The Mediterranean diet supplemented with extra virgin olive oil or nuts decreases the risk of having a serious cardiovascular problem, such as a heart attack or stroke.
The Mediterranean diet is renowned for its multiple benefits. A new study, published in The New England Journal of Medicine, has just associated it with the decrease in cardiovascular risk.
A high cardiovascular risk
The Mediterranean diet, also called the Cretan diet or Mediterranean diet, is a traditional eating practice in several countries around the Mediterranean Sea characterized by the consumption in abundance of fruits, vegetables, legumes, grains, aromatic herbs and olive oil, moderate consumption of dairy products, eggs and wine, limited consumption of fish and low consumption of meat.
7447 participants participated in the trial. They were between 55 and 80 years old. At the start of the study, all of them were at high cardiovascular risk, although they had not yet developed cardiovascular disease.
The patients were divided into three groups. The first followed a Mediterranean diet supplemented with extra virgin olive oil, the second followed a Mediterranean diet supplemented with nuts, the third followed a “control diet”, that is to say a diet low in dietary fat.
Major cardiovascular events
Researchers identified major cardiovascular events (myocardial infarction, stroke, or cardiovascular death) for an average of four years and eight months.
There were 96 events in the group assigned to a Mediterranean diet based on extra virgin olive oil (3.8%), 83 in the group assigned to a Mediterranean diet based on nuts (3.4%) and 109 in the control group (4.4%).
“In this study involving people at high cardiovascular risk, the incidence of major cardiovascular events was lower in people assigned to a Mediterranean diet supplemented with extra virgin olive oil or nuts than in people assigned to a reduced fat diet, ”the authors conclude.
150,000 deaths each year
In France, cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in people over 65, with 150,000 deaths each year. The amount of annual expenditure related to these diseases amounts to some 28 billion euros.
Cardiovascular disease includes coronary heart disease, which affects the coronary vessels supplying the heart muscle; cerebrovascular diseases, affecting the vessels that supply the brain; peripheral arterial disease, affecting arteries in the arms and legs; rheumatic heart disease, due to rheumatic fever, caused by streptococcus; cardiac birth defects and finally venous thrombosis.
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