The “Atlantic diet” – what some experts are calling a variation on Mediterranean eating – is getting some buzz after a study found adherents to the diet had a significantly lower risk of chronic health problems.
Both diets stress the importance of eating fresh fruit, vegetables, fish or other seafood, and the use of olive oil, as well as moderate amounts of wine.
The Atlantic diet consists of foods traditionally eaten in northwest Spain and Portugal. It recommends three to four servings a week of both seafood and lean meat, a variety of seasonal vegetables, fruits, whole grains, beans and olive oil.
One of the main differences between the Atlantic diet and the Mediterranean diet is that the Atlantic version incorporates more brassicas, which is a family of vegetables that includes turnip greens, turnips, kale, cabbage and cauliflower, said Mar Calvo-Malvar, an attending specialist in laboratory medicine at the University Clinical Hospital of Santiago de Compostela in Spain and a principal investigator of the Galiat Study, a clinical trial focused on the Atlantic diet.
The diet also typically incorporates more seafood, dairy and lean cuts of meat, Calvo-Malvar said. Another key difference can be found in the carbs. While the Mediterranean diet typically allows for more pasta, the Atlantic diet includes other starches, such as chestnuts, potatoes and bread.
“Recent media portrayals have often depicted the Atlantic diet as a mere variation of the Mediterranean diet,” said Calvo-Malvar in an email. But, the Atlantic diet is “distinct in its culinary traditions,” she said.
The facts
- The researchers recruited 250 families, which included 574 adults (231 men and 343 women) living in A Estrada, Spain. The average age of the participants was about 47 years old.
- The study found that compared to a control group, those who followed the Atlantic diet were about 42% less likely to exhibit an additional component of metabolic syndrome – a cluster of conditions that together raise the risk for heart disease, diabetes and other chronic diseases.
- Participants on the Atlantic diet “had a significantly lower risk of developing metabolic syndrome and fewer components of metabolic syndrome than those in the control group,” Calvo-Malvar said in an email.
Background
The study conducted by researchers in Santiago de Compostela, Spain, is an analysis of a randomized clinical trial conducted from March 2014 to May 2015 at a health care center in A Estrada, Spain, a rural town of approximately 20,000 people on the northwest corner of the Iberian Peninsula.
The 126 families in the intervention group took a cooking class led by a local chef, received a recipe book and participated in “education sessions” taught by nutritionists. The Atlantic diet “places a strong emphasis on fresh, locally sourced foods prepared through methods like steaming and boiling rather than frying,” Calvo-Malvar said in an email.
Every three weeks, researchers also delivered a basket of “local foods characteristic of the traditional Atlantic diet,” including turnip greens, cabbage, mushrooms, mirabelle plums, mussels, low-fat cheese and tomatoes, Calvo-Malvar said.
“From a cultural perspective, our intervention was grounded in a diet that aligns with the cultural and gastronomic heritage of the area, featuring local and economically accessible foods,” Calvo-Malvar said. “This approach not only contributes to preserving cultural traditions but also enhances the likelihood of dietary adherence and sustainability.”
The researchers counseled participants in the intervention group to modify their meals according to the Atlantic diet, but did not instruct them to cut back on calories. During the trial, researchers measured participants’ weight and waistlines, took blood samples to track fat and cholesterol levels, as well as blood sugar, and recorded participant’s blood pressure to track the conditions for metabolic syndrome.
In the study, the researchers said it’s not clear why families in the intervention had a reduced risk in health issues and further research is needed to understand what part of the intervention may have played a role. They also said the intervention lasted six months and that amount of time “may not have been long enough to properly assess metabolic changes.”
What experts say
Dariush Mozaffarian, the director of the Food is Medicine Institute at Tufts University, said the Atlantic diet is “essentially a Mediterranean diet.”
“The main difference is that they have potatoes and bread instead of pasta because they’re marginally farther north than cities that are on the Mediterranean Sea,” Mozaffarian said.
Because the two diets are so similar, the findings are “not surprising,” said Walter C. Willett, a professor of epidemiology and nutrition at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
“The Southern Atlantic diet has some positive attributes,” but the “health outcomes would be better” if the diet was closer to the Mediterranean diet, Willett said in an email. “Specifically by partial replacement of red meat and dairy foods with nuts and legumes.”
The researchers in Spain allowed for a higher intake of red meat but “the dietary variables most clearly associated with a higher score were fish and vegetables,” Willett said in an email. Eating red meat “did not contribute much.”
Willett said the study shows “the principles of a Mediterranean diet” – a healthy, plant-based diet and low amounts of meats and dairy – can lead to “profound benefits” for a person’s health.
Christopher Gardner, a professor at the Stanford University School of Medicine, said there isn’t one way to eat a Mediterranean diet. “It’s more of a style” that borrows from France, Italy, Greece, Turkey, Spain and Morocco. And the Atlantic diet is “entirely in line” with that way of eating, Gardner said.
What this study highlights is someone doesn’t need to adhere to an exact Mediterranean diet to create a healthy meal plan, Mozaffarian said.
“There’s broad principles that are important rather than a very exact diet,” he said. “The Atlantic diet is essentially 95% the same as the Mediterranean diet.”
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