Is your last name Johnson by chance? That would be really cool if it were.

You may be on to something there... Market this as the "Biblical Diet" and I'd bet a whole lot more folks in this country would pay attention.

Though not like they had much of a choice in those days either. When the nearest fruit tree was your drive-thru and finding meat meant a whole lot more work than pulling into the lot of the local grocer.

Ray-2194047, What you state is actual fact and nothing new. Estimated lifespan would be 150 years if people ate right. But people won't, they are to brainwashed.

The diet will work because of the vegetables and IN SPITE of the olive oil. You would be better off eating just the olives and skipping the oil.

Or maybe they don't want to live to 150 years rickc because that sounds completely miserable and would rather do what they want for 80 strong years then check out like people have been doing for thousands of years. I hope that on your 150th birthday wen you're bed is wheeled to your nut-cream and nut cake so that you can watch someone else blow out the candle through your hardly-open eye you're able to say that it's all worth it becuase to me that woulldn't be at all.

LitterHater. They are just scientific facts. Just as humans (most) are designed to breath Oxygen Akron. If you could breath that type of air you would live over 150 years. But of course you can't.

We are omnivores. That is why we have canine teeth. This study is rather bogus. It is missing another very serious and substanial reason for the cause of heart disease. It is because we cook, in various methods, much of our food. it alters the chemical composition of foods, particularly meats. It is well know grilling a steak vs microwaving it is more carciogenetic. A study was done on a tribe of Eskimos. There were two sets. One that lived traditionally, and ones that lived near the trading posts. The traditionals would eat whale blubber raw. The trading post portion of the same traibe cooked there. The traditionals had no signs of cardiovascular issues. Those at the trading post hate levels of cardiovascular disease equal to that of the West. And these two groups were of the same genetic tribe.

So it is no wonder the low fat group would have higher issues, because I am willing to bet they cooked their food more. That is why I eat my meats rare to medium rare now.

Wow! @Litter, are you having a blue Monday? Kind of a harsh attack for a pretty benign statement.

I can't get over the fact that people are consuming a liter of extra virgin olive oil a week!

I love olive oil. I'm starting today.

I hope your Monday gets better.

I hope Michelle Obama and Mayor Bloomberg haven't seen this article.

Sorry for the spelling errors, having trouble with keyboard.

A lot of people in America have food allergies, specially nuts, so not everyone can benefit to the extent described. Eating in moderation would go a long way in reducing Fat America as well as skipping junk food. The price of olive oil is now going up.

bigj, first off I don't colour-code my weekdays so I don't know what kind of Monday it is for neat-freaks like you and if you want to drink all of this processed ils go ahead but in my opinion that's disgusting and if I knew that someone I was friends with was doing that then we wouldn't be as friendly anymore. i've cahnged my diet recently as well though and am down to a bannana in the morning, a poptart in the afternoon, and a can of soup at the evening with two or three rockstar energy drinks mixed in between in order to fully utalize all of the energies that i'm getting from these foods and other than a few small issues i've felt great and been healthy ever since i started it so go do a science on that you veggie-platter.

and rickc again please stop telling people how you think they shoulld be living their lives, I don't want to breathe that crap and be hooked up to a tank in order to do so befcause I like the smells of gasoline, cigarettes, and other every-day oudours so get over it since it's my decision what i expose my body too okay.

So why isn't the life expectancy of people in Spain 150 years? I think it is rougly the equivalent of ours and we have all the murders and the drunk drivers that muck up our statistics. My guess is you eat this diet for 80 years and you might live a whopping 6 weeks to 3 months longer.

Eat what you want. Moderation in portion size. Moderation with alcohol. Exercise frequently. You will live a nice enjoyable life.

