Mediterranean diet thrives on consumption of fresh fruits, vegetables, whole grains, etc. and now scientists have found that this diet can cut your risk of Parkinson’s Disease (PD) by almost 50%. Everyone knows that fresh fruits and vegetables are good for health but the recent discovery provides an added incentive to go fresh every day.

1) What Science Says

What the scientists say is that if you eat lots of legumes, whole grains, poultry, fish, nuts, and fruits and vegetables, you can lower the risk of OD significantly. Besides, you also need to cut down the saturated fat content and moderate your intake of alcohol, Popularly, such a diet is known as Mediterranean because it is what most of the people in the Mediterranean consume.

2) The Study

This “meta-analysis” was carried out of the data collected during 50 previous studies, carried out among half a million participants and its main aim is to study the impact of the Mediterranean diet on various diseases and physical ailments like waist size increase, hike in blood sugar levels, and blood pressure.

3) The Findings

The team conducting the meta-analysis found that the diet affected your chances of contracting various diseases like Parkinson’s, Type 2 Diabetes, and Alzheimer’s. Some of the findings of this meta-analysis are:-

1. Eating a lot of fruits, vegetables, and fish can reduce the risk of developing PD by almost half.
2. The consumers of a Mediterranean-style diet  are 46% less likely to contract incurable brain disorder.
3. Antioxidant-rich food protects the body from oxidative stress.

4) The Reason

One major reason why such a diet helps you counter the risk of PD is that it reduces the overall “oxidative stress” up on your system, which is caused by the regular diet, rich in saturated fat. The Mediterranean diet also prevents formation of free radicals inside your body. These free radicals are small molecules of unattached oxygen, which may harm your body cells and are believed to cause cancer as well. If all this sounds too technical to you, just understand this. Increase in weight is highly linked to PD, therefore, by going on a Mediterranean diet, you may actually be able to keep your weight under control.

PD has emerged as a very dangerous medical condition, affecting a large number of people in recent years. While  medical science is struggling to find a cure for it, it is upto you to prevent it from happening and resorting to a Mediterranean diet is one of the ways.

Image Courtesy: parkinsonresearchfoundation.blogspot.com