BOSTON--Adherence to the traditional Mediterranean diet appears to be unrelated to body mass index (BMI) and waist-to-hip ratio (WHR), according to a study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (82, 5:935-40, 2005).
Greek and American researchers investigated whether adherence to the traditional Mediterranean diet is associated with BMI and WHR by sampling 23,597 adult men and women participating in the Greek European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition Study. A validated food-frequency questionnaire was interviewer-administered, and anthropometric, sociodemographic, physical activity and other lifestyle characteristics were recorded. BMI and WHR were regressed on a score that reflects adherence to the traditional Mediterranean diet and potentially confounding variables.
Study results found research models in which total energy intake was included, adherence to the Mediterranean diet was unrelated to BMI in both sexes, and was weakly related to WHR in women. When energy intake was not controlled, a 2-point increase in the score was found to correspond to increases of 650 and 150 g in the weight of an average-height man and woman, respectively, whereas the WHR was found to increase by 0.001 units in men and 0.004 units in women.
Researchers concluded adherence to a Mediterranean diet was essentially unrelated to BMI, with small differences depending on model choice and having no practical consequences.
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