Eating a Mediterranean diet can help cut the death rate

Adopting a Mediterranean diet is one possible solution. That involves eating beans, pulses, fruit and vegetables, very small quantities of animal products (fish is acceptable, but very little meat and dairy produce), with olive oil and nuts, all washed down with a little alcohol to accompany the meal. A European study has tried to identify which foodstuffs in this particular diet are the most effective when it comes to warding off illness.

The EPIC (European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and nutrition) study monitored more than 23,000 volunteers over an 8.5-year period. When the study began, these individuals were suffering from neither cancer, nor cardiovascular illnesses, nor diabetes. Analysing their diets enabled the researchers to establish a Mediterranean diet score:

- of 0 to 4 for those who didn't follow the diet particularly well
- of 5 and over for those who followed the diet fairly strictly.

The researchers found that those who followed the diet fairly strictly (with a diet score of 5 and over) had a lower mortality rate than the others (those with a diet score of 0 to 4). Moreover, the researchers detailed which particular parts of the diet seem to be the most effective, i.e. the foodstuffs which appear to offer the best protection against overall mortality.

The foodstuffs we should favour, from the most to the least protective, are:

-moderate alcohol consumption
-low consumption of meat
-high consumption of vegetables
-high consumption of fruit and nuts
-high consumption of monounsaturated fatty acids, such as those found in olive oil and nuts.

The scientists noted that high consumption of cereals and low consumption of dairy products had a very little effect.