While several investigations have focused on the association between individual foods and
nutrients upon the development of chronic diseases, few have examined the role that entire
dietary patterns may play in health and disease. A dietary pattern generally considered to
have beneficial health effects is that of the Mediterranean diet. In this paper, five cohort
studies exploring the association of Mediterranean diet with overall mortality and hence
longevity are reviewed. A number of conclusions can be drawn. First, there appears to exist�…