Mediterranean Diet Fights Off Age-Related Weight Gain

My people, the Italians, have known for centuries that the Mediterranean diet keeps you fit and trim. It's about time the rest of the world caught up. Fannulloni!

The Mediterranean diet includes foods like fruits, vegetables, nuts, olive oil, and moderate amounts of fish and wine, but very little saturated fats, like eggs, red meat, dairy products, and poultry.

And a new study says people who follow a Mediterranean diet may avoid putting on extra weight as they age.

Published in American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, researchers asked 10,000 university graduates in Spain, men and women, average age of 38, to fill out a food survey. The participants were then tracked for six years.

Individuals who followed the Mediterranean diet were 10% less likely to become overweight or obese, and were 24% less likely to gain more than 11 pounds over the first four years of the research.

Average weight-gain among participants during the study was a half pound. But, the people most closely following a Mediterranean diet gained less weight, compared to study participants who deviated from a Mediterranean diet.

The researchers insist sticking to a diet long term is an effective way to prevent weight gain, and called the Mediterranean diet "user friendly."

I have to agree. If you look at my family's holiday dinner table the only scary thing you'll find is big-freaking octopus tentacles in the salad. It's like the Adam's Family, except all the grandmothers look like Uncle Fester.

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Stress Only Slightly Impacts Weight Gain

I hate stress. And I'm a mental case, so I don't handle it very well. Lots of junk food, yelling at people, and watching Planes, Trains and Automobiles on loop.

Stress can wreak havoc on your body. Common symptoms of chronic stress include headache, insomnia, depression, high blood pressure, irritability, and I've always thought weight-gain was a risk too.

But a new study says stress has only a minor impact on weight-gain.

For the study, published in the journal Obesity, scientists examined data from 32 previous studies on bodyweight and stress, and discovered the majority of research revealed no association between people's stress levels and their weight-gain several years later.

Researchers assessed studies conducted between the 1990s and 2000s that examined individuals stress levels in relationship to weight-gain.

Among the studies, 69% found no clear association between stress levels and weight gain, 25% linked high stress levels to increased weight-gain, and 6% showed stress was related to less weight gain over time.

After pooling all the studies together, only a modest relationship was found between overall stress and weight-gain. But the researchers say the effect of stress on weight could vary from person to person, especially when considering different types of stress; such as work stress, compared to life stress.

To me, it's a personality thing. Some people are just unflappable. I'm high-strung and jumpy, but my brother is cool as a cucumber. Although, he ate his boogers as a kid, so I'm still better!

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