Remember the olive oil!

A new study shows that a 'Mediterranean' diet is good for your mental health. This gets CNN headlines, but is about as much a surprise as that the Grinch steals Christmas. Things good for your cardiovascular health are good for reducing risks of stroke and so on, and that includes reduction in risk of dementias.

Mediterranean diets are high in olive oil (and wine!):

A Mediterranean diet includes a lot of fruit, vegetables and fish, olive oil, legumes and cereals, and fewer dishes containing dairy, meat, poultry, and saturated fatty acids than other diets. It also involves small to moderate amounts of alcohol.

So says this story. It of course tempers the alcohol part as any good Puritan American story must. Wine for breakfast and lunch, common in the Middle Sea countries, could never openly be advocated.

Still, high fats like cheese, preserved meat, and so on are known to be associated with high risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD). About 20 years ago, people in North Karelia, a region of Finland that had the world's highest CVD risk, were asked to swap diets with a study population in Italy that had much lower risk (because they lived on rather than dying from a Mediterranean diet). The Italians, not demented, demurred. Salt fish and cheese, reindeer and bear meat are all delicious, but they can plug you up fast, apparently. However, the Finns are no fools either, and the North Karelians adopted a sea change, and tried a more Mediterranean than Baltic diet. Over a 20 year period, their CVD rates declined by about 75%! Yes, that's not a typo!

So this current story is entirely credible, but it's not much of a new story. Fortunately, when the lovely people from the lovely climate go shopping, not being demented, they are able to remember the olive oil (and the wine). You should, too!

On the other hand you probably should pay less attention to the latest attempt by media releases to get you to pay attention to scientist's latest claims to dramatic findings.

Bon appetit!