Mediterranean Diet and Health

Ecological evidence in the 1960s suggested that the traditional Mediterranean diet could have beneficial health effects, mostly on cardiovascular diseases. EPIC investigators operationalized adherence to the Mediterranean diet through a simple scoring system and have documented, in a series of papers, that closer adherence to this diet is associated with reduced overall mortality as well as incidence of and mortality from cardiovascular diseases and cancer. In a paper studying more than 70 000 elderly men and women from nine European countries, it was shown that adherence to the Mediterranean diet can improve survival in this vulnerable group.

Trichopoulou A et al. Modified Mediterranean diet and survival: EPIC-elderly prospective cohort study. BMJ. 2005 Apr 30;330(7498):991. PMID: 15820966