Last reviewed and updated: October 17, 2026
When it comes to heart conditions, many people still believe a low-fat diet is best. They may be willing to reduce carbohydrates to achieve their weight goals, but proactively add high-fat foods? That’s a step too far. For them, the low-fat dogma taught decades ago is just too hard to shake. The CORDIOPREV Mediterranean diet study, published in 2022, may be just what they need to be convinced that healthy fats are good for your heart.
Here are the highlights of the study, what you need to know about the Mediterranean diet, and how you can best implement it for optimal health, weight, and youthfulness.
Summer’s Shocking Mediterranean Diet Study
This Mediterranean diet study, known as CORDIOPREV, was published in The Lancet in May 2022 (1). However, it actually started more than a decade earlier. Beginning in 2009, researchers enrolled 1,002 participants who had diagnosed coronary artery disease (plaque buildup in the heart’s arteries), including 827 men and 175 women, and divided them into two groups.
Group 1, which consisted of 502 participants, ate a Mediterranean diet. If this is unfamiliar to you, a traditional Mediterranean diet emphasizes foods high in monounsaturated fats (particularly extra virgin olive oil and nuts), along with legumes, whole grains, poultry, and fatty fish. It also encourages high amounts of fruits and vegetables.
Group 2, which consisted of 500 participants, ate a low-fat diet. This means they actively minimized high-fat foods including those considered unhealthy fats AND healthy fats. Their diets encouraged lean versions of fish and poultry, and more calories per day from carbohydrates, particularly whole grains, legumes, and potatoes.
The results? For those who’ve held strongly to the low-fat recommendations of former decades, the results are shocking.
Mediterranean Diet Study Results
Researchers followed the participants for an average of about 7 years and tracked how many had a major cardiovascular event.
The Mediterranean diet group had about a 26% lower risk of major cardiovascular events compared with the low-fat group. This combined measure included heart attack, stroke, procedures to reopen blocked arteries, peripheral artery disease, and death from cardiovascular causes. The benefit was especially clear in men. The researchers concluded that the Mediterranean diet was superior to the low-fat diet in preventing major cardiovascular events in secondary prevention.
Of course, this is not the first study that clearly shows the health benefits of the Mediterranean diet. Study after study has shown that the Mediterranean diet is effective in reducing the risk of cardiovascular diseases and overall mortality. Much of the research has found that it supports healthy reductions in inflammation, blood sugar, and body mass index (2, 3, 4).
Dr. Colbert’s Beyond Keto: A Mediterranean Diet Plan That Fits Keto
If you’re looking for a great way to take these shocking results and make a healthy Mediterranean diet your eating lifestyle, look no further than Dr. Colbert’s Beyond Keto!
Dr. Colbert’s Beyond Keto is a revolutionary new approach that combines the best of the Keto Zone™ Diet with the Mediterranean Diet to support healthy weight, gut health, brain health, reduced inflammation, healthy aging, and more (5).
Specifically, it encourages:
- A Healthy Weight: Many of today’s most common health conditions are linked to, or made worse by, obesity (6). By utilizing healthy ketogenic diet principles, Beyond Keto promotes healthy changes and outcomes as soon as the first two weeks (7)! In addition, the Mediterranean diet component continues to support healthy weight and healthy body composition. Its focus on lean proteins, seafoods, healthy oils, beans, legumes, nuts, seeds, and vegetables provides a wonderful well-balanced, satisfying dietary lifestyle to maintain a healthy weight (8).
- Energy, Vitality, and Mental Focus: One of the greatest benefits of the ketogenic diet is the production of ketones. Ketones are natural energizing compounds that support healthy mental focus and vitality. The Mediterranean diet also encourages great energy and vitality with the abundant variety of healthy foods. Rather than experiencing the ups and downs of a high-sugar diet, you will enjoy steady, youthful energy from delicious, colorful whole foods.
- Optimal Blood Sugars and Metabolism: An amazing aspect of both the ketogenic diet and the Mediterranean diet is their ability to help normalize blood sugar. By using both eating styles in Beyond Keto, you’ll remove harmful refined starches while focusing on healthy fats, high fiber beans, peas, lentils, vegetables, lean protein and low glycemic fruits such as berries. Part of the improvement comes from weight loss. The other part comes from a diet that supports healthy metabolism and hormones (9).
- Healthy Cholesterol, Triglyceride, and Blood Pressure Levels. Both the Keto Zone and Mediterranean diet aspects of Beyond Keto support heart health. First, Beyond Keto promotes a healthy weight, which can help optimize heart health. Next, by choosing the incredibly heart-healthy foods in the Mediterranean diet, you can continue to encourage great heart health. In fact, the foods in the Mediterranean diet and Beyond Keto work to support heart health, healthy cholesterol, and achieve whole-body health (10).
- Natural Unprocessed Foods Full of Antioxidants and Anti-Inflammatory Compounds. One of the worst dietary habits plaguing humans worldwide is the consumption of ultra-processed foods. In fact, researchers have found that ultra-processed foods are linked to many modern health conditions and even to a higher overall risk of death (11)! Thankfully, you’ll eat healthy, high antioxidant and anti-inflammatory foods rather than ultra-processed ones (12).
- Healthy Gut Microbiota. Amazingly, Beyond Keto combines Keto Zone and Mediterranean foods to support gut health! This is great news for the millions of people who suffer from less-than-optimal gut function. In fact, studies have found the Mediterranean diet specifically improves gut microbiota and its associated metabolism functions. The diet’s prebiotics from healthy fibers along with healthy fats and polyphenols support gut health, hormone balance, and metabolism (13).
All in all, Dr. Colbert’s Beyond Keto is a wonderful eating lifestyle full of delicious foods that will help you achieve great health and your weight goals.
Watch: Mary and I Talk About Beyond Keto
In this podcast episode, Mary and I talk about my book Beyond Keto and how this Mediterranean-style keto approach can help you lower your risk of heart disease, Alzheimer’s, and more.
Bottom Line
Take this Mediterranean diet study and its results, and run with them. Choose a healthy lifestyle that’s full of healthy fats, vegetables, proteins and very few processed foods. It’s a great time to support your heart health, brain health, and whole-body health with Dr. Colbert’s Beyond Keto!
Frequently Asked Questions
What did the CORDIOPREV study find?
In 1,002 adults who already had coronary heart disease, a Mediterranean diet rich in extra virgin olive oil lowered the risk of major cardiovascular events by about 26% compared with a low-fat diet over roughly 7 years. The results were published in The Lancet in 2022.
Is the Mediterranean diet better than a low-fat diet for heart health?
For people who already have heart disease, CORDIOPREV found that it was. In the PREDIMED trial, a Mediterranean diet supplemented with extra virgin olive oil or nuts also reduced heart attacks, strokes, and cardiovascular deaths in people at high risk who did not yet have heart disease.
Can you follow a keto diet and a Mediterranean diet at the same time?
Yes. My Beyond Keto approach keeps carbohydrates low while building meals around Mediterranean foods such as extra virgin olive oil, fish, nuts, avocados, non-starchy vegetables, and low-glycemic fruits like berries.
What foods are part of a Mediterranean diet?
Extra virgin olive oil, vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds, beans and lentils, fish and seafood, and moderate amounts of poultry, eggs, and fermented dairy such as yogurt. Red meat, sweets, and highly processed foods are kept to a minimum.
How quickly can a Mediterranean diet help your heart?
Improvements in weight, blood pressure, blood sugar, and cholesterol can start within a few months. In the major trials, the drop in heart attacks and strokes showed up over several years, so think of it as a lifestyle rather than a short-term diet.
References
- Delgado-Lista J, et al. Long-term secondary prevention of cardiovascular disease with a Mediterranean diet and a low-fat diet (CORDIOPREV): a randomised controlled trial. Lancet. 2022.
- Estruch R, et al. Primary Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease with a Mediterranean Diet Supplemented with Extra-Virgin Olive Oil or Nuts. N Engl J Med. 2018.
- Fung TT, Rexrode KM, Mantzoros CS, et al. Mediterranean diet and incidence of and mortality from coronary heart disease and stroke in women. Circulation. 2009.
- De Filippis F, Pellegrini N, Vannini L, et al. High-level adherence to a Mediterranean diet beneficially impacts the gut microbiota and associated metabolome. Gut. 2016.
This article is for educational purposes only and is not medical advice. Talk with your own doctor before changing your diet, starting a supplement, or changing any medication. These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. Products mentioned are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.
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