REMEMBER: The Mediterranean diet includes both healthy dietary and lifestyle habits!
The Mediterranean Diet


The Mediterranean diet may be considered as a “gold standard” eating pattern for CVD risk prevention as adherence to it favorably affects numerous CVD risk factors, including dyslipidemia, hypertension, and diabetes15.
The (traditional) Mediterranean diet (see Table 3) is characterized by:
Daily consumption | Weekly | Occasionally |
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Every main meal should contain:
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Adapted from Shen J et al., 2015 15
REMEMBER: The Mediterranean diet includes both healthy dietary and lifestyle habits!
Adherence to a Mediterranean diet has been shown to be beneficial with respect to CVD risk13.
For instance, the Primary Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease with a Mediterranean Diet (PREDIMED) trial has recently reported significant beneficial effects of a Mediterranean diet supplemented with extra-virgin olive oil or with a mix of nuts on multiple cardiovascular and metabolic risk factors and primary prevention of CVD16.
Most importantly, cardiovascular benefits of the Mediterranean diet in primary prevention of
CVD have been extensively observed also in middle-aged people16.
Most of the effects may be ascribed to the changes in the quality of dietary fats (saturated fatty acids replaced by unsaturated fatty acids), a high content of dietary fibre, antioxidant compounds and minerals15, that could synergistically act on several pathways, resulting in a substantial improvement of general and especially hearth health14.
REMEMBER: It is never too late to change dietary habits to improve cardiovascular health!