There is no doubt that a balanced diet plays an important role in maintaining good general health by preventing, above all, chronic meta...
There is no doubt that a balanced diet plays an important role in maintaining good general health by preventing, above all, chronic metabolic diseases and improving the expression of genetic inheritance.
The Mediterranean is an example of a balanced diet.
This diet is characterized by being rich in products of vegetable origin (legumes, cereals, nuts, fruits and vegetables), poor in foods of animal origin, moderate in dairy products (mainly in the form of cheese or yogurt) and high in consumption. extra virgin olive oil as the main fat component.
Several studies carried out in recent years have shown how the components of the Mediterranean diet can modulate skeletal homeostasis.
One of the main components that manifested to have an important role in the skeletal wellbeing is extra virgin olive oil,source of polyphenols that would act on chronic inflammation and oxidative stress.
Several studies have already shown that adherence to the Mediterranean diet induces an increase in bone mineral density, but more recently a study conducted in Spain has been published on a group of more than 800 individuals between 55 and 80 years old with high cardiovascular risk. , and it was observed that those with the highest consumption of extra virgin olive oil had a lower risk of osteoporotic fractures. To confirm the results, a study conducted in 8 European countries on cancer and nutrition with almost 200,000 participants showed that the highest adherence to the Mediterranean diet protected against hip fracture, reducing its incidence by 7 percent. It is not strange then that the countries of the Mediterranean basin have the lowest incidence of osteoporosis.
Fruits and vegetables, legumes, cereals, fish, olive oil and moderate consumption of wine are the basis of the Mediterranean diet.
The curious thing is that just the Mediterranean diet does not emphasize precisely the nutrients classically associated with the beneficial effects on bone health, such as calcium, whose main source are dairy products, and proteins, whose main source is meat. The explanation would be that although milk and its derivatives are the best source of calcium in terms of quantity and bioavailability (ease of absorption) there are other food components in a diet that are required to improve calcium retention and reduce its loss .
Adherence to the Mediterranean diet would also benefit children and adolescents. The increase in bone mass occurs throughout growth, with a peak at puberty.
Although genetic factors are the greatest predictors of bone mass that is reached in adulthood, an adequate intake of bone nutrients is necessary for the full expression of its potential.
The benefits of olive oil increase when it is consumed within the framework of a Mediterranean diet.
Because nutrition is an important factor that affects health has the characteristic, unlike the genetic , to be modifiable. Any strategy that favors an optimum mass peak will bring benefits in adulthood and in aging, stages of life affected by osteoporosis since it is known that a 10% increase in peak bone mass reduces by half the risk of having an osteoporotic fracture in adulthood.
By Dr. Diana González, medical osteologist, associate director Mautalen Salud y Investigación.
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