Mediterranean Diet Gaining Favor As Better Way Of Eating To Live
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Well eat like a Greek and you might live longer, so says a new study. Yogurt, honey, fruits and veggies, good fat and a healthy swig of wine. Well, they're all on the menu. It's a diet low in meat and high in moderation. CNN medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen joins us with more on this. I don't know, it sound too healthy.</s>ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Too fun to be true, right?</s>COHEN: In fact it is true. There's a new study out that looks at the Mediterranean diet, can it prolong your life? We'll be talking about that when "LIVE FROM" continues. Oh, I'm sorry I thought we were actually going to another segment, but, in fact, we're not. Well this new study out of "The New England Journal of Medicine" looks at 22,000 people in Greece and followed them for five years. They rated these folks on a scale of one to ten for how they followed a traditional Mediterranean diet or if they had veered on to something else. And for every two point difference, in other words, a three versus a five, it was a 25 percent decrease in mortality rate. That is large. Now you might be wondering what in the world is the Mediterranean diet? Well in the Mediterranean diet every day people eat whole grains, fruits, beans, nuts, vegetables, olive oil, cheese, and yogurt. And then on a weekly basis people tend to eat fish, poultry, eggs and sweets. So that's about once a week for each of those foods. And then on a monthly basis they would eat meet. And so I think that's probably one of the biggest differences between a Mediterranean and American diet is that the Mediterranean traditional diet, they only eat meat about once a month. Now in addition you will all be glad to hear or many of you will be glad to hear -- or many of you will be glad to hear -- that wine is drunk in moderation and in addition at meals. And I think that's a big distinction again between how Americans drink and how people drink in the Mediterranean. So the bottom line of this diet is eat lots of foods that come from the earth. Eat lots of plant foods, not as much foods that come from animals and certainly very little that comes from red meat.</s>PHILLIPS: Now what were telling me about olive oil?</s>COHEN: That's right/ A lot people say, Oh, Mediterranean diet. That's that olive oil diet. And if I just eat lots of olive oil along with my burger and fries, I'll be eating the Mediterranean diet. Well, that's not true. That's a common misconception Mediterranean diet. In fact the way that the Mediterranean diet works is that to get that benefit, to get that decreased death rate, you need to do all of the different components. It also includes exercise, too. But you need to do all the different components, not just the one olive oil part of it.</s>PHILLIPS: What about all this talk about carbs, protein. there's no carbs, lots of protein, vice versa.</s>COHEN: Right. Every diet this day seems to focus on proteins versus carbs. This diet turns all of that on its head. And what it says is that some proteins are good for you. For example, fish and nuts. And some proteins are not as good for you. For example, red meat. And makes the same distinction with carbs. Whole grain carbs should be eaten every day, according to this diet. But other kind of carbs like processed white bread shouldn't be eaten hardly at all.</s>PHILLIPS: I'd never allowed to eat it even as a kid. Remember Wonder Bread? Tastes so good.</s>COHEN: That's right. But they don't eat that in the Mediterranean.</s>PHILLIPS: No, they don't. Elizabeth Cohen, thank you. TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com To Live>