The Atlantic diet includes foods commonly eaten in northwestern Spain and Portugal. For three to four meals a week, he recommends seafood and lean meat, a variety of seasonal vegetables, fruits, whole grains, beans and olive oil.
One of the main differences between the Atlantic diet and the Mediterranean diet is that the Atlantic version includes more brassicas, which is a vegetable family that includes red greens, chickpeas, kale, cabbage and cabbage, said conference specialist Mar Calvo-Malvar. In laboratory medicine and principal investigator at the University Clinical Hospital of Santiago de Compostela in Spain. Study of GaliatA clinical trial focused on the Atlantic diet.
The diet usually includes seafood, dairy products and cuts of meat. Calvo-Malvar said. Another key difference can be found in carbohydrates. While the Mediterranean diet typically allows for a lot of pasta, the Atlantic diet includes other starches such as chestnuts, potatoes, and bread.
“Recent media portrayals often portray the Atlantic diet as a variant of the Mediterranean diet,” Calvo-Malvar said in an email. But the Atlantic diet “is different in its culinary traditions,” she said.
- The researchers recruited 250 families consisting of 574 adults (231 men and 343 women) living in A Estrada, Spain. The average age of the participants was about 47 years.
- The study showed that compared to the control group. People who followed the Atlantic diet were 42 percent less likely to have an additional component of metabolic syndrome — a combination of conditions. Risk of heart disease, diabetes and other chronic diseases.
- Participants on the Atlantic diet “were significantly less likely to have metabolic syndrome and fewer components of metabolic syndrome than those in the control group,” Calvo-Malvar said in an email.
The study, conducted by researchers in Santiago de Compostela, Spain, was a randomized clinical trial conducted from March 2014 to May 2015 at a health care center in A Estrada, Spain, a rural town of about 20,000 people in the northwest. The Iberian Peninsula.
The 126 families in the intervention group took a cooking class led by a local chef, received a cookbook and participated in “educational sessions” taught by nutritionists. The Atlantic Diet “places a strong emphasis on fresh, locally sourced foods prepared using methods such as boiling rather than boiling and frying,” Calvo-Malvar said in an email.
Every three weeks, researchers also offered a basket of “local foods characteristic of the traditional Atlantic diet,” including cruciferous vegetables, kale, mushrooms, mirabelle plums, mussels, low-fat cheese and tomatoes, Calvo-Malvar said.
“From a cultural point of view, our intervention is based on a diet that is compatible with the cultural and gastronomic heritage of the area, which provides local and economically accessible foods,” Calvo-Malvar said. “This approach, in addition to contributing to the preservation of cultural traditions, increases the possibility of following and maintaining a diet.”
The researchers advised the intervention group participants to change their diet according to the Atlantic Diet but did not instruct them to reduce their calorie intake. During the trial, researchers measured participants’ weight and waistline, took blood samples to monitor fat and cholesterol levels, and blood sugar, and recorded participants’ blood pressure to monitor for metabolic syndrome.
In the study, the researchers said that it is not clear why families in the intervention had a reduced risk of health issues and that more research is needed to understand the role of the intervention component. In addition, the intervention will last for six months, and this time “may not be enough to accurately evaluate metabolic changes,” he said.
Darius MozafarianThe director of the Institute of Nutrition at Tufts University says the Atlantic diet is “essentially the Mediterranean diet.”
“The main difference is that they have potatoes and bread instead of pasta because they are a bit further away from the cities on the Mediterranean,” Mozaffarian said.
The findings are “not surprising” because the two foods are very similar, he said Walter C. WillettProfessor of Epidemiology and Nutrition at the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health.
“The South Atlantic diet has some positive characteristics,” but “the health outcomes will be better” if the diet is closer to the Mediterranean diet, Villette said in an email. “Especially replacing red meat and dairy foods with nuts and whole grains.”
Researchers in Spain allowed for a higher intake of red meat, but the dietary variables associated with higher scores were fish and vegetables, Villette said in an email. Eating red meat “doesn’t do much.
Villette said the study showed that the “principles of the Mediterranean diet” – a healthy, plant-based diet and a small amount of meat and dairy products – can have “significant benefits” for a person’s health.
Christopher GardnerProfessor at Stanford University School of Medicine, there is no one way to eat the Mediterranean diet. It is a “style” that borrows from France, Italy, Greece, Turkey, Spain and Morocco. And the Atlantic diet is “completely” with nutrition, Gardner said.
What this study highlights is that one doesn’t need to follow the exact Mediterranean diet to create a healthy meal plan, Mozaffarian said.
“There are broader principles that are more important than proper nutrition,” he said. “The Atlantic diet is basically 95 percent the same as the Mediterranean diet.”