My Health Adopting a Mediterranean diet has the same benefit as 4,000 extra steps per day

Researchers say adopting a Mediterranean-style diet produces the same benefits as walking 4,000 extra steps per day.

Experts say you can adjust to this type of eating plan by eating more fruits and vegetables, consuming less red meat, and preparing your own meals from scratch.

They also note it’s still important to exercise regularly even if you are on a healthy diet plan.

A healthy diet can be the physical equivalent of taking 4,000 extra steps per day for middle-aged adults.

That’s according to a new study published this week in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology, a journal of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC).

“This study provides some of the strongest and most rigorous data thus far to support the connection that better diets maylead to higher fitness,” said Dr. Michael Mi, a study author and cardiologist at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, in a statement. “The improvement in fitness we observed in participants with better diets was similar to the effect of taking 4,000 more steps each day.”

The researchers pointed out cardiorespiratory fitness reflects the body’s ability to provide and use oxygen for exercise.

It also integrates the health of multiple organ systems, such as the heart, lungs, blood vessels and muscles.

The researchers said these are a “powerful predictors of longevity and health.”

They also said even with people who exercise the same amount, there are still differences in fitness, suggesting that additional factors like diet contribute.

How the healthy diet study was conducted

The study looked at the link between a healthy Mediterranean diet and physical fitness in community-dwelling adults.

Researchers studied 2,380 people in the Framingham Heart Study. The average age was 54 and 54% of the participants were women.

Participants did a maximum effort cardiopulmonary exercise test on a cycle ergometer to measure peak VO2 (the maximum rate of oxygen someone uses during exercise).

They also completed the Harvard semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaire, which quantified intake during the last year of 126 dietary items ranging from never or less than once per month to ≥6 servings/day. Dietary quality was assessed by the Alternative Healthy Eating Index (AHEI; 0 to 110) and Mediterranean-style Diet ScoreTrusted Source (MDS; 0 to 25), which are both associated with good heart health.

The researchers also quantified the fasting blood concentrations of 201 metabolites.

Higher scores indicated a better-quality diet including fruits, vegetables, nuts, whole grains, legumes, fish and healthy fats, and limited red meat and alcohol.

The results from the health diet study

Researchers examined the link between diet and fitness after considering other factors such as age, sex, total daily energy intake, body mass index, smoking status, cholesterol levels, blood pressure, diabetes and routine physical activity level.