Mediterranean Diet: Could Help Prevent Heart Attack and Stroke

A new diet could be just the thing to help win the fight against heart disease, and the Mediterranean Diet in particular, a diet consisting of fruits, vegetables, fish and whole grains, that limits unhealthy fats, could help staff off health issues such as heart attack, stroke and heart-disease-related death.

Dr. Ramon Estruch from the Department of Internal Medicine at the Hospital Clinic of Barcelona tested the Mediterranean Diet against a low-fat diet.

Participants tracked rates of heart-related issues, and after nearly five years, results showed that the group with lowest number of heart problems was on the Mediterranean Diet, according to research published by the New England Journal of Medicine.

The study showed that those eating a diet high in extra-virgin olive-oli showed a 30 percent lower risk of having a heart attack, stroke, or dying of heart disease after five years, while those consuming the Mediterranean diet with more nuts showed a 28 percent lower risk of these outcomes.

"We think the strength of this study comes from the fact that we measured hard outcomes and not just blood pressure or changes in cholesterol levels," says Estruch. "We really believe the Mediterranean diet lowers incidence of (heart attack), stroke and cardiovascular deaths."

Participants in the study were requested to replaced red meat with white meat such as chicken and eat three or more servings of fish each week, along with three more servings of fruit and two or more servings of vegetables a day.

To ensure that other factors that could affect heart-disease rates were not playing a role, the researchers also adjusted for the total amount of calories the groups were eating, since obesity can be a major contributor to heart attack and stroke.

findings add to the body of evidence that suggests the Mediterranean Diet can play an important role in protecting the heart, and should guide doctors and patients who want to avoid heart disease toward eating the foods that can help them the most.