Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2007 Oct;51(10):1260-7.
doi: 10.1002/mnfr.200700021.

Obesity and the metabolic syndrome in Mediterranean countries: a hypothesis related to olive oil

Federico Soriguer  1 , Gemma Rojo-Martínez, Fernando Rodriguez de Fonseca, Eva García-Escobar, Eduardo García Fuentes, Gabriel Olveira
Affiliations
Review

Obesity and the metabolic syndrome in Mediterranean countries: a hypothesis related to olive oil

Federico Soriguer et al. Mol Nutr Food Res. 2007 Oct.

Abstract

In Mediterranean countries people would previously have consumed a diet with a high proportion of MUFA. Physical activity would have been intense with a low level of stress. The stearoyl-CoA desaturase (SCD1) system selected over thousands of years of this type of behavior must have adapted to a particular capacity of self regulation. Now, this pattern, called the "Mediterranean diet", has been broken and many people living by the Mediterranean consume a high quantity of calories, mainly from saturated or n-6-rich fats and the relative intake of MUFA has decreased. Simultaneously, physical activity has decreased and the pattern of stress has changed towards what is called a western lifestyle. In this new context, if people have a favorable, genetically conditioned SCD1 activity that will let them confront the new situation or else have some other compensatory mechanism, such as being keen on sport, etc, then they can prevent the appearance of some of the complications associated with the metabolic syndrome. If, on the other hand, the SCD1 pattern is genetically unfavorable for this new situation and they have a new cultural context, then they do not have the alternative compensatory mechanisms and the probability of developing the metabolic syndrome is high.

PubMed Disclaimer

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

LinkOut - more resources

-