Which diet is much better to lose weight and gain health: Mediterranean or vegetarian diet?
Italian researchers have tested the potency of both to lose weight and protect the heart. “You are able to live perfectly without sugar.” The man who is most afraid of the industry is a doctor who conquered Harvard with the Mediterranean diet: “White bread is a real problem in Spain.”
You have to learn to eat healthily
Diets are useless if we have not learned to eat first: that is one of the main axioms of nutrition. There are radical thinning methods that not only lead to a guaranteed rebound effect of our weight, but also cause cumulative damage to our health. Both risks can be omitted by changing the way we eat: the recipe book and the ingredients are at hand, and their effectiveness is much more than demonstrated. But what type to choose?
The most appropriate type of diet
A diet ovolactovegetaria, which allows the consumption of dairy products and eggs, but excludes meat and fish, is very effective from the Mediterranean diet, characterized precisely by fish, nuts, vegetables, whole grains and essential olive oil. This can prevent cardiovascular risk. However, a study published in Circulation, the journal of the American Heart Association, highlights small but important differences in its effect on health.
The consumption of fats of some meats and fish is directly related to heart problems. But what is healthier? Eradicate these foods from our diet or limit them in a diverse alternation with different ones? Researchers from the University of Florence and the University Hospital of Careggi (Italy) set out to test both theories, and even beyond: if the cardiovascular health of a vegetarian would worsen if they started eating animals, for whatever reason.
A study was conducted with two groups of participants
The task began with the recruitment of 107 participants between 18 and 75 years of age, with a factor of agreement: however, being overweight was not a heart disease. The group was divided into two halves, and the first was fed for 3 months on the basis of a vegetarian diet of caloric restriction, with adequate milk and eggs. Another half ate Mediterranean style, with menus that included poultry, fish and occasionally red meats, as well as fruits, vegetables, legumes and cereals.
After the quarter, it had been necessary to change the way of eating between one group and another, something that, according to the authors, successfully achieved the “majority” of the participants and the diners. At the end of the next period, the scientists found similar and equally good results in the subjects regardless of the group in which they had started the trial. Namely: they had lost an average of 1.8 kilos, that 75% corresponded to body fat, linked to a higher probability of suffering cardiovascular accidents.
The results show differences in relation to other aspects of health
Now, seen under the microscope, this thinning produced different results with respect to the phase in which the subject was found. With a vegetarian diet, the researchers observed a more efficient total reduction of LDL, the famous “bad cholesterol” instead of the “good” one, the HDL. Maintaining blood LDL levels below 150 mg / dL is a possibility of cardiovascular risk control, but significantly decreases to less than 100 mg / dL when other risk factors converge, such as diabetes, hypertension or smoking . With the egg released from the suspicion of adding cholesterol, the ovolactovegetaria option seems appropriate in this case.
However, when eating in the Mediterranean style, triglycerides were the ones that fell the most. If LDL forms plaques that could cause vascular blockage, triglycerides donate to the stiffening and narrowing of the arteries. It is a much more immediate risk related to diet, because the likelihood of hypertriglyceridemia increases rapidly when we eat more calories than we expend energy. If our problem is bad habits when we eat with excess fat, sugar and alcohol, the Mediterranean Diet will guide us in the right direction.
In any case, it is appropriate to note that both means of eating together have to provide equally desirable benefits, according to Cheryl A. M. Anderson of the University of California and in charge of reviewing the article. Namely: “A pattern of abundant diet with vegetables, legumes, fruits, whole grains and nuts, an emphasis on variety, the density of nutrients and the right amount of food, and the restriction to energy intake based on saturated fats ” It is equally positive, concludes the specialist, that there are healthy dietary options that could be adjusted to the tastes and values of each one.
