A study shows that adherence to a traditional Mediterranean diet is linked to significant reduction in mortality.

It's well known that the so-called Mediterranean diet contains many healthy foods, such as fresh fruit and vegetables, salad, fish and olive oil. But how much does it improve health in a real Mediterranean population?

Researchers at the University of Athens and the Harvard School of Public Health have studied a population of over 22,000 adults in Greece. They used a 10 point scale to see how far these participants adhered to a traditional Mediterranean diet. They then looked for associations between diet and total mortality.

During 44 months of follow up, there were 275 deaths. A higher degree of adherence with the Mediterranean diet was linked with a reduction in total mortality. There was also an inverse relation between adherence to the diet and death from heart disease or cancer. But no association was found between specific food groups and mortality. The study suggests that going for a healthy Mediterranean diet really does help you live longer.

Source

New England Journal of Medicine 26th June 2003