Ray and mjs mentioned "Bible food" and Rick Coates posted...."Estimated lifespan would be 150 years if people ate right". In the Bible people used to live to age around 500 to 800 yrs. old. What happened to that? You think the red sea contaminated the fish when moses waved his wand? I'm happy to know I will die before 100. What would I be doing at 150 if possible? What would I do at ages between 500 and 800? I'm confused, I better stop reading the Bible.

If Bloomberg reads this, it will be mandatory for New Yorkers. As to the extreme ages people lived to in biblical times, do you think it possible that back then, they called lunar cycles "years" ?

This study is of no surprise. We gorge ourselves on fast foods such as hot dogs, hamburgers, fries, pizzas, chips, candy, sodas etc. We're still hoping to fry ice cream. If we stick to foods from the earth such as vegetables and fruits (without the pesticides,) we would be healthier, and probably live longer.

justme-3094663, Biblical years in the bible are only equivalent to on month.

I have a very slim diet by choice. I wanted to eat healthy. But i didn't do olive oil, didn't include it in my diet for any reason. I can't do salad because i'm on coumidon (a blood thinner). So a year ago, the voice in my head said "Olive Oil Weaver", I said back what? A month later again "Olive Oil" So i google Olive Oil. I read all about it, Now i do a shot glass everymorning, first thing in my mouth after my toothbrush. I'm very slick inside if i may say so. The body works so smooth i can't believe i'd never heard of the benefits of Oil Olive before. And so last fall i hear "Balsomic Vinegar" and i ask what the hell is balsomic vinegar. Well let me tell you, Oh it's even gotten better with my body now that i add Balsomic vinegar to my olive oil, 1/3 in the bottom of the shot glass. Swooth it around in your mouth before you swallow and be prepared to wash it down with a serious shot of Orange Juice. Six weeks and you will notice a change for the good in your body and it's operation. The words came to me as far as i know from the good Lord, they didn't just show up and in that order. It was for a reason and i was rewarded. Listen to the voice of reason!!

sweaver--balsamic vinegar and most wines contain sulfites. Some persons like myself are allergic to sulfur. Even some no sulfites added "nsa") wines contain some sulfur, it's enough to cause a reaction. There is no one diet that fits all, this one included.

Carbohydrates provide the bulk of the calories (4 kcal/gram) in most diets and starches provide the bulk of that. Age, sex, size, health, and the intensity of physical activity strongly affect the daily need for calories. Moderately active females (19–30 years old) need 1500–2500 kcal/day, while males of the same age need 2500–3300 kcal/day. Humans must include adequate amounts of 9 amino acids in their diet. These "essential" amino acids cannot be synthesized from other precursors. However, cysteine can partially meet the need for methionine (they both contain sulfur), and tyrosine can partially substitute for phenylalanine.

Improved methods are needed to enable the incorporation of relevant cellular and molecular markers of exposure, susceptibility, and preneoplastic effects (DNA damage, etc.) into epidemiologic studies. Additional data on the concentrations of naturally occurring and synthetic chemicals in foods and human exposures to them are needed. Further testing of naturally occurring chemicals in the food supply for carcinogenic and anticarcinogenic potential should be conducted on a prioritized basis. Scientists think that this is just the beginning; they are working furiously to make it possible for human beings to achieve Methuselah-like life spans. They are studying the aging process itself and experimenting with ways to slow it down by way of diet, drugs and genetic therapy. They are also working on new ways to replace worn-out organs—and even to help the body to rebuild itself. The gerontologist and scientific provocateur Aubrey de Grey claims that the first humans to live for 1,000 years may already have been born.

I want that salad in the picture...

I'd like to see them compare the Mediterranean diet to a diet rich in fruits and veggies, but without the fat at all or, at least, very low fat. Menopausal women can't have fat without packing on the pounds. Got to cut almost all of it out (except 10g). Got to cut out all or most carbs as well (5g). I bet the low fat diet would fare even better for longevity.

If I ate any olive oil I would gain weight. Forget nuts- mostly fat and carbs.

They were given either a liter of olive oil per week...

