Research

Mixed

Mediterranean diet adherence is associated with increased urinary urolithin production, which correlates with reduced systemic inflammation (hs-CRP) and improved insulin sensitivity markers in a subset of subjects.

Eating nuts (a key part of the Mediterranean diet) can lead to the production of urolithins, which are linked to lower inflammation. However, this only happens if you have the right gut bacteria to convert nut compounds into urolithins. If you don't produce them, you still get other benefits from the diet.

GoodConditionalMEDIUM confidence
The dietary changes in the MedD group led to increased urinary urolithins... that co- varied with specific microbial taxa... urolithin production was negatively correlated with serum hs- CRP, triglycerides, body fat mass, body weight, BMI and urinary carnitine.
Victoria Meslier et al. · Gut · 2020

Why this rating

Observational correlation within an RCT; requires specific microbiome presence.

Source

Mediterranean diet intervention in overweight and obese subjects lowers plasma cholesterol and causes changes in the gut microbiome and metabolome independently of energy intake

Victoria Meslier et al. · Gut · 2020

DOI 10.1136/gutjnl-2019-320438

rct · n=82Cited 565×
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DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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