Here's how plant-based and Mediterranean diets can aid your health

Over the years we've been hearing more and more about the Mediterranean diet. The diet has been increasing in popularity owing to its incorporation of fresh veggies and low consumption of oil. Not only does this diet help you shed all those extra kilos but it also brings about many other health benefits, the most prominent of which is improved gut health.

As per a new study, plant-based and Mediterranean diets can work rather well to improve gut health by offering anti-inflammatory properties that help good gut bacteria flourish. ‘Gut microbiota' that is a type of microbe play a rather important role in the functioning of the immune system while also boosting metabolism and neurobehavioural traits.

So, as per the study, these plant-based and Mediterranean diets that contain foods like legumes, fish, bread, nuts, and wine can help boost gut bacteria that help dissolve important nutrients and vitamins in the body. Lead researcher Laura Bolte said, "A diet characterised by nuts, fruits, greater vegetable and legume intake than animal protein, combined with moderate consumption of animal-derived foods like fish, lean meat, poultry, fermented low-fat dairy, and red wine, and a lower intake of red meat, processed meat, and sweets, is beneficially associated with the gut ecosystem in our study."

The study was conducted on four groups of people - a general control group, a group with Crohn's disease, a group with ulcerative colitis and a group with irritable bowel syndrome. The results of the study were then surveyed to figure out whether or not consuming 61 different types of food groups had an effect on the gut health of these people. It was found that plant-based and Mediterranean diets were able to reduce non-beneficial aerobic bacteria in the gut whereas consuming fast foods, sugary foods and excessive meat led to the decrease of healthy gut bacteria and increased the chances of inflammation in the gut.

"The results indicate that diet is likely to become a significant and serious line of treatment or disease management for diseases of the gut - by modulating the gut microbiome," Laura Bolte added. Stay tuned for more updates.