The Mediterranean diet has been praised as a good way to prevent heart disease. Now, research from Greece shows that a Mediterranean-style diet can promote survival in people who already have heart disease. The investigators recruited 1,000 patients who had just had heart attacks or serious chest pain that put them in the hospital. The patients filled out questionnaires on their diets and were then given a score based on how closely they resembled an ideal Mediterranean diet. The top score was 55. The diet components that seemed most effective at cutting the risk of heart problems were vegetables, salad and nuts.
Over the next two years, about half of the patients suffered a second cardiac event. But those with the highest Mediterranean diet scores were only half as likely to have a repeat heart attack during the first year of follow-up and 40 percent less likely to have a second heart attack over the entire two years. People who ate these foods most often were also less likely to have a drop in the heart’s pumping capacity.
[American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, online May 19, 2010]
