The Mediterranean diet has been proven over and over to be one of the healthiest diets out there, and now it is getting another mark of goodness…it might help to keep the bones strong.

The Mediterranean diet is characterized by common food that is enjoyed in the Mediterranean countries. This is a diet that is focused on eating vegetables, fruits, nuts, beans, peas, unrefined grains, olive oil, and fish, with the occasional glass of wine. The diet sticks to moderation when it comes to dairy, meat, and saturated fat.

Following that type of diet has been proven to both help with weight loss and keeping a consistent weight, as well as being the heart healthy. But this recent study published by JAMA Internal Medicine were specifically studying the bones of postmenopausal women and found that women who followed the Mediterranean diet were less likely to have hip fractures.

Their study gathered the information on 90,014 women that had an average age of 64. They got this information from 40 different clinical centers within the United States, and the people they looked at followed one of four different diets that included both the Mediterranean diet and the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (also known as DASH.)

Over a 16 year period, the women experienced 2,121 hip fractures and 28,718 total fractures. The women who followed the Mediterranean diet however were 0.29% less likely to have a hip fracture in particular.

According to the lead study author Dr. Bernhard Haring, of the University of Wurzburg in Germany:

“Our results provide assurance that widely recommended eating patterns do not increase the risk of fractures. This being said, the average woman should follow a healthy lifestyle which includes adopting a healthy dietary pattern and being physically active.”

Fractures in older people are a huge issue individually as well as in the healthcare system, along with any other health declines that tend to be age related.

The Mediterranean diet has also been shown to keep your brain young, increase your lifespan, get a better control over your weight, and lower the risk of developing cancer and cardiovascular diseases, so it’s possible that if more people switched over to the clean and healthy eating of the diet we could be preventing a lot of potential health issues.

Dr. Walter Willett of Harvard School of Public Health added to the talk about how favorable the diet can be.

“At the present time, the U.S. health system almost entirely ignores nutrition in favor of pharmacology and is hugely expensive and ineffective compared with the systems in other countries. Integration of the Mediterranean diet and related dietary patterns into medical practice, hospitals, schools and other institutions has the potential to improve well-being.”

This research is solid and something to keep in mind. Not to mention, the Mediterranean diet is absolutely delicious.