Avocados are a healthy element of Mediterranean eating, and they're in season now.

RODALE NEWS, EMMAUS, PA—French women don't get fat, they say. And it seems Spaniards are impervious to heart disease. While the former may have more to do with cultural attitudes towards food, a new study suggests that the latter has to do with all the olives, vegetables, and fish that the Spanish eat. Research published in the American Journal of Epidemiology suggests that Spanish adults who ate a diet close to their Mediterranean heritage saw a lower risk for coronary heart disease over the course of a decade than their peers who ate a more typical Western diet.

THE DETAILS: The study involved 41,078 adults between 29 and 69 years old. The participants completed food-intake questionnaires at the onset of the study and were then interviewed at various points over a 10-year period, and during each interview they were assigned a score based on how closely they followed a Mediterranean diet of whole grains, olives and olive oil, fish, nuts, legumes, and fresh produce. The researchers found that each one-point increase in Mediterranean diet score led to a 6 percent lower risk for coronary heart disease. People with the highest adherence to the diet had a 40 percent lower risk for the disease than people with the lowest adherence. The results were similar for both men and women.

WHAT IT MEANS: Foods associated with the Mediterranean diet lead to lower cholesterol, and studies show that keeping those numbers low can ward off Alzheimer's disease, shrink your waistline, and even lengthen your life span. Protection from heart disease makes the payoff even bigger. But, with so many traditional Mediterranean foods out of season this time of year, is it a hard diet to stick to?

Read on for help with sticking to a summer diet in the middle of winter.