The Mediterranean diet that participants in the new study were told to follow differs in some respects from the advice people generally get about healthy eating. It allows people to eat as many nuts and eggs and even as much chocolate as they want, as long as it is chocolate with more than 50 percent cocoa. It permits unlimited consumption of fish, seafood, whole-grain cereals and low-fat cheese.

The Mediterranean lifestyle promises a healthy diet with pleasurable food. What is there not to like?