Living Longer on a Mediterranean Diet

Those who eat a Mediterranean diet have half the risk of suffering a heart attack or developing cancer as those with conventional eating habits. The sensational success of the Mediterranean diet has been proven in major scientific studies. The defining characteristics of the Mediterranean diet are a high proportion of plant foods such as fruits, vegetables, legumes and lettuce, olive oil rather than butter, cream and other animal fats, fish rather than meat.

Advantage of Mediterranean diet

“For those who succeed in changing their eating style to a Mediterranean diet, more quality of life and a prolonged life thanks to the Mediterranean diet are no longer a dream, but can become a reality,” says heart specialist and nutrition expert Professor Dr. Helmut Gohlke. Gohlke, chief physician at the Heart Center in Bad Krozingen, emphasizes that it is no use taking vitamin C and E in tablets.

Fresh fruit, vegetables and salad in natural form taken up against it protects not only against heart attacks, but lowers additionally the blood pressure. The importance of dietary fiber as an important component of a healthy diet has been underestimated until now, he said. “Particularly dietary fiber from cereals, such as oatmeal and whole grain products, reduces the risk of coronary heart disease,” asserts Gohlke. “Refined carbohydrates such as white flour and sugar also in the form of sweets, cakes and desserts should remain the exception.”

Evidence supported by studies

In the US Health Professionals Follow-up Study (HPFS, 2000), about 44,000 men between 40 and 75 years of age without previous coronary heart disease or carcinoma were followed for eight years. The men who ate more vegetables, legumes, whole grains, fish, and poultry had a more than 50% reduced risk of cardiovascular disease than those who ate a frequent diet of red or processed meats, sweets, desserts, chips, and fatty dairy products.

The Mediterranean diet has nothing to do with asceticism and renunciation, but brings a variety of pleasures to everyday life, this was shown in the Lyon Heart Study, in which the group that ate a Mediterranean diet had 60% fewer heart attacks. “In Lyon, great value is placed on good food, and the good acceptance of the Mediterranean diet in this study is a sign of how attractive this cuisine can be,” Gohlke emphasizes.