Tag Archives: nutrition

Wine, Mediterranean Diet, and Your Health News for 03/12/2015

Please click on the links below to read the full articles.

Photo by Flickr user  Frank Kovalchek (http://www.flickr.com/photos/72213316@N00/5366320120)
Photo by Flickr user Frank Kovalchek (http://www.flickr.com/photos/72213316@N00/5366320120)

Wine

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Mediterranean Diet & Healthy Eating

Continue reading Wine, Mediterranean Diet, and Your Health News for 03/12/2015

Adding Wine Industry Grape By-Products to Muffins Makes Them Healthier — Maybe?

Muffins aren’t exactly on the list when you look up foods in the Mediterranean diet, but let’s face it, they are plentiful and they taste delicious.

Diet choices are for each individual (and their doctor) to decide, and

Photo by Veganbaking.net from USA (Vegan Apple Spice Muffins) [CC BY-SA 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
Photo by Veganbaking.net from USA (Vegan Apple Spice Muffins) [CC BY-SA 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
though there are certainly recommended food and drink items associated with the Mediterranean diet, most (if not all) of us still enjoy a rare treat every once in a while. For some of us, that treat is a muffin!

One recent study decided to take a look into making muffins a little healthier, and examined the effect of using grape by-products as ingredient when making a “model” muffin.

Why grape by-products? Grape by-products are the “leftovers” after grapes have been pressed for winemaking, and are known to contain health-benefitting compounds (i.e.: antioxidants, etc). The researchers processed these by-products into a fine powdered form, and added them to a model muffin mixture.

The finished muffins were then measured for CML (Ne-(carboxymethyl)lysine) content, a compound formed during the baking process, which is a potential toxin in food that can lead to diabetes, heart problems, Alzheimer’s, and premature aging.

Important Findings:

Continue reading Adding Wine Industry Grape By-Products to Muffins Makes Them Healthier — Maybe?

Eating a Mediterranean Diet Associated with Lower Risk of Developing Type 2 Diabetes

A recent review performed a meta-analysis on studies within the last year to determine if consuming a Mediterranean-style diet had any influence on type 2 diabetes or not.

The 17 studies included in the review varied in nature in terms of their experimental protocols: 1 was a clinical trial, 9 were prospective studies,

Photo By Tomwsulcer (Own work) [CC0], via Wikimedia Commons
Photo By Tomwsulcer (Own work) [CC0], via Wikimedia Commons
and 7 were cross-sectional studies. Comparing studies with different experimental designs can be somewhat problematic, but there are ways to compare on a more broad scale.

Primary finding:

  • Sticking to a Mediterranean diet led to a 23% decrease in the risk of developing type 2 diabetes.
    • Even when controlling for region, general health status, and several other potentially confounding factors, this decrease in risk of developing type 2 diabetes was still seen.

While not a be-all end-all “cure” for type 2 diabetes, according to this meta-analysis, eating and maintaining a Mediterranean-style diet could provide some nutritional benefit to those wishing to prevent development of the disease.

 

Source:

Koloverou, E., Esposito, K., Giugliano, D., and Panagiotakos, D. 2014. The effects of Mediterranean diet on the development of type 2 diabetes mellitus: A meta-analysis of 10 prospective studies and 136,846 participants. Metabolism 63: 903-911.