A new study has found that by changing to a Mediterranean diet plan rich in olive oil, nuts, beans, fish, fruits and vegetables, around 25 percent of heart attacks, strokes and deaths from coronary heart conditions could be prevented.

The findings (from The New England Journal of Medicine’s website), have been based on an initial major clinical trial which was ended early as the outcomes were so clear that was thought of unethical to continue.

Risk elements like cholesterol levels or hypertension or weight were not looked at – the results were based on heart attacks, strokes and death.

Until now, the Mediterranean was only tenuously linked to health improvements, based mostly on circumstantial evidence in Mediterranean countries.

The study has been declared a triumph because it showed that a diet regime was powerful in reducing coronary heart condition risk. Scientists randomly assigned over 7000 people in Spain who were overweight, had been smokers, or had diabetes or other risk elements, to follow either the Mediterranean diet regime or a low-fat diet.

Low-fat diets have not necessarily been shown in any rigorous way to be beneficial, and they also are also very hard for patients for you to maintain. This study shows you can consume a perfectly balanced diet with fruits and vegetables and olive oil and lower disease by 25 percent.

The participants were able to stay with the Mediterranean diet regime, but those assigned to the low-fat diet did not really lower their fat intake very much. Therefore the study wound up comparing the usual modern eating habits, with their regular consumption of red meat, sodas and commercial baked goods, with a diet plan that shunned that.

The researchers have been careful in order to say in their paper that while the diet regime clearly reduced coronary heart ailment for all those with high risk for it, more research was needed to establish its benefits for people in low risk. But they also say it is expected it might also help people at both high and low risk, and suggested the simplest way to be able to utilize it for protection would be to start as a child.

If it is truly more healthy to eat this way, then the sooner the better!