Mediterranean Diet Makes For Longer Telomeres, And Life

Yet another thing the Mediterranean diet is good for, or perhaps, one reason the Mediterranean diet is so good for your health: writing in the New York Times, Nicholas Bakalar reports on a study conducted at Harvard Medical School, where researchers first ranked the diets of 4,676 healthy women on a scale of one to nine for their adherence to the ideal Mediterranean diet. Then the researchers measured the women’s telomeres–protective structures at the end of chromosomes, which are linked to longer life–longer telomeres, longer life; shorter telomeres; shorter life. The researchers followed the women for 20 years. The envelope please….the researchers found that the difference in telomere length for each point on the one to nine point adherence to the Mediterranean diet scale could be translated to about 1.5 years of life. Bottom line: eat Mediterranean, live longer.