Just in case you were in any doubt, researchers have this week confirmed that the Mediterranean diet-with an emphasis on vegetables, fruit and sea food-will significantly reduce your risk of heart attack or stroke. And the super healthy diet gets healthier yet when you add virgin oil or nuts to the mix.
The diet reduces your risk by 30 per cent, and that can be significant as we get older. And it’s particularly good news for anyone who is already at risk from cardiovascular disease, as the Predimed researchers established.
They put 7,447 people-all considered at risk of a heart attack or stroke-on the diet, some of whom also had extra servings of virgin olive oil and others had nuts, such as walnuts, almonds and hazelnuts, added to the food.
Over the following five years, the participants who kept to the diet saw their risk drop steadily and significantly.
Interestingly, say the researchers, their findings kick into touch the idea that fats in our diet have anything much to do with heart health. In fact, a diet high in vegetable fats is better for you than a low-fat diet, they said.
(Source: New England Journal of medicine, 2013; doi: 10.1056/nejmoa1200303).
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