Mediterranean Diet is best

The Mediterranean is the best diet

There is enormous confusion about what is the best diet to follow - low fat, low saturated fat, low trans fat, low carb, high protein, paleolithic, fasting day diet....the list is endless.  Most are complicated and unpleasant to follow for the rest of one's life.    Unfortunately Cardiology has made saturated fat the sole culprit for many years and is having difficulty in saying "we got it wrong".   The diets usually concentrate on what you cannot eat rather than what you can.
Many cardiologists (me included) have for years suggested that the mediterranean diet is the best and healthiest, from looking at the incidence of heart disease in countries round the north Mediterranean shores.   Even though many smoke, drink, are overweight and do little exercise, the incidence of heart disease in those is incredibly low (see graph).  Arrows point to NZ, the UK and Australia, the bracketed countries are Portugal, Spain and France
They also eat saturated fat in the form of cheese, and some meat as well.   It seems that it is what you eat that is important, not necessarily what you 'should not'. 

In a paper presented to the American College of cardiology 2015, a Greek study followed 2,500 adults for 10 years.  those eating the typical mediterranean diet (rich in fresh fruit and vegetables, oil and fish) developed 47% less heart disease! That is HUGE - heart disease was halved by eating this very palatable diet. (It also reduced diabetes, obesity and blood pressure).

So what should we eat?

• Avoid processed foods as much as possible (filled with trans fats), and also reduce the sugar intake, which is the major cause of today's obesity epidemic.  Moderation with salt and red meats.
• Add the mediterranean foods : fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grains, beans, nuts, fish, olive oil and even a glass of red wine.     

That does not seem a hard diet to follow, in fact it is probably nicer than the ones we currently are trying to stick to.  Throw away all the diet books you have, none have been proven to be beneficial in the long run (even the low fat diet) - and here we have double proof with both population and trial evidence