A bibliometric analysis of the Mediterranean diet in metabolic syndrome (2015–2025)

TL;DR

This paper analyzes global research trends on how the Mediterranean diet affects metabolic syndrome, highlighting key areas of focus and growth.

Contribution

The study provides a systematic bibliometric analysis of Mediterranean diet research related to metabolic syndrome from 2015 to 2025.

Findings

Spain led in research output on Mediterranean diet and metabolic syndrome, followed by Italy, the U.S., and Iran.

Nutrients is the core journal for this field, with a focus on blood glucose, lipid metabolism, and gut microbiota modulation.

Research on bioactive components like polyphenols and their metabolic benefits is a growing area of interest.

Abstract

The Mediterranean diet (MD), a widely recognized healthy dietary pattern, has demonstrated significant value in the prevention and management of metabolic syndrome (MetS). However, quantitative integrated analyses of its mechanisms of action remain scarce, highlighting an urgent need for systematic collation.

This study retrieved relevant literature published between 2015 and 2025 from the Web of Science and Scopus databases, and conducted visual bibliometric analyses using R software (Bibliometrix package), VOSviewer, and CiteSpace.

A total of 1723 valid articles were identified from the Web of Science, and 1061 from Scopus. The number of publications steadily increased from 2015 to 2022, with a particularly notable growth spurt between 2016 and 2018, followed by a slight decline from 2022 to 2024. Spain led significantly in the number of publications, followed by Italy, the United States, and Iran, and Spain has established an extensive international cooperation network. At the journal level, Nutrients serves as the core academic platform in this field, ranking first in both publication volume and citation frequency. Current research hotspots primarily focus on the regulatory effects of MD on blood glucose homeostasis, insulin sensitivity, lipid metabolism, and blood pressure in MetS patients, as well as the mechanisms by which bioactive components (e.g., polyphenols, unsaturated fatty acids, and vitamins) promote metabolic health through anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and insulin-sensitizing pathways. Gut microbiota modulation has evolved into an emerging research direction in this domain.

Over the past decade, interdisciplinary research on MD and MetS has gained increasing attention and is expected to become a core focus in the non-pharmacological intervention of MetS. This study systematically clarifies the research status, hot topics, and developmental context of this field, providing important references for future precision nutrition mechanism research and clinical intervention trials.

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