The Mediterranean Diet and Heart Health

For the analysis, 294 participants were split into three different dietary groups, one consuming food based on a healthy dietary guidance, one utilizing the Mediterranean diet, and one group using the green Mediterranean diet. Both of the Mediterranean diets included walnuts and the green Mediterranean diet further emphasized plant-based foods and included green tea and a plant-based protein shake to lower the intake of animal protein. These groups were then tracked and analyzed over a six-month trial to estimate the effect on weight loss and the cardiometabolic state.

The results showed that both of the Mediterranean diets had similar weight loss while the green Mediterranean diet had a slightly greater reduction in waist circumference, albeit the waist circumference difference was only significant in men. Moreover, the green Mediterranean diet showed better results when it came to cardiometabolic factors like the LDL-C/HDL-C ratio (“bad”/”good” cholesterol ratio). This conclusion supports the notion that a green Mediterranean diet, complemented with walnuts, green tea, and lower animal protein intake may increase the beneficial cardiometabolic effects of the Mediterranean diet.

Tsaban, G., Meir, A. Y., Rinott, E., Zelicha, H., Kaplan, A., Shalev, A., … & Shai, I. (2020). The effect of green Mediterranean diet on cardiometabolic risk; a randomised controlled trial. Heart.