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A high BMI causes more than 4 million deaths each year, with more than two-thirds of those deaths caused by cardiovascular disease.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), these data are considered important because 42% of people in the United States are clinically obese. However, a new study led by Dr. Karl Michaëlsson, a researcher at Uppsala University in Sweden, concluded that people classified as obese could reduce their risk of death to the same level as people with lower BMIs by switching to a healthier Mediterranean-style diet.
The Mediterranean diet focuses on nutrient-dense foods such as fruits and vegetables, nuts, unrefined or high-fiber whole grains, fish, and olive oil over red meat and processed foods. (Also read: Study: Knitting Relieves Stress)
The study, published in the journal PLoS Medicine, involved 79,003 Swedish adults with an average starting age of 61 over 21 years. During the study period, 30,389 people died.
The researchers found that overweight people who adhered best to the Mediterranean diet were least likely to die. In fact, obese people on a healthy diet are no more likely to die than people with moderate weight and healthy diets.
Individuals with normal BMI but on an unhealthy diet also had a higher mortality rate than those with moderate weight who had a healthy Mediterranean diet.
Reported by Healthline, diet was found to be a strong predictor of the risk of death so that the elderly in the study who had moderate weight but unhealthy diets were reported by the researchers as being the most likely to die during the study period, even more than obese people who ate poorly.
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