Nutrition, Diet, and Anti-aging: Mediterranean Diet and Anti-aging

In relation to diet and aging or disease, people do not eat just one type of food; so, in recent years, research has been conducted to evaluate dietary patterns that categorize the overall diet to see the impact of dietary habits. Dietary patterns are thought to be more related to actual meals where various foods are consumed, and research is being conducted to clarify the relationship between dietary patterns and diseases. The evaluation methods of dietary patterns can be divided into two major categories. The first is to statistically identify and classify common patterns (such as Western type, healthy type, etc.) by conducting factor analysis, principal component analysis, etc., based on dietary data directly obtained from the subjects of the study. The second is to classify in advance based on previous reports on the effects of each food on health (such as the Mediterranean diet, glycemic index, etc.). The Mediterranean diet is a representative of dietary patterns that are classified in advance based on previous reports on the effects of each food on health. The Mediterranean diet recommends the intake of vegetables, fruits, nuts, legumes, whole grains, dairy products, olive oil, and seafood, and moderate drinking, while it recommends limiting the intake of meat, processed meat, and unsaturated fatty acids. Based on previous reports on the effects of each food on health, it is classified in advance, and if there are many recommended foods, one point is given, and if there are few restricted foods, one point is given, and more the points, the more the Mediterranean diet is being followed. The characteristics of the Mediterranean diet, such as vegetables, fruits, and whole grains, contain a lot of dietary fiber, and it has been reported that the vitamins contained in vegetables and fruits have antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects. It has been reported that in groups with a high Mediterranean diet score, the telomere length, which is an indicator of aging, is longer [1], and it is believed to be related to anti-aging.