Live longer on Mediterranean diet

Last updated at 15:23 08 April 2005


Older people who eat a Mediterranean diet can expect to live longer, researchers have suggested.

Past studies have shown that the kind of diet popular in Mediterranean countries may have certain health benefits.

Now research published in the British Medical Journal says it could help increase life expectancy.

The Mediterranean diet involves a high intake of vegetables, fruits and cereals, a moderate to high intake of fish, a low intake of saturated fats but a high intake of unsaturated fats, such as olive oil.

A low intake of dairy products and meat and a modest intake of alcohol, mostly wine, are also linked to this kind of diet.

Researchers from across Europe, including the UK, studied 74,000 healthy men and women aged 60 and over in nine European countries.

They collected information on areas including diet, lifestyle, medical history, smoking and physical activity.

The men and women were each given a score based on adherence to a Mediterranean diet, with higher scores for those who ate the most foods linked to such a diet.

The researchers found that overall a higher dietary score was linked to a lower overall death rate.

They said that a two-point increase in the score was linked to an 8 per cent reduction in mortality.

A three-point increase was associated with an 11 per cent drop in mortality and a four-point increase was associated with a 14 per cent drop.

As an example, this meant that a healthy man of 60 who stuck closely to a Mediterranean diet could expect to live around one year longer than a man of the same age who did not eat such a diet.

The researchers said the link was strongest in Greece and Spain, probably because people in these countries followed a genuinely Mediterranean diet.

They concluded: "A dietary pattern that resembles that of the Mediterranean is associated with a lower overall death rate."

The researchers added: "Adherence to a diet relying on plant foods and unsaturated lipids (fats) and that resembles the Mediterranean diet, may be particularly appropriate for elderly people, who represent a rapidly increasing group in Europe."

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