What, exactly, is so great about the Mediterranean diet?

Eating healthy is important at any age to lower the risk of obesity and keep the heart and everything else inside the body functioning well. This becomes especially crucial later in life, because good