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The study included 23,349 men and women. After an average follow-up of 8.5 years, mortality was 652/12,694 among people with a Mediterranean diet score of 0–4 and 423/10,655 among people with a score of 5 or more. After controlling for confounders, the Mediterranean diet was associated with a significant reduction in mortality of 14% per 2-unit increase in score. Moderate consumption of alcohol contributed 23.5% to this reduction; low consumption of meat and meat products, 16.6%; high consumption of vegetables, 16.2%; high consumption of fruit and nuts, 11.2%; high monounsaturated: saturated fat ratio, 10.6%; and high consumption of legumes, 9.7%. High intake of fish and seafood was associated with a non-significant increase in mortality. High consumption of cereals and low con­sumption of dairy products had little effect.

Trichopoulou A, et al. Anatomy of health effects of Mediterranean diet: Greek EPIC prospective cohort study. BMJ 2009;339:26–29.