Eat This Way for Your Heart

If you've had a heart attack, adopting a Mediterranean-style diet can significantly lengthen your life, an important study has found.

Researchers with the GISSI-Prevenzione Study, a large-scale Italian clinical trial, followed more than 11,000 Italians who'd recently had heart attacks. After nearly 4 years, they found that those who ate more fresh fruits and vegetables and used olive oil were approximately one-third less likely to die than those with the most butter and vegetable oils in their diet. Experts speculate that this healthy eating style could help prevent a first heart attack, too.

This study, from 2000, adds to the mounting evidence of the health benefits of Mediterranean-style dining. But many Americans still don't know how to eat the way the Romans and Athenians do. "It's a vague notion for many people here, but it needn't be," notes Artemis P. Simopoulos, MD, author of The Omega Diet (HarperCollins, 1999) and president of the Center for Genetics, Nutrition, and Health in Washington, DC. Here's how to do it:

• Eat at least seven servings of fruits and vegetables daily (Prevention recommends nine).
• Have fatty fish such as salmon (rich in heart-healthy omega-3 fatty acids) at least twice a week, or take 1 g of omega-3-rich fish oil in capsule form daily.
• Substitute heart-healthy olive and canola oils for other oils and saturated or hydrogenated fats.
• Eat less saturated fat and cholesterol.