{"id":138860,"date":"2025-04-07T07:30:34","date_gmt":"2025-04-07T04:30:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/fi\/news\/move-over-mediterranean-food-experts-say-this-east-african-diet-could-be-key-to-better-health\/"},"modified":"2025-04-07T07:30:34","modified_gmt":"2025-04-07T04:30:34","slug":"move-over-mediterranean-food-experts-say-this-east-african-diet-could-be-key-to-better-health","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/fi\/news\/move-over-mediterranean-food-experts-say-this-east-african-diet-could-be-key-to-better-health\/","title":{"rendered":"Move over Mediterranean food. Experts say this East African diet could be key to better health"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mp_wrapper\">\n  <div class=\"mepr-unauthorized-message\">\n    <p>You are unauthorized to view this page.<\/p>\n  <\/div>\n  <div class=\"mepr-login-form-wrap\">\n            \n<div class=\"mp_wrapper mp_login_form\">\n                  <!-- mp-login-form-start -->     <form name=\"mepr_loginform\" id=\"mepr_loginform\" class=\"mepr-form\" action=\"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/fi\/login-2\/\" method=\"post\">\n            <div class=\"mp-form-row mepr_username\">\n        <div class=\"mp-form-label\">\n                              <label for=\"user_login\">Username<\/label>\n        <\/div>\n        <input type=\"text\" name=\"log\" id=\"user_login\" value=\"\" \/>\n      <\/div>\n      <div class=\"mp-form-row mepr_password\">\n        <div class=\"mp-form-label\">\n          <label for=\"user_pass\">Password<\/label>\n          <div class=\"mp-hide-pw\">\n            <input type=\"password\" name=\"pwd\" id=\"user_pass\" value=\"\" \/>\n            <button type=\"button\" class=\"button mp-hide-pw hide-if-no-js\" data-toggle=\"0\" aria-label=\"Show password\">\n              <span class=\"dashicons dashicons-visibility\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><\/span>\n            <\/button>\n          <\/div>\n        <\/div>\n      <\/div>\n            <div>\n        <label><input name=\"rememberme\" type=\"checkbox\" id=\"rememberme\" value=\"forever\" \/> Remember Me<\/label>\n      <\/div>\n      <div class=\"mp-spacer\">&nbsp;<\/div>\n      <div class=\"submit\">\n        <input type=\"submit\" name=\"wp-submit\" id=\"wp-submit\" class=\"button-primary mepr-share-button \" value=\"Log In\" \/>\n        <input type=\"hidden\" name=\"redirect_to\" value=\"\/fi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138860\" \/>\n        <input type=\"hidden\" name=\"mepr_process_login_form\" value=\"true\" \/>\n        <input type=\"hidden\" name=\"mepr_is_login_page\" value=\"false\" \/>\n      <\/div>\n    <\/form>\n    <div class=\"mp-spacer\">&nbsp;<\/div>\n    <div class=\"mepr-login-actions\">\n        <a\n          href=\"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/fi\/login-2\/?action=forgot_password\"\n          title=\"Click here to reset your password\"\n        >\n          Forgot Password        <\/a>\n    <\/div>\n\n      \n    <!-- mp-login-form-end --> \n  <\/div>\n      <\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"smart_content_wrapper\">\n<p>The East African diet is rich in beans, pulses, legumes and green vegetables.<\/p>\n<p>The study asked people to switch their diets for two weeks, and then tracked changes to their immune and metabolic systems. The Mediterranean diet may be a favourite among nutritionists, but a new study suggests that sticking to a diet local to a community in East Africa could be another key to good health.<\/p>\n<p>The new study, which included 77 men and was published in the journal Nature Medicine, focused on the diet of the Chagga people, who live in northern Tanzania in the foothills of Mount Kilimanjaro. It\u2019s rich in plants and fibres, featuring lots of whole grains, beans, and green vegetables. Meanwhile, town-dwelling men whose diets were more Western either switched to traditional foods for two weeks or added Mbege, a fermented banana drink with an alcohol content of 1 to 3 per cent, to their diets for a week.<\/p>\n<p>The researchers then measured inflammation-related biomarkers in the men\u2019s blood, as well as changes to their gut microbiomes. Switching from a traditional to a Western diet led to more inflammation, they found \u2013 but replacing a Western diet with traditional foods or drinking Mbege helped bring down inflammation, which is tied to health issues like heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and autoimmune diseases.Some of these changes were still apparent a month after the experiment, the study found.<\/p>\n<p>The results suggest that preserving traditional diets in sub-Saharan Africa \u2013 and adopting a similar diet for those further afield \u2013 could help reduce people\u2019s risk factors for chronic conditions linked to inflammation.<\/p>\n<p>Lower risk of diabetes to bone fractures: What are the benefits and drawbacks of being vegetarian?<br \/>\n&#8221;What people eat has a large impact on the immune and metabolic system,&#8221; Dr Quirijn de Mast, the study\u2019s senior author and an associate professor at Radboud University Medical Centre in the Netherlands, told Euronews Health. &#8221;It was quite unexpected that many of these effects really persisted,&#8221; he added.<\/p>\n<p>The researchers said that the benefits of the Chagga people\u2019s diet are likely due to how the key foods interact with each other, rather than any single superfood \u2013 similar to the Mediterranean diet, which emphasises fruits, vegetables, olive oil, and moderate amounts of fish and dairy. &#8221;It&#8217;s probably not one thing,&#8221; de Mast said. &#8221;I think it&#8217;s the entire diet&#8221;. Meanwhile, the fermentation process appears to enrich banana drink Mbege with microbes and chemical compounds that are good for the gut \u2013 but the researchers warned that the health benefits of the drink should be weighed against the alcohol content and possible contamination. For people looking to incorporate the benefits of Mbege, de Mast recommends eating more fermented foods in general.<\/p>\n<p>Notably, the findings might not hold for diets across the East African region. There are more than 100 tribes in Tanzania, the study said, each with their own eating habits.The researchers called for more studies on how various traditional diets across Africa affect people\u2019s health \u2013 especially because international nutrition guidelines don\u2019t always consider regional differences in food, culture, and genetics.<\/p>\n<p>Timing is key. The rapid urbanisation of sub-Saharan Africa has come with dietary changes and less physical activity, and the region is now grappling with rising rates of obesity and related health problems. &#8221;These heritage diets and their diversity really deserve more attention before they disappear, because I think we can really learn a lot,&#8221; de Mast said.<\/p>\n<p>Source:<a rel=\"noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.euronews.com\/health\/2025\/04\/06\/move-over-mediterranean-diet-experts-say-this-east-african-diet-could-be-key-to-better-hea\">Euronews<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>The post <a rel=\"noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/vastuullisuusuutiset.fi\/fi\/csr-news-en\/xxx-2\/\">Move over Mediterranean food. Experts say this East African diet could be key to better health<\/a> appeared first on <a rel=\"noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/vastuullisuusuutiset.fi\/fi\">Vastuullisuusuutiset.fi<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[698,555,815,5666],"class_list":["post-138860","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-africa","tag-csr-news-en","tag-food","tag-uganda"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/fi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138860","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/fi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/fi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/fi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/fi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=138860"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/fi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138860\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/fi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=138860"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/fi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=138860"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/fi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=138860"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}