Junk food threatens healthy Mediterranean hearts

BARCELONA, Sep 4 (Reuters) With its mountains of ripe tomatoes, red peppers, fresh fruit and glistening fish, Barcelona's world-famous La Boqueria market is a celebration of healthy eating.

For centuries its produce has helped underpin a record of healthy hearts, giving Spain's northern region of Catalonia one of the lowest rates of heart attacks to be found anywhere in Europe.

But doctors meeting here for the World Congress of Cardiology warn that traditional Mediterranean-style diets -- rich in vegetables, fruit, fish and olive oil but sparing in meat -- are under siege from junk food.

Across Spain, as well as Italy and Greece, the story is the same, as young people increasingly turn away from old-style family meals in favour of burgers and fries.

''The Mediterranean diet is changing,'' Dr Ramon Estruch of the University of Barcelona told Reuters.

''Young people are not eating well today -- obesity is increasing and we are losing our diet. We need to return to the classical patterns of Mediterranean diet that we had in the 1960s and 1970s.'' The virtues of eating fresh produce and olive oil were first recognised by medical researchers 50 years ago. Ever since, the scientific evidence has kept piling up.

Estruch and colleagues, for example, demonstrated two months ago that Mediterranean-style diets, rich in healthy fats, are even better than conventional low-fat diets at improving cholesterol, blood pressure and blood sugar levels.

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