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
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.
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,
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.