FRIDAY, May 30 (HealthDay News) -- Adhering to the so-called Mediterranean diet, which is rich in fruits and vegetables and low in animal products, may protect you against developing type 2 diabetes, a Spanish study suggests.

A Mediterranean diet is often recommended as a way to guard against cardiovascular disease, but whether it protects against diabetes hasn't been established. The diet emphasizes olive oil, vegetables, fruits, nuts, cereals, legumes and fish, and deemphasizes meat and dairy products.

"The Mediterranean diet is a healthful eating plan that seems to help in the prevention of heart disease," said Connie Diekman, director of university nutrition at Washington University in St. Louis, who was not involved with the study. "Consumption of the Mediterranean diet will support health and may aid in the prevention of several diseases," she added.

For the study, published online May 30 in the British Medical Journal, researchers tracked the diets of 13,380 Spanish university graduates with no history of diabetes. Participants filled out a 136-item food questionnaire, which measured their entire diet (including their intake of fats), their cooking methods and their use of dietary supplements.

During an average of 4.4 years of follow-up, the team found that people who adhered to a Mediterranean diet had a lower risk of developing type 2 diabetes. In fact, those who stuck very closely to the diet reduced their risk by 83 percent.

Moreover, the people who tended to stick closest to the diet were those with factors that put them at the highest risk for developing diabetes, such as being older, having a family history of diabetes and being an ex-smoker. These people were expected to have a higher rate of diabetes, but when they adhered to the Mediterranean diet this was not the case, the researchers noted.

Type 2 diabetes is typically brought on by poor eating habits, too much weight and too little exercise.

The researchers suggested that one key factor that might be responsible for the protective effect of the Mediterranean diet is its emphasis on olive oil for cooking, frying, putting on bread and mixing in salad dressings.

"Our prospective cohort study suggests that substantial protection against diabetes can be obtained with the traditional Mediterranean diet, rich in olive oil, vegetables, fruits, nuts, cereals, legumes, and fish but relatively low in meat and dairy products," the researchers concluded.

Diekman said the study does have some limitations. "The use of food-frequency questionnaires is a limitation to actual intake, since most people don't know their real eating patterns and tend to 'guess' rather than provide real data," she said.

The low number of cases of diabetes identified in the study is another concern because typical demographic trends would suggest a higher number, she said.

"Finally, since the study is observational, it is hard to determine if other factors may have had an impact," Diekman said. "Self-reporting of study factors always compounds outcomes."

Still, another nutrition expert said the findings seem to confirm the benefits of a Mediterranean diet for overall health.

"This study reminds me of a comment I once heard someone else say -- 'Research simply confirms what we already know or suspect,' " said Lona Sandon, an assistant professor of clinical nutrition at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas and a spokeswoman for the American Dietetic Association.

"There are reams of epidemiological studies that have shown an association of the Mediterranean eating pattern with better health overall," Sandon said. "This study adds more fuel to the argument to make better choices in the types of fats we choose to eat and adding more vegetables to our plates."

More information

To learn more about the Mediterranean diet, visit the American Heart Association  .

FRIDAY, May 30 (HealthDay News) -- Fewer than half of Americans realize there are two types of dietary fat that actually help their hearts, a new survey shows.

So, while many have heeded the warnings about the cardiovascular dangers of trans fats and saturated fats, the American Heart Association (AHA) now thinks people need to pay more attention to the cardiovascular benefits conferred by polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats.

As a result of its recent survey, the AHA's new Face the Fats campaign has harnessed the power of the Internet to encourage people to view these lesser known fats with new respect.

"We're trying to take education to the next level and say when you have the opportunity to choose, choose the better fat, not the bad fat," said Dr. Clyde W. Yancy, the association's president-elect.

The campaign's Web page presents information at varying levels of sophistication. The pages include an interactive quiz on fats, menus, recipes and a Fats 101 course. A Fats Translator calculates a body-mass index from the input of height, weight, age and level of activity. The index is a scale ranging from under weight to obesity.

The AHA decided to go digital in this phase of its campaign because "the Web really is becoming the world's premier information source, so we have to be there," Yancy added.

"When we have lots of polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats in our diet, our HDL cholesterol goes up and helps protect our arteries from clogging up and hardening," explained Lona Sandon, an assistant professor of clinical nutrition at the University of Texas Southwestern. "HDL kind of acts like a broom and sweeps up the artery-damaging molecules and takes them away."

Trans fats and saturated fats are more able to stick to blood vessel walls and harden arteries, Yancy added. This process can lead to the rupture of an artery or obstructed blood vessels that can cause heart attacks, strokes or blood vessel disease.

Sandon supported the idea of greater education on the different forms of dietary fat. "I think it's still very confusing for people," she said. "They don't know if they should be eating low fat, what kind of fat." She also advised moderation in consumption of any kind of fat. All fats have 9 calories per gram, she explained, so even too much of the better fats can lead to weight gain. "They're healthy, but you can't go wild with them," she said.

The Face the Fats campaign is funded by $7 million received from McDonalds USA as part of the settlement of a California class action lawsuit brought by a consumer advocacy group, bantransfat.com, according to the AHA. McDonald's recently announced that it has eliminated trans fats from its fried foods by changing to a canola-based cooking oil.

More information

For more on the Face the Fats campaign, go to the American Heart Association  .

THURSDAY, May 29 (HealthDay News) -- Drinking and eating during labor can provide women with the energy they need and should not be routinely restricted, says a new clinical bulletin from the American College of Nurse-Midwives.

"It's important that we don't unnecessarily restrict a woman's ability to eat or drink during labor. In addition to providing hydration, nutrition and comfort, self-regulating intake decreases a woman's stress level and provides her with a feeling of control," Deborah Anderson, an associate clinical professor at the University of California, San Francisco, said in a prepared statement.

Currently, most U.S. hospitals restrict a woman's food and drink consumption during labor to reduce the risk of aspiration if a problem develops and she requires general anesthesia.

The new clinical bulletin says the decision to allow a woman to have food and drink during labor must take into account a number of factors: the woman's health status; the risk of surgical intervention, and the system in which the woman gives birth.

Among the other recommendations in the clinical bulletin:

• During pre-birth care, discuss with women the very small but potentially serious risk of aspiration if general anesthesia is required.
• Encourage healthy women experiencing normal labor to make their own decision about whether to have food and drink.
• Evaluate all women at increased risk for birth that requires surgery for factors that could result in difficult intubation or aspiration.
• Continued research to confirm the safety of allowing women in labor to have food and drink.

More information

The American Pregnancy Association has more about pregnancy and birth  .

(HealthDay News) -- Losing weight is a challenge, but keeping it off can even more difficult without a good plan and healthy habits.

Here are suggestions to help you keep the weight off that you've worked so hard to lose, courtesy of the American Heart Association:

• Understand what works best for you -- such as what rewards best motivate you, what tempts you most, and what helps you resist those temptations.
• Be realistic about how much weight you should lose.
• Maintain a good balance of calories taken in versus calories burned.
• Get enough exercise. Even a brisk daily walk can help you keep those pounds off.
• Keep notes and records of your food intake and daily activity.
• Plan your meals, and make healthy food choices at the grocery.
• Don't weigh yourself more than once a week.
• Plan ahead for holidays, special occasions, and other times when you may be likely to splurge and take in additional calories.