A new study has shown that eating a Mediterranean-style diet for three months can reduce your risk of heart disease by 15 %.
A Mediterranean-style diet includes plenty of whole grains, vegetables, fruits, nuts, olive oil and fish and is very light on red meat but includes red wine. The heart-healthy effects of eating this way has been well-documented for years but this current study looked at what happens when healthy people eat this way.
The study included 212 men and women at moderate risk for heart disease. One group ate a Mediterranean diet and the other group at a standard low-fat diet for a period of 3 months. The Mediterranean diet group were instructed to eat fish 4 times per week and red meat only once per week. Men were allowed 2 glasses of red wine per day and women were allowed 1 glass.
The standard low-fat diet group was instructed to eat poultry rather than beef or pork, to eat fish 2 to 3 times per week, to stay away from high saturated fat animal products, to increase consumption of fruits and vegetables, to eat low-fat or non-fat dairy, and vegetable oils.
All of the study participants improved their eating habits and both groups had drops in total cholesterol. The Mediterranean diet group had a cholesterol drop of 7.5% and the lowfat group had a drop of 4.5%. Based on the reductions in cholesterol and the other results the researchers concluded that the overall cardiovascular risk fell 15 percent on the Mediterranean diet and 9 percent on the low fat diet. So both diets significantly reduced cardiovascular disease risk factors.
