Articles

The Mediterranean diet has long been celebrated as the gold standard of healthy diets for its highly palatable nature and favorable impact on the prevention of chronic diseases, promotion of greater longevity, and quality of life. A large body of scientific evidence has accumulated over the past several decades showing that Mediterranean-type diets are highly protective against the development of cardiovascular disease, metabolic disorders, and certain cancers.

Although it is not clear yet which components of the diet provide the greatest health benefits, likely candidates have emerged in the literature that, when consumed collectively, provide a dietary pattern that is highly protective.

Several potential explanations and biological mechanisms of action against the pathogenesis of chronic disease that these foods provide are reviewed.

To provide health/fitness professionals with a three-part, heart- healthy eating strategy to recommend to their clients:

1. Identify which foods are most harmful (cholesterol-raising) and need to be subtracted from the diet
2. Identify which low-density lipoprotein-lowering functional foods can be substituted into the diet
3. Identify the ingredients of the Mediterranean style of eating, an eating plan that has numerous beneficial health effects including a significantly reduced risk of coronary artery disease

The Mediterranean Diet recently made front page news after the stunning results of a 5 year Spanish study were published in the New England Journal of Medicine. Why all the excitement about this study?