Adherence to the Rainbow Diet helps prevent cardiovascular disease, Type-2 diabetes, obesity and metabolic syndrome
The colourful Mediterranean Diet, or Rainbow Diet, has moderate to high evidence that it has a beneficial effect on type-2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, metabolic syndrome and obesity, according to a clinical-standard meta-analysis (1).
What is Metabolic Syndrome?
People with ‘Metabolic Syndrome’ have at least three of the following 5 conditions: high blood pressure, high blood sugar, high triglycerides, low ‘good’ HDL cholesterol and higher abdominal fat and/or obesity.
What illnesses are linked to Metabolic Syndrome?
People with ‘metabolic syndrome’ have a high risk of type-2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease and stroke, Alzheimer’s, kidney disease and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.
In the early days of Covid in the USA and the UK, 99% of deaths occurred in people with Metabolic Syndrome; 3 months later, 90% of the deaths are still in people with cardiovascular disease and diabetes.
The Rainbow Diet helps relieve these symptoms, and reduces disease risk
A systematic review (1) was formulated to answer 5 Clinical Questions. The purpose of the study was to apply a clinical-standard review to the various research studies and claims that existed for the diet.
57 research studies were incorporated into the clinical review – an original review using 37 studies was complemented by a further 20 studies reported on between September 2013 and July 2016.
Researchers concluded that:
- There is a high level of evidence showing that adherence to the Rainbow Diet
a. plays a role in the primary and secondary prevention of cardiovascular disease (CVD), and,
b. Improves health in overweight and obese patients. - There is moderate-to-high evidence that adherence to the Rainbow Diet
a. prevents increases in weight and waist circumference in non-obese individuals, and,
b. improves metabolic syndrome and reduces its incidence. - There is moderate evidence that the adherence to the Rainbow Diet
a. plays primary and secondary roles in the prevention of type 2 diabetes mellitus.
The conclusions were clear – the colourful Mediterranean Diet is effective in preventing obesity and Metabolic Syndrome in healthy and at-risk individuals, in reducing mortality risk in overweight or obese individuals, in decreasing the incidence of type-2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease in healthy individuals, and in reducing symptom severity in individuals with either or both.
Go to: The Mediterranean Diet – probably the Healthiest Diet in the world
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