Predimed Revisited...

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Julie G
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Predimed Revisited...

Post by Julie G »

A new paper reveals the results of a new Predimed randomized clinical trial with greater scientific rigor. Lo and behold, the results were similar to the first observational study. Participants following the Mediterranean Diet supplemented with either 30 grams of nuts or 5 TBS of EVOO demonstrated better cognition than those following a low-fat version.

I've glanced at the abstract and the results aren't overwhelming, but they are statistically significant. This paper doesn't appear to stratify by ApoE status, but an earlier paper DID and came to a similar conclusion. I even recall some reversal of cognitive decline (on some parameters) with that one- linked at the bottom.

Here's press on the new paper via the WSJ:

Mediterranean Diet Boosts Brain Power, Clinical Finds
http://www.wsj.com/articles/mediterrane ... 1431356748
The study involved 447 cognitively healthy participants, 55 to 80 years of age, who were divided into three groups. Two groups followed the Mediterranean diet and added either 30 grams of mixed nuts (walnuts, hazelnuts and almonds) a day, or five tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil a day. The third group, acting as a control, was advised to follow a low-fat diet. The subjects were followed for a median of just over four years.

The results showed that, compared with the control group, memory function remained stronger in the Mediterranean diet plus nuts group, while frontal (attention and executive function) and global cognition benefited in the Mediterranean diet plus olive oil group.
Here's the actual abstract of the new paper:

Mediterranean Diet and Age-Related Cognitive Decline
A Randomized Clinical Trial

http://archinte.jamanetwork.com/article ... id=2293082

Here's the 2014 paper, specifically examining ApoE status with the Predimed challenge:

Genotype patterns at CLU, CR1, PICALM and APOE, cognition and Mediterranean diet: the PREDIMED-NAVARRA trial.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24643340
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Stavia
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Re: Predimed Revisited...

Post by Stavia »

5 TABLESPOONS??? Someone do the math please. 5 times 15 times 9.?? 600 calories a day???
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pgf54
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Re: Predimed Revisited...

Post by pgf54 »

Exactly my thoughts, if a tablespoon = 20mg ? and it may be more , x5 will equal 100mg of olive oil , which on cron-o-meter is 884 calories and 13.8 gms sat fat, and thats without eating !

Plus a handful of nuts about another 250calories (40gms. i have a big hand) and another 2.8 sat fat..................so Stavia on your calorie intake you would not be able to eat anything else lol 1134 calories and 16.6 sat fat.................
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apod
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Re: Predimed Revisited...

Post by apod »

Stavia wrote:5 TABLESPOONS??? Someone do the math please. 5 times 15 times 9.?? 600 calories a day???
Imo, that's not really that much olive oil. When I was on a higher fat diet, I would usually put 2tbs on a salad, and I might have 2 salads which would total ~5 tablespoons of olive oil just eating a light breakfast. I would often eat a cup of macadamia nuts with a meal, which would boost that meal by an extra ~800-900kcal or so.

(Lately under my low-SFA experiment, I find I'm eating a ton of fructose and high-GI starches which isn't nearly as comfortable as the previous MUFA+SFA fuel mix. It's tricky optimizing for cardiovascular health vs cognitive function.)
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Re: Predimed Revisited...

Post by Stavia »

Factoid of the day: Paul - a few weeks ago I discovered that an Australian tablespoon is 20ml but its 15ml elsewhere in the world. Just a quirky fact!
But to be serious again, trials are showing a consistent pattern. It's nice to have another confirmatory one. (Putting my Julie-always-looking-at-the-other-side hat on, this doesn't mean that a squeaky clean vegan diet might not also be protective)
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Re: Predimed Revisited...

Post by KatieS »

Since they are likely to have frozen serum on these test subjects, I wish the researchers could check their lipids. When I increased EVOO to over 2 TBS and 240calories of nuts, plus the coconut & macadamia nuts, my lipids skyrocketed. Now I wonder if it was just the latter causing the lipid increase. Still my caloric intake averaged 2300.

What is the minimum EVOO and walnut intake to maintain cognition while remaining CR and optimal lipids?
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Re: Predimed Revisited...

Post by Stavia »

Kitano wrote: What is the minimum EVOO and walnut intake to maintain cognition while remaining CR and optimal lipids?
Bingo girl. That's the right question. And the answer is IMO going to be different for everyone. We are not clones.
In addition most drugs have a wide therapeutic window (it amuses me that the dose of amoxicillin for instance is 500 mg for all adults - The naughty child in me wants to prescribe 437 mg or 691 mg and freak out the OCD person who started the trend for this now widely accepted yet intrinsically false paradigm that a round number dose is sancroset (the actual range in a child for instance is 25 to 50 mg/kg - huge range)) - very few drugs have a narrow therapeutic range. Why would an intervention such as this addition of EVOO or nuts be any different? Which means each person may have fairly wide leeway.
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SusanJ
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Re: Predimed Revisited...

Post by SusanJ »

:lol: :lol: :lol:

You'll freak out the pharmacist!!!

When I was in pharmacy school, I would ask, how is the dosage calculated. Back in those days it was your basic male in height and weight because they were the primary study cohorts for drug trials. I should have had a calling card printed with that question since I asked it so many times.

Needless to say, I did not complete Pharmacy school (for many reasons besides being cheeky).
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Re: Predimed Revisited...

Post by pgf54 »

Well Stavia you are 100% correct with your factoid....(dreadful word, sounds like a disease, i am suffering from factoids lol)

When my industrial crate of supplements arrived from Iherb today there was a measuring set free within, and lo and behold a 15 ml tablespoon.

Well i always thought everything was bigger in the Usa, ( :lol: ) just teasing........... but there you go, a good old Aussie 20 mls tablespoon...............makes a big difference , when counting , guess that why i always use mls or mgs...............
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Re: Predimed Revisited...

Post by Stavia »

I only know this cos my husband works for a publishing company that has cook books and they have to change the tablespoons for the Aussie editions. Weird.
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