Spanish Ketogenic Mediterranean Diet, based on the consumption of olive oil

According to the study, Spanish Ketogenic Mediterranean Diet (SKMD) is an effective way of losing weight, lowering blood pressure and improving fasting blood glucose levels.

Ketogenic diets are an effective healthy way of losing weight since they promote a non-atherogenic lipid profile, lower blood pressure and decrease resistance to insulin with an improvement in blood levels of glucose and insulin. On the other hand, Mediterranean diet is well known to be one of the healthiest diets, being the basic ingredients of such diet the olive oil, red wine and vegetables. In Spain, the fish is an important component of such diet.

The objective of the study Spanish Ketogenic Mediterranean diet: a healthy cardiovascular diet for weight loss, written by Joaquín Pérez-Guisado, Andrés Muñoz-Serrano and Ángeles Alonso-Moraga, from the Department of Genetic of the University of Córdoba (Spain) was to determine the dietary effects of a protein ketogenic diet rich in olive oil, salad, fish and red wine. An article about this study has been published in the Nutrition Journal in 2008.

Olive oil, pillar of the Mediterranean diet
Specifically, olive oil improves the major risk factors for cardiovascular disease, such as the lipoprotein profile, blood pressure, glucose metabolism and antithrombotic profile. Endothelial function, inflammation and oxidative stress are also positively modulated. Some of these effects are attributed beside the monounsaturated fatty acids to the minor components of virgin olive oil. Hydrocarbons, polyphenols, tocopherols, sterols, triterpenoids and other components, despite their low concentration, non-fatty acid constituents may be of importance because studies comparing monounsaturated dietary oils have reported different effects on cardiovascular disease. Most of these compounds have demonstrated antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and hypolipidemic properties.

According to this study, the SKMD is safe, an effective way of losing weight, promoting non-atherogenic lipid profiles, lowering blood pressure and improving fasting blood glucose levels.