The Mediterranean diet story illustrates that "why" questions are as important as "how" questions in disease explanation

Journal of Clinical Epidemiology

Volumn 60, Issue 2, 2007, Pages 105-109

  Mackenbach, Johan P ^a  

^a ERASMUS MEDICAL CENTER   (Netherlands)

Author keywords

Ecology; Epidemiology; Evolutionary biology; Nutrition

Indexed keywords

ANTIOXIDANT; OLIVE OIL; SATURATED FATTY ACID; TRANS FATTY ACID;

ADAPTATION; ARTICLE; ECOLOGY; EVOLUTION; FOOD INTAKE; GEOGRAPHY; HEART PROTECTION; MEDITERRANEAN DIET; MEDITERRANEAN SEA; PRIORITY JOURNAL; SOCIOECONOMICS;

EID: 33845888515     PISSN: 08954356     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1016/j.jclinepi.2006.05.001     Document Type: Note

References (42)

1. Trichopoulou A., and Lagiou P. Healthy traditional Mediterranean diet: an expression of culture, history, and lifestyle. Nutr Rev 55 (1997) 383-389
2. Willett W.C., Sacks F., and Trichopoulou A. Mediterranean diet pyramid: a cultural model for health eating. Am J Clin Nutr 61 Suppl (1995) 1402S-1406S
3. Laurenzi M., Stamler R., Trevisan M., Dyer A., and Stamler J. Is Italy losing the "Mediterranean advantage?" Report on the Gubbio population study: cardiovascular risk factors at baseline. Gubbio Collaborative Study Group. Prev Med 18 (1989) 35-44
4. Keys A. Coronary heart disease in seven countries. Circulation 41 (1970) S1-S211
5. Menotti A. Prevalence and incidence of cardiovascular diseases in the Seven Countries Study. In: Kromhout D., Menotti A., and Balckburn H. (Eds). Prevention of coronary heart disease. Diet, lifestyle and risk factors in the Seven Countries Study (2002), Kluwer Academic Publishers, Norwell/Dordrecht
6. Kromhout D., and Bloemberg B. Diet and coronary heart disease in the Seven Countries Study. In: Kromhout D., Menotti A., and Balckburn H. (Eds). Prevention of coronary heart disease. Diet, lifestyle and risk factors in the Seven Countries Study (2002), Kluwer Academic Publishers, Norwell/Dordrecht
7. Kushi L.H., Lenart E.B., and Willett W.C. Health implications of the Mediterranean diets in the light of contemporary knowledge. 1. Plant foods and dairy products. Am J Clin Nutr 61 (1995) 1407S-1415S
8. Kushi L.H., Lenart E.B., and Willett W.C. Health implications of the Mediterranean diets in the light of contemporary knowledge. 2. Meat, wine, fats and oils. Am J Clin Nutr 61 (1995) 1416S-1427S
9. Simopoulos A.P. The Mediterranean diets: what is so special about the diet of Greece? The scientific evidence. J Nutr 131 (2001) S3065-S3073
10. Trichopoulou A., Vasilopoulou E., and Hollman P. Nutritional composition and flavonoid content of edible wild greens and green pies: a potential rich source of antioxidant nutrients in the Mediterranean diet. Food Chem 70 (2000) 319-323
11. Ravnskov U. A hypothesis out-of-date. The diet-heart idea. J Clin Epidemiol 55 (2002) 1057-1063
12. Hooper L., Summerbell C.D., Higgins J.P., Thompson R.L., Clements G., Capps N., et al. Reduced or modified dietary fat for preventing cardiovascular disease. Cochrane Database Syst Rev 2 (2000) CD002137
13. Hooper L., Thompson R.L., Harrison R.A., Summerbell C.D., Moore H., Worthington H.V., et al. Omega 3 fatty acids for prevention and treatment of cardiovascular disease. Cochrane Database Syst Rev 4 (2004) CD003177
14. Trichopoulou A., Costacou T., Bamia C., and Trichopoulos D. Adherence to a Mediterranean diet and survival in a Greek population. N Engl J Med 348 (2003) 2599-2608
15. Knoops K.T., de Groot L.C., Kromhout D., Perrin A.E., Moreiras-Varela O., Menotti A., et al. Mediterranean diet, lifestyle factors, and 10-year mortality in elderly European men and women: the HALE project. JAMA 292 (2004) 1433-1439
