Impact of Mediterranean diet on metabolic syndrome, cancer and longevity

// Nicola Di Daniele 1 , Annalisa Noce 1 , Maria Francesca Vidiri 2 , Eleonora Moriconi 2 , Giulia Marrone 1 , Margherita Annicchiarico-Petruzzelli 3 , Gabriele D’Urso 1 , Manfredi Tesauro 1 , Valentina Rovella 1 , Antonino De Lorenzo 2 1 Department of Systems Medicine, Hypertension and Nephrology Unit, University of Rome “Tor Vergata”, Italy 2 Department of Biomedicine and Prevention, Division of Clinical Nutrition and Nutrigenomic, University of Rome “Tor Vergata”, Italy 3 Biochemistry Laboratory, IDI-IRCCS, Department of Experimental Medicine and Surgery, University of Rome “Tor Vergata”, Italy Correspondence to: Annalisa Noce, email: annalisa.noce@libero.it Nicola Di Daniele, email: didaniele@med.uniroma2.it Keywords: Mediterranean diet, public health, obesity, cancer, antioxidant Received: July 20, 2016      Accepted: November 07, 2016      Published: November 24, 2016 ABSTRACT Obesity symbolizes a major public health problem. Overweight and obesity are associated to the occurrence of the metabolic syndrome and to adipose tissue dysfunction. The adipose tissue is metabolically active and an endocrine organ, whose dysregulation causes a low-grade inflammatory state and ectopic fat depositions. The Mediterranean Diet represents a possible therapy for metabolic syndrome, preventing adiposopathy or “sick fat” formation. The Mediterranean Diet exerts protective effects in elderly subjects with and without baseline of chronic diseases. Recent studies have demonstrated a relationship between cancer and obesity. In the US, diet represents amount 30-35% of death causes related to cancer. Currently, the cancer is the second cause of death after cardiovascular diseases worldwide. Furthermore, populations living in the Mediterranean area have a decreased incidence of cancer compared with populations living in Northern Europe or the US, likely due to healthier dietary habits. The bioactive food components have a potential preventive action on cancer. The aims of this review are to evaluate the impact of Mediterranean Diet on onset, progression and regression of metabolic syndrome, cancer and on longevity.