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Adherence to the Mediterranean diet (MED) is associated with a 25% reduction in the risk for cardiovascular disease (CVD), compared with those who do not follow this diet, new research suggests.

Investigators used data from the Women’s Health Study, which followed close to 26,000 women between their late forties and early sixties over a 12-year period, assessing 40 biomarkers known to be associated with CVD risk.

Higher baseline MED intake was associated with a 28% relative risk reduction in CVD events, attributed mostly to a reduction in biomarkers of inflammation, glucose metabolism and insulin resistance, and adiposity, the researchers say.

“The cardiovascular benefit seen with a Mediterranean dietary pattern in this large US population of women was similar in magnitude to benefit from statins or other commonly used preventive medications,” senior author Samia Mora, MD, MHS, Center for Lipid Metabolomics, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, told theheart.org | Medscape Cardiology.

“Even modest changes in CVD risk factors with a heart-healthy diet contribute to the benefit of the Mediterranean diet on CVD risk and may have important downstream consequences for primary prevention,” she said.

The study was published online December 7 in JAMA Network Open