Researchers from Cordoba demonstrate why the Mediterranean diet improves kidney health in patients with diabetes

The University of Cordoba (UCO) and the Maimonides Institute for Biomedical Research (Imibic) conducted a five-year study involving more than half a thousand diabetic patients, comparing the effects of two diets beneficial to the body. , concluding that the Mediterranean helps eliminate compounds that affect kidney function, so it may be beneficial to stop their deterioration.

As UCO notes, the Mediterranean diet scores again and adds another achievement to its list of health benefits because, in addition to preventing cardiovascular disease, strengthening the immune system or protecting against oxidative stress, this diet may also be useful for stopping the deterioration of kidney health .

This is a benefit that, although already known to the scientific community, has now been demonstrated for the first time in patients suffering from type 2 diabetes, a disease that affects almost 15 percent of the Spanish population, according to the latest report from the Spanish Diabetes Society.

This is one of the main findings of a new study published by the University of Cordoba and the Maimonides Institute for Biomedical Research. The work was able to decipher one of the reasons explaining this connection between the Mediterranean diet and improved kidney function, or, in other words, one of the molecular mechanisms through which this phenomenon occurs.

The key lies in certain compounds called Advanced Glycation End Products, better known as AGEs by their English acronym. As Alicia Podadera, one of the researchers involved in the study, emphasized, these are molecules with inflammatory and oxidative properties that can be produced naturally in the human body and also come from food.

Although they are usually eliminated through urine, diabetics with kidney problems (one of the most common complications) have difficulty eliminating them, so the levels of these products in their bodies tend to be higher.

Specifically, a study conducted by the Nutrigenomics and Metabolic Syndrome team analyzed the levels of these harmful compounds in more than half a thousand diabetics, comparing how two types of diets affected the body over five years. The Mediterranean diet and another diet that is low in fat and high in carbohydrates.

According to the study, patients who followed a Mediterranean diet during those years had lower levels of these harmful compounds in their blood. “We were able to verify that this diet better activates the detoxification process, that is, the mechanism by which the body eliminates these harmful substances,” said Francisco Miguel Gutierrez, another of the study’s authors.

While the relationship between these compounds and kidney disease has been known before, this is the first time it has been proven “how a specific diet can mitigate the decline in kidney function in patients with diabetes,” said researcher Elena Hubero. Thus, the Mediterranean diet “may be an effective strategy for managing these substances,” he concluded.

There are many reasons why this way of eating is healthy. In addition to the antioxidant capacity of extra virgin olive oil, previous studies have shown that the preparation method also plays an important role. For example, foods cooked at high temperatures for short periods of time “contain higher levels of these harmful substances” than other cooking methods typical of the Mediterranean diet, which “require longer cooking times and are better for the environment.” – emphasized Hubero.

This work was published as part of the Cordioprev study, a seven-year study of more than 1,000 heart patients that compared the differences between a healthy low-fat diet and a Mediterranean diet. extra virgin olive oil. This clinical study, led by Professor José López Miranda and carried out by Imibic, UCO and the Network Biomedical Research Center for the Physiopathology of Obesity and Nutrition (Ciberobn), received the National Gastronomy Award for Research and Innovation last year.