hemoglobin A1c of 4.7% and none were taking diabetic drugs)

As I slogged through the research report, I had to keep reminding myself that this is a very small, pilot study.  So I’ll not bore you with all the details.

Bottom Line

This study suggests that the paleo diet may be particularly helpful for weight loss in heart patients.  No one knows how results would compare a year or two after starting the diet.  The typical weight-loss pattern is to start gaining the weight back at six months, with return to baseline at one or two years out.

Greek investigators found a link between the Mediterranean diet and better clinical outcomes in known ischemic heart disease patients.  On the other hand, researchers at the Heart Institute of Spokane found the Mediterranean diet equivalent to a low-fat diet in heart patients, again in terms of clinical outcomes.  U.S. investigators in 2007 found a positive link between the Mediterranean diet and lower rates of death from cardiovascular disease and cancer. 

We don’t yet have these kinds of studies looking at the potential benefits of the paleo diet.  I’m talking about hard clinical endpoints such as heart attacks, heart failure, cardiac deaths, and overall deaths.  The paleo diet definitely shows some promise.

I also note the Swedish investigators didn’t point out that weight loss in overweight heart patients may be detrimental.  This is the “obesity paradox,” called “reverse epidemiology” at Wikipedia.  That’s a whole ‘nother can o’ worms.

Keep your eye on the paleo diet.

Steve Parker, M.D.

Reference: Jonsson, Tommy, et al.  A paleolithic diet is more satiating per calorie than a mediterranean-like diet in individuals with ischemic heart disease.  Nutrition and Metabolism, 2010, 7:85.

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