There is no way that these people were consuming a liter of olive oil per week. If a person is allowed 2000 calories per day, that would total 14K calories per week. One tablespoon of olive oil contains 120 calories. One liter contains 67.68 tablespoons. Therefore, a liter of olive oil contains 8122 calories. If a person is ingesting one liter of olive oil per week, then more than half of his weekly calorie allowance is from olive oil. He would be consuming over a half cup of olive oil per day. That makes me nauseous to even think about drinking a half cup of liquid oil per day. This has to be another typographical error by Maggie Fox. After all, Maggie is the one who brought us the article about a study of breakfast sandwiches in which she could not even accurately copy the parameters from the original journal article into her report. What a moron.

Estimated lifespan would be 150 years if people ate right.

Rick - cite your references for that "fact". No legitimate references from recognized scientific journals? Didn't think so, Einstein.

Estimated lifespan would be 150 years if people ate right. But people won't, they are to brainwashed.

estimated by who? the 'researchers" at "letsmakeupBS.com"?

I want that salad in the picture

it does look tasty, doesn't it?

It's difficult to eat nuts when one doesn't have any teeth...

Litterhater is a atroll. Don't feed him.

LitterHater. They are just scientific facts. Just as humans (most) are designed to breath Oxygen Akron. If you could breath that type of air you would live over 150 years. But of course you can't.

actually, breathing nothing but pure oxygen for long periods would kill you

I'm not in medical research, but 7400 seems like a pretty decent sample size for a randomized trial. In addition, do you know that those other factors weren't controlled for? The deaths from heart attacks were similar, but the overall incidence of death was lower for those eating the Med. diet than the "regular" diet. This isn't that surprising since we've known for a while that diets with a relatively greater amount of unsaturated fats tend to do better than diets with relatively greater amounts of saturated fats. Of course, nuts and olive oil are very calorie-dense, so it's important to reduce calories from other sources if one eats a handful of nuts each day.

@JSnyder: You are also talking roughly 2,400 in all three groups of late middle aged to elderly people prone to cardiovascular diseases already. 59 is not a huge number over 5 years. Many others could be affecting the increase. There could be a comparison of apples to oranges going on here as well. For instance, notice how low cardiovascular disease and breast cancer is in Asia who diet is high in vegetables and some meats, lightly cooked or raw, compared to the West. But when they started getting a taste for well done beef, they started to rise to Western levels.

I would assume that they made sure the numbers were statistically relevant. You choose your sample using statistical formulas depending on how accurate, or representative, you want the sample to be of the population. IOW they didn't just randomly select X amount of individuals, they figured out how many candidates they would need to get an error rate they desired and 7400 is the number calculated.

If it got published in the New England Journal of Medicine, those numbers were definitely validated. They don't publish unless it's something they can independently validate, it's not the bible where ridiculous claims are taken as fact.

Jayfos Not the best experiment. THere were close number of deaths in each group and such a mix there would be error like genetics or other lifestyle issues: excercise, stress, etc

Jayfos,

The empirical studies are consistent. Along with weight control, a low fat, low salt and low cholesterol diet significantly reduces the odds of disease. The well known Framingham study was the stepping stone that gave scientists and physicians more than a "bird's eye" view of how unhealthy diets that are high in saturated fats are.

http://www.framinghamheartstudy.org/about/history.html

Hmmmm, so which Mediterranean countries are noted for the longest life expectancy? Or would those countries actually be in Scandanavia, Northern Europe, or Asia?

im just curious as to why it would kill you? coz its full of vegetables and nutrients or its because its not Mcdonalds?

"The 7,400 patients aged 55 to 80 were all high risk of heart disease because of diabetes, a family history of heart disease, high blood pressure, unhealthy cholesterol levels or they were overweight or smokers."

Sorry about being a diabetic , but if start this diet with our kids there would be less diabetics. My prayers are with you.

