| Summary: | Abundant and growing evidence has accrued to demonstrate that the traditional Mediterranean diet is likely to be the
ideal dietary pattern for the prevention of cardiovascular disease. A landmark randomized trial (PREDIMED) together
with many well-conducted long-term observational prospective cohort studies support this causal effect.
A new, large British cohort study by Tong et al. assessing the association between adherence to the Mediterranean diet
and cardiovascular disease was recently published in BMC Medicine. Using a superb methodology, they followed-up
23,902 participants for 12.2 years on average and observed several thousand incident cases.
The results of this cohort study showed a significant beneficial effect of the Mediterranean diet on cardiovascular
events. These findings support the transferability of this dietary pattern beyond the shores of the Mediterranean Sea.
The authors provided measures of population impact in cardiovascular prevention and estimated that 19,375 cases of
cardiovascular death would be prevented each year in the UK by promoting the Mediterranean Diet.
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