Mediterranean diet health protective discovery….

Today's post:  Tuesday, 6-27-2017

The Mediterranean diet has been in the medical and consumer news quite often.  That’s because it has strong heart protective effects.  Many of the foods that make it up taste good. It even seems to work BETTER with a glass of red wine at dinner.

One of the more newsworthy stories was when a study of the heart protective effects found the Mediterranean diet was so heart protective that the study was stopped half way through!

The researchers did this for two reasons.  They wanted to get the good news published.  And they wanted to allow the control group that did NOT eat the Mediterranean diet or get its protection to do so!

The upgraded Mediterranean diet is protective for several reasons.  So doing them all is extremely protective!

*Before we report on a discovery that can about DOUBLE the protection you get from the Mediterranean diet and is a stealth ingredient that powers much of its protective power of every version of it, here are the many ways the Mediterranean diet is protective.

1.  In the book, Anticancer, the author makes very clear how harmful it is to get an overdose of omega 6 oil:  from grains; and from oils made from grains; and animal fats from animals overdosed with grains when that is NOT their proper diet AND all of the above at once!

This way of eating is so proinflammatory and filled with herbicides and pesticides it causes cancers or makes them more fast growing & deadly.  That was his main point and still is since his book is still for sale on Amazon.

But other studies have shown for sure, this ALSO causes Alzheimer’s disease and heart disease perhaps even MORE effectively.

By contrast the upgraded Mediterranean diet eliminates ALL that.  The olive oil used has so much less omega 6 since it is mostly the omega 9 monosaturated fat that is neutral.  And, the wild caught fish and seafood from unpolluted waters have the anti-inflammatory omega 3 oils—including the most heart and brain beneficial one, DHA.

For those not allergic to them, raw almonds and walnuts and pecans and avocados have a similar low omega 6 profile and are in the Mediterranean diet.  AND, they are an even more effective way of getting vitamins and minerals for health than the very best vitamin pills.  They have hundreds of complementary and health boosting versions instead of just the on best known one.

2.  The abundant organic greens and herbs and starchy vegetables and garlic and onions are EACH cancer preventive.  Eating many kinds during an average week is MASSIVELY cancer preventive.  Eating them with cooked pasta or tomato sauce AND extra virgin olive oil or nuts MULTIPLIES that effect by making the several kinds of carotenes more bioavailable.

Other research has found that eating vegetables of this kind in that large an amount every week is, by itself, THE most effective way ever found to prevent heart attacks and deaths from them!

3.  Eating one or more servings each day of an organic, whole serving of fruit, is by itself, the most effective way to prevent strokes and deaths from them every found.  Even better, it prevents BOTH ischemic or obstructive strokes AND hemorrhagic or bleeding in the brain stokes.

4.  A version of the Mediterranean diet that eliminates grain too works even better!

The original version used the original wheat before hybrid wheat and herbicides and pesticides were used.  And the pasta this original and unpolluted wheat was pressed into was a minority of the Mediterranean diet and this form was low glycemic too. 

But you can get more of the more protective effects of vegetables and beans and nuts if you eat no grains.  AND, you avoid the risk of getting hybrid wheat grown with herbicides and pesticides.

Then too, rice was originally not polluted with arsenic.  So that too could be a minority of the Mediterranean diet.  Now, almost all rice has too much arsenic to be safe to eat.  And, it always was the most fattening part of the Mediterranean diet.  So a version that has no rice or has it very rarely produces better health effects.

Separate studies show that cheeses made from cows fed ONLY their natural diet are safe to eat.  So using that kind of cheese for flavor also works in the Mediterranean diet.

Every bit of this report on the health protective aspects of the upgraded Mediterranean diet is impressive.

Here’s the news I just found out in the last few days:

There is another set of ingredients in the Mediterranean diet that may produce as much as HALF its astounding health benefits.

Even more impressively, increasing the amount you get can enable you do DOUBLE the protective effects of the Mediterranean diet!

The phytochemicals in extra virgin olive oil are astoundingly health protective.

They prevent EVERYTHING you need to protect your heart. Recent research found they make your HDL prevent oxidation and remove excess cholesterol from your blood vessels; they prevent clotting as ginger & curcumin also do even when you do less exercise than is best.  (This enables you to get MORE protection from heart attacks and ischemic strokes with zero need for the dangerous drugs for that.) They prevent your arteries from becoming stiff or plugged up too.

They are ALSO antiviral and antibacterial and even antifungal.  This effect is so strong it can kill the bacteria that cause food poisoning or drug resistant infections and works on BOTH gram negative and gram positive bacteria.

So, this has two implications and ways you can increase the health benefits of the Mediterranean diet:

First, the version of the upgraded Mediterranean diet that is most protective tends to use ONLY extra virgin olive oil.

Second, you can take two or four 250 mg capsules of standardized Olive Leaf Extract by Nature’s Way and just about DOUBLE the effective health benefits of eating the upgraded version of the Mediterranean diet!

(I was taking two a day for its antiviral effects to protect me from Flu and colds and viral pneumonia and West Nile and Yellow fever viruses!

Now I know how incredibly heart protective it is I’ll make sure to keep taking it.

AND, research found that taking 4 a day, 1,000 mg a day of the olive leaf extract produced reduced high blood pressure by 11 over 4! 

I’ll check with my daily readings to sure.  But that likely means I can stop taking the ace inhibitor I take each day now in a 5 mg dose that does less than that.  Since the ace inhibitor may have some harmful effects, I’ll be very please if that works!

Here are some sources with part of this information and the other health protective effects:

http://www.resperate.com/olive-leaf-extract-heart-healthy?utm_source=RESPeRATE+USA&utm_campaign=22b686069d-LP_News_US-2017-06-22&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_ac3cc1206e-22b686069d-297316473

"Animal studies demonstrate that olive leaf extracts lead to significant drops in elevated blood pressure. 

Remarkably, these effects are evident when supplementation occurs either before or after the animals develop hypertension. This means that the extracts have the ability to both prevent and treat high blood pressure.

The drop in blood pressure is accompanied by reduced pressure in the heart’s left ventricle. This results in improved blood flow to the heart’s own coronary blood vessels. 

Additional human studies demonstrate the ability of olive leaf extracts to significantly reduce blood pressure measurements.

One particularly fascinating study was conducted among identical twins with borderline hypertension (blood pressure in the range of 120-139 mmHg over 80-89 mmHg). Studies of identical twins virtually eliminate genetic variations which may impact study results. After 8 weeks, placebo recipients showed no change in blood pressure from baseline, but patients supplemented with 1,000 mg/day of olive leaf extract dropped their pressures by a mean of 11 mmHg systolic and 4 mmHg diastolic. The supplemented patients experienced significant reductions in LDL cholesterol.

A human study measured olive leaf extract against captopril, one of the conventional drugs used for treating hypertension.11 In this study, patients with stage-1 hypertension (140-159 mmHg over 90-99 mmHg) took either 500 mg of olive leaf extract twice daily, or 12.5 mg of captopril twice daily, which was increased as needed to 25 mg twice daily. After 8 weeks of treatment, both groups experienced a drop in mean blood pressure from baseline (11.5 and 13.7 mmHg systolic; 4.8 and 6.4 mmHg diastolic, respectively), with no significant difference between the two groups. In other words, the olive leaf extract performed as well as the prescription drug."

Catopril is an ACE inhibitor.  THAT may mean I can take a bit more of olive leaf extract and STOP my ramipril!

Oleuropein in the oil in olive oil and olive leaf extract ALSO has antibacterial, antiviral, and antifungal properties!!

Oleuropein in Olive and its Pharmacological Effects - NCBI - NIH

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3002804/

Simply put this stuff is the POWER behind many if not most of the protective benefits of the Mediterranean diet!

It boosts NO in keeping your blood vessels healthy and reduces atherosclerosis AND lowers LDL and prevents clots (ischemia)

Not only that because its antibacterial effects are effective on both gram negative AND gram positive bacteria AND it smashes their cell walls, this may make it an essential addition to fighting any drug resistant bacteria AND this may mean it can help knock out biofilms with that cell wall effect!