I actually think this would be a good diet for diabetics. It is low in carbs and high in veggies and lean meats. You would need to be careful about the fruits but you should already be doing that.

you would not be diabetic if you ate properly in the first place, unless of course you had diabetes at birth

There are still some who will develop type 2 diabetes despite the best diet in the world. HOWEVER...up to 90% of Type 2 diabetes CAN be avoided with proper diet and exercise.

Agree. That's close to 10 tablespoons of olive oil per day, which figures out to approximately 1150 calories, which is WAY over the recommended amount of 30% of you calories from fat.

Do a shot glass of extra virgin olive oil with a 1/3 balsonmic vinegar on the bottom. Wake up your body, and let it breath. Six weeks you'll notice a very nice different. It's that easy.

How much meat is less the issue, but how much you cook your food and how. The less you cook all of your food, the better off you are. 1) You lose a lot of the nutrients contained in the food, 2) depending on how you cook it can alter the chemical composition. I noticed in this study the two "drastically lower" groups look they eat mostly raw food as opposed to the third.

How has Obamacare literally killed us? Do you know what" literally" means? Site one death. Just one.

That's what I thought, lots of noise and guff from the right, but mostly lies. Name one solution the right has that will reign in out of control health care costs that ARE literally killing people. Not one.

That's what I thought. Keep your cute snarkyness to yourself and try to become part of a solution.

This comment is off topic & should be deleted.

I wouldn't say "literally killing us" but it is doing the exact opposite of what it said it would do. Lower the increase in premiums and make it more affordable for all. For those of us in the small employer market, the exact opposite has happened. Not only did the increases get worse, our choices became fewer. So, I guess in a way, it will eventually kill some, those that lose their insurance and can't afford to pay for it on their own, (latest estimate is 7 million will lose employer sponsored care,) but we are not quite there yet.

Back to the subject, hey it's nice this diet did such and such, but can most Americans afford to pay for that diet? I can't. Let alone, I'm allergic to walnuts. Eating healthy will always "help" but genetics play a part as well. We each need to be smart not only about what we eat, but also take into consideration family history.

Don't feed trolls

Best study would be a mirror. Look in mirror red necks or look at yo mama. If you look like those mirrors in the carnival you need to give up the beer and barbecue and smokes.

Do you think maybe it's because the Mediterranean diet uses olive oil in almost everything they eat? Olive oil and nuts are healthy fats. Saturated and trans fats are not. The European diet has more good fats and less bad fats. It also has more fresh vegetables, more fiber, more fish, and smaller portions compared to the western diet.

And, in addition to their diet just being healthier, most people in Europe are also more physically active in walking, taking stairs, and in general activities in comparison to our automobile centric and mostly TV watching culture. They are also very picky about what they eat and where is comes from with many avoiding genetically modified foods and additives.

Diet isn't just what you eat. It's also when and how you eat and how you balance that off with exercise and how you handle stress and health issues in general. And regardless of how Conservatives hate to admit it, a national health system also can't be ignored by providing better preventative care to all.

OLIVES contain healthy fats. OLIVE OIL (and every other processed oil) has removed most everything healthy and left just the fat. Leave out the olive oil and just eat a few olives. Some dieticians don't even consider processed oils of any kind FOOD. They consider it MEDICATION.

Nukeman is a real case of i don't have clue what i'm talking about today. Wow !! Nukey baby, crawl back in your what ever kind of hole you live in and watch more TV. The computer world just not your answer today it looks like.

@ whynot: Not everything is a conspiracy. The Mediterranean Diet has long been known to be healthier for you. This is just one more study to confirm this.

Gheee, in the long term you are dead.

MoreReverb: You have a point there. It's one thing to rush to publication because you found something useful. But why terminate the study early?

Another point: out of the 7,400 participants, a total of 87 died. 30 who were on the low-fat diet, 31 on the Mediterranean diet with nuts, and 26 on the Mediterranean diet with olive oil. (By the way, my wife is Greek and the Greeks eat a lot of fish. So why was fish not included in the study?)

