Objective Measures Can Assess Mediterranean Diet Adherence

TUESDAY, May 2, 2023 (HealthDay News) -- Blood carotenoids and fatty acids can objectively measure Mediterranean diet adherence and show a stronger association for diabetes prevention than self-reported adherence, according to a study published online April 27 in PLOS Medicine.

Jakub G. Sobiecki, from the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom, and colleagues examined the association between adherence to the Mediterranean diet and type 2 diabetes using objectively measured biomarkers (five circulating carotenoids and 24 fatty acids). The analysis included 22,202 participants, including 9,453 with type 2 diabetes.

The researchers found that the biomarker score discriminated well between the Mediterranean and habitual diet arms (cross-validated C-statistic, 0.88) among 128 patients randomly assigned to a diet. There was an inverse association observed between the score and incident type 2 diabetes (hazard ratio [HR] per standard deviation of the score was 0.71) when adjusting for sociodemographic, lifestyle, and medical factors and adiposity. For self-reported Mediterranean diet, the HR per standard deviation was 0.90. Higher adherence to the Mediterranean diet by 10 percentiles among Western European adults could reduce diabetes incidence by an estimated 11 percent.

"Adherence to the Mediterranean diet may be more beneficial for the primary prevention of type 2 diabetes than previously estimated from observational dietary studies," the authors write.

Several authors disclosed financial ties to the pharmaceutical industry.

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