GREENSBORO, N.C. — A recent study finds that a Mediterranean diet could help dull the impact of stress on the body.

Dr. Carol Shively of Wake Forest School of Medicine worked on a study that compared the traditional American diet to a traditional Mediterranean diet and its impact on animals. Researchers studied the animals on both diets for 31 months, which is equivalent to a nine-year follow up.

The Western diet consisted of more animal-sourced protein, refined sugar and salt, while the Mediterranean diet included plant-sourced fats, fish and vegetables. Researchers concluded the animals on the Mediterranean diet lowered heart rate and cortisol levels, also known as the fight or flight hormone.

“The system that regulates heart rate is the sympathetic nervous system and the one that regulates cortisol is the hypothalamic pituitary adrenal axis. We think of those as two major stress responsive systems in the body,” says Shively.

Shively says the composition of healthy fats, fresh fruits and vegetables of the Mediterranean diet work together to impact the body. Researchers also found this diet slowed down the aging of the nervous system.

“That part of the nervous system, when it begins to function less effectively and less efficiently later in life, that’s when we start to see associated chronic diseases of aging,” she explains.

Ghassan’s Restaurant has been serving their Mediterranean cuisine for more than 40 years. They say a traditional Lebanese cuisine consists of fruits, vegetables, nuts, grains and beans with little to no meat.

“You hear plant-based a lot lately. Our Mediterranean diet is very plant-based it always has been so, it really is sliding right into this new way of eating,” says Ghassan’s Lina Fleihan.

Fleihan says traditional Lebanese cooking is a meditative experience, which could also leave people making and eating the food less stressed.