Can Olive Oil and Nuts Reverse Metabolic Syndrome?

A Mediterranean diet including extra-virgin olive oil or nuts could assist in reversing symptoms of metabolic syndrome, according to a recent study.

For the study, Spanish researchers evaluated 5801 men and women participants (ages 55 to 80 years) from the PREDIMED randomized controlled trial. In the trial, individuals were randomly assigned a Mediterranean diet (with an extra-virgin olive oil supplement), a nut-supplemented Mediterranean diet, or a low-fat diet as the control. According to researchers, 64% of participants displayed metabolic syndromes at the beginning of the study.

The researchers found that 28.2% (958) of participants in the 2 Mediterranean diet groups no longer showed signs of metabolic syndrome after a mean follow-up period of 4.8 years.  A decrease in central obesity and blood glucose levels were also observed in participants.
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Investigators noted that the change in metabolic syndrome is likely due to the differences in dietary patterns since there were no significant differences in weight loss or energy expenditure between groups.

Further, researchers noted that since the Mediterranean diet had no noticeable impact on those participants with new incidences of metabolic syndrome, their findings were inconsistent with previous studies.

“In this large, multicentre, randomized clinical trial involving people with high cardiovascular risk, a Mediterranean diet supplemented with extra-virgin olive oil was associated with a smaller increase in the prevalence of metabolic syndrome compared with advice on following a low-fat diet,” said Jordi Salas-Salvadó, MD, PhD, an author of the study and faculty of medicine and health sciences at the Universitat Rovira i Virgili in Reus, Spain.

“Because there were no between-group differences in weight loss or energy expenditure, the change is likely attributable to the difference in dietary patterns,” Salas-Salvadó said.

The complete study is published in the October issue of the Canadian Medical Association Journal.

-Michelle Canales

References:

Babio N, Toledo E, Estruch R, et al. Mediterranean diets and metabolic syndrome status in the PREDIMED randomized trial. CMAJ. 2014 October [epub ahead of print] doi: 10.1503/cmaj.140764.

CMAJ. Mediterranean diet, olive oil and nuts can help reverse metabolic syndrome. October 14, 2014. www.cmaj.ca/site/misc/pr/14oct14_pr.xhtml. Accessed October 15, 2014.