So my first observation is that if 31 died in the group that ate Mediterranean with nuts, and 30 died in Mediterranean diet with oil, then how is it that the Mediterranean diet with nuts is superior to the low-fat diet? Although 26 on the diet with oil died, what is the margin of error? Is that statistically equivalent to the low-fat diet group? We're not told.

If it is statistically valid, and 30 died on the low-fat diet and 26 died on the diet with olive oil, then only 4 less people on the olive oil died than on the low-fat diet. 4 is only 0.16% more. So would you change your diet drastically for the rest of your life so that you have a 0.16% chance of dying earlier than expected?

Finally, why compare the two Mediterranean diets with the low-fat diet (called the control)? Wouldn't it have made more sense to compare them to people who were eating their normal diet?

Also, how did they ensure that people on all three diets weren't cheating?

30 died on the low-fat diet and 26 died on the diet with olive oil, then only 4 less people on the olive oil died than on the low-fat diet. 4 is only 0.16% more

Um, how are you getting 0.16%? I think what you are doing is dividing 4 by 26, which is 16%, not 0.16%

They have to counter Republican propaganda that 64 ounce drinks are good for you and smoking is not dangerous.

Europeans smoke more than Americans do.

Eating a Mediterranean diet is not starving to death. You eat meat just in moderation. And leaner meats instead of Big Macs. The key is in the balance. Something lacking in our country.

I've been eating much better lately by eating more raw foods (fruit just as fruit, oats just as oats, etc), cooking for myself, using less salt (the Himalayan salt is amazing btw), and dropping red meats for just the occasional treat.

I feel much better and happier, less stressed, and more energetic than before. Yeah we're all going to die and if I wanted to die happy, I would much rather go out on the Mediterranean diet than clog my arteries with fatty foods.

Joe66 can eat what the hell he wants. Get off your @!$%#ing high horse. So you eat raw veggies and less meat good for you. If he wants to eat a good piece of fat back whats it to you?

Wallace you obviously don't know any Republicans!!! All the republicans i know eat a regular meditration diet whenever they can. And they would recommend you do to. It will keep you healthy and out of the Obama medical machine that is now being constructed for your imprisonment. You just watch, they get to call your last day on earth. They've aready admitted it in their approval. Death panels i believe i heard mentioned.

And what's your favorite fiction??? Playboy???

Do libs ever NOT blame Republicans for anything and everything?

The whole world doesn't bend over for your Obama PLEASE!! Get over it! The man sucks, how much clearer must i be??? Let the Republicans do what they want. It's obvious the democrats don't have a clue, they re-elected this clown!!! The Senate happens to be controlled by the Democtrats I don't think they've passed anything in what a year and a half. So Sad!! About the Democrat Party.

No matter what the topic, the laughable libs will try and blame Republicans...Pathetic.

Give me a break both conservatives and liberals spew there @!$%# on here in equal amounts. The article is about a @!$%#ing diet not politics. There is a really good debate going on right now about the sequester why dont you go join in that discussion.

Because olive oil (and every other processed oil) is 100% fat. Ever see a skinny Greek Mamma.

A cerebral aneurysm would unfortunately not be prevented by a diet like this as it is a weakening of the blood vessel that causes it to burst, unlike a stroke, which is a blockage due to plaque (fat). That being said, I'm sorry that you no longer have your wife.

You only need an ounce or two per day.

How much do you pay for gasoline?

Well because "cooked" meat actually provides more energy, nutritional value and easier to eat than does raw meat.

Americans need to eat more vegetables. Especially the most nutritious vegetables, like cruciferous and greens. Eat them and your body will quickly adapt and soon you will love and crave them. Make them 50-75% of your diet and it wont matter what else you eat, because you will be healthy healthy healthy.