16. Gjonca A., and Bobak M. Albanian paradox, another example of protective effect of Mediterranean lifestyle?. Lancet 350 (1997) 1815-1817
17. Ehnholm C., Huttunen J.K., Pietinen P., Leino U., Mutanen M., Kostiainen E., et al. Effect of diet on serum lipoproteins in a population with a high risk of coronary heart disease. N Engl J Med 307 (1982) 850-855
18. Ferro-Luzzi A., Strazzullo P., Scaccini C., Siani A., Sette S., Mariani M.A., et al. Changing the Mediterranean diet: effects on blood lipids. Am J Clin Nutr 40 (1984) 1027-1037
19. Puska P., Iacono J.M., Nissinen A., Korhonen H.J., Vartianinen E., Pietinen P., et al. Controlled, randomised trial of the effect of dietary fat on blood pressure. Lancet 1 (1983) 1-5
20. Renaud S., de Lorgeril M., and Delaye J. Cretan Mediterranean diet for prevention of coronary heart disease. Am J Clin Nutr 61 Suppl (1995) 1360S-1367S
21. de Lorgeril M., Renaud S., Mamelle N., Salen P., Martin J.L., Monjaud I., et al. Mediterranean alpha-linolenic acid-rich diet in secondary prevention of coronary heart disease. Lancet 343 (1994) 1454-1459
22. Bemelmans W.J., Broer J., Feskens E.J., Smit A.J., Muskiet F.A., Lefrandt J.D., et al. Effect of an increased intake of alpha-linolenic acid and group nutritional education on cardiovascular risk factors: the Mediterranean Alpha-linolenic Enriched Groningen Dietary Intervention (MARGARIN) study. Am J Clin Nutr 75 (2002) 221-227
23. Oransky I. Obituary: Ancel Keys. Lancet 364 (2004) 2174
24. Docteur J.P.W. Les Secrets du Régime Crétois (1999), Editions du Marabout, Le Flèche
25. Fallon S., and Enig M. The Mediterranean diet; pasta or pastrami?. http://www.westonaprice.org/traditional_diets/meddiet.html Accessed May 29, 2006
26. Diamond J. Guns, germs and steel. A short history of everybody for the last 13,000 years. London; 1998.
27. Benzie I.F. Evolution of dietary antioxidants. Comp Biochem Physiol A Mol Integr Physiol 136 (2003) 113-126
28. Braudel F. La Méditerranée: la part du milieu. Deuxième edition (1966), Librairie Armand Colin, Paris
29. Montanari M. La fame e l'abbondanza: storia dell'alimentazione in Europa (1993), Laterza, Rome
30. Flandrin J.L., and Montanari M. Food: a culinary history (1999), Columbia University Press
31. Hertog M.G., Feskens E.J., Hollman P.C., Katan M.B., and Kromhout D. Dietary antioxidant flavonoids and risk of coronary heart disease: the Zutphen Elderly Study. Lancet 342 (1993) 1007-1011
32. Finley J.W. The antioxidant responsive element (ARE) may explain the protective effects of cruciferous vegetables on cancer. Nutr Rev 61 (2003) 250-254
33. Cordain L., Eaton S.B., Sebastian A., Mann N., Lindeberg S., Watkins B.A., et al. Origins and evolution of the Western diet: health implications for the 21st century. Am J Clin Nutr 81 (2005) 341-354
34. Braudel F. Les structures du quotidien: le possible et límpossible (1979), Librairie Armand Colin, Paris
35. Maddison A. The World economy. A millennial perspective (2001), OECD, Paris
36. Eaton S.B., Eaton III S.B., and Konner M.J. Paleolithic nutrition revisited: a twelve-year retrospective on its nature and implications. Eur J Clin Nutr 51 (1997) 207-216
37. Eaton S.B., Konner M., and Shostak M. Stone agers in the fast lane: chronic degenerative diseases in evolutionary perspective. Am J Med 84 (1988) 739-749
38. McMichael A.J. Human frontiers, environments and disease (2001), Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
39. Cohen M.N. Health and the rise of civilization (1989), Yale University Press, New Haven/London
40. Lacarrière J. Au Coeur des mythologies (1998), Gallimard, Paris
41. Mayr E. Cause and effect in biology. Science 134 (1961) 1501-1506
42. McMichael A.J. Prisoners of the proximate: loosening the constraints on epidemiology in an age of change. Am J Epidemiol 149 (1999) 887-897