At our medical practice, we don’t just want to fix health problems. Our primary goal here at Matthews Internal Medicine is to help our patients live a healthier life that helps them avoid as many health issues as possible. Often, that includes a focus on weight management and dieting. One diet that’s attracted some attention in recent years is the Mediterranean diet. Some think that it can help foster a healthy aging process. Let’s see what this diet entails and learn more about its benefits.
What is the Mediterranean Diet?
One of the main things you need to know about the Mediterranean diet is that it’s heavily based on plants. If you opt for this particular kind of diet, you’re eating lots of local produce. Whole grains, nuts, and beans are also an important part of this diet in addition to fruits and vegetables. For protein, you can eat legumes, grains, and fish, instead of red meat which has some known links to health issues. If you stick to these foods, you also need to make sure that you eat enough to match your energy demands. An active lifestyle will require more nutrients, so finding the balance and eating the right amount of food is key.
How Can it Help?
In some cases, people on the Mediterranean diet are reaching their seventies and eighties without some of the major signs of aging. They’re still active. They’re still in good health. In some cases, they’ve avoided some of the major age-associated diseases or disorders. They’re also not as reliant on prescription drugs. Aging can’t be stopped entirely of course, but it looks like this diet could help people age in a much healthier way, at least according to the preliminary research.
How Will this Diet Find its Way Into Medicine
According to Luigi Fontana, an expert on the Mediterranean diet, this diet could find its place among other types of preventative medicine. Instead of treating problems that crop up later in life, focusing on a healthier diet early that can prevent issues from ever appearing in the first place could be far more efficient. As we mentioned previously, we’re already seeing some evidence that this diet can help people age in a healthier way, free of more debilitating issues.
This idea is in line with what we do at Matthews Internal Medicine. We don’t just treat health issues when they come up. We help our patients live a healthier lifestyle that can help them avoid these problems in the first place. Being overweight or smoking can be risk factors for a variety of diseases. So we help our patients with weight management programs or we help our patients drop cigarettes for good. It looks like the Mediterranean diet and other similar approaches to living a healthier lifestyle could present more ways to avoid chronic health issues and improving the aging process for many people.
Your Matthews, NC Preventative Medicine Experts
So if you’re interested in living a healthier life, our preventative medicine could help with anything from heart disease prevention to smoking cessation. Contact us at (704) 750-2329 today and see what the physicians here at Matthews Internal Medicine can do for you.