Dieta mediterránea y enfermedad cardiovascular / Mediterranean diet and cardiovascular disease

ABSTRACT

The traditional Mediterranean diet is a high fat diet due to customary use of olive oil and it contains abundant vegetable products (cereals, legumes, fresh vegetables, fruits, and nuts). In addition, fish is a common staple and meals are usually accompanied by wine. On the contrary, the Mediterranean diet includes little consumption of meat, dairy products and commercial sweets rich in refined sugar. These eating habits constitute a healthy diet paradigm, since in several large epidemiological studies the degree of adherence to the Mediterranean diet is associated with lower rates of deaths due to cardiovascular diseases and to overall lower all-cause mortality. Several controlled clinical studies, usually short-term and with small sample sizes, have shown that intervention with the Mediterranean diet or its main components has a clear beneficial effect on intermediate risk markers, such as blood pressure, the lipid profile glucose tolerance, the oxidative status, inflammation, and endothelial function. Up to now, no randomized study has been conducted assessing the long-term effects of the Mediterranean diet on the "hard" endpoints of clinical cardiovascular events. Such studies are needed to provide first level scientific evidence on the heart-healthy benefits of these dietary habits. The ongoing PREDIMED study in Spain was designed for this purpose and is expected to provide clear evidence that adherence to the Mediterranean diet has a protective effect against development of cardiovascular diseases (AU)