Diets
The Mediterranean diet explained
Unlike most diet trends, the Mediterranean diet has decades of high-quality research behind it — including one of nutrition science's most cited randomized trials.
What it actually includes
The Mediterranean diet centers on vegetables, fruit, whole grains, legumes, nuts, and olive oil as the principal fat, with fish and seafood regularly, poultry and dairy in moderation, red meat rarely, and optional moderate wine. It's less a strict macro ratio than a pattern of food choices — higher total fat than a typical low-fat diet, but overwhelmingly unsaturated fat from olive oil, nuts, and fish rather than saturated fat.[1]
The evidence behind it
The landmark PREDIMED trial randomly assigned thousands of people at high cardiovascular risk to a Mediterranean diet (enriched with either extra-virgin olive oil or nuts) versus a low-fat control diet, and found roughly a 30% lower rate of major cardiovascular events — heart attack, stroke, cardiovascular death — in the Mediterranean diet groups.[1] That's a considerably stronger evidence base than most named diets have, which is part of why it's consistently recommended by major health organizations rather than treated as a trend.