Rainbow Diet
Meta-study concludes Rainbow Diet lowers mortality and chronic illness
Adherence to the colourful Mediterranean Diet, or Rainbow Diet, is associated with lowered mortality and a reduced risk of cardiovascular disease, cancer, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease, according to a 2008 Meta-analysis of over 1.5 million people. by scientists from different faculties at the University of Florence, Italy.
The researchers concluded that even small changes in favour of the diet reduced mortality, while larger changes reduced the risk of almost all chronic illnesses.
The study, published in the British Medical Journal (BMJ), took 12 studies which had investigated the Rainbow Diet with mortality, or different chronic illnesses, resulting in 1,574,299 subjects measured over a period of three to eighteen years.
Chris Woollams, the author of the original Rainbow Diet book on the subject stated, “The research concluded that ‘greater adherence to a Mediterranean diet is associated with a significant improvement in health status, as seen by a significant reduction in overall mortality (9%), mortality from cardiovascular diseases (9%), incidence of or mortality from cancer (6%), and incidence of Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s disease (13%). These results seem to be clinically relevant for public health, in particular for encouraging a Mediterranean-like dietary pattern for primary prevention of major chronic diseases’. There’s not much more to add.
Back in 2005 when I wrote the first version though, there was only one research study of merit! Now everybody in the Western World thinks they know about the Rainbow Diet but they actually think it’s about throwing a few colourful fruits in a blender. That won’t achieve much except put up your blood sugar levels!”
Go to: The Rainbow Diet Book
Ref: MJ 2008; 337 doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmj.a1344 (Published 11 September 2008
