Protect Your Heart by Eating a Mediterranean Diet August 30,
2007—The Mediterranean diet has been widely acclaimed—and for
good reason. New research shows that people who eat a
Mediterranean diet are less likely to die from heart disease,
especially if they have diabetes. Cardiovascular disease is the
number one killer of both men and women in the United States and
other Western countries. The major risk factors for heart
disease—smoking, high cholesterol, high blood pressure,
diabetes, and being overweight or obese—are influenced by the
choices we make in our daily lives. Much of nutrition research
has focused on identifying relationships between single
nutrients or foods and disease risk, but each nutrient is part
of a food, and each food is likely to be part of a meal—in other
words, it’s a complex package. How foods and combinations of
foods affect nutrient absorption and activity is still poorly
understood. In the last decade, several important studies have
looked at eating combinations of foods for dise