Even if you don’t live in the Mediterranean, you can still follow a Mediterranean diet pattern emphasizing healthy foods like fish, whole grains, legumes, and olive oil. In a study of 1,194 Puerto Rican adults in the U.S., researchers analyzed their diets using several different health scores and also collected health measurements from the participants to look for relationships between diet and cardiometabolic health. Those whose diets most closely aligned with a Mediterranean diet were significantly more likely to have smaller waist sizes, a lower BMI, lower levels of inflammation (as measured by C-reactive protein), and lower levels of insulin resistance. The DASH Diet score and Healthy Eating Index 2005 score were not significantly associated with any health measurement, while the Alternative Healthy Eating Index was only weakly associated with some positive health markers.
The Journal of Nutrition. 2017 Apr;147(4):661-669. doi: 10.3945/jn.116.245431. Epub 2017 Mar 8. (Mattei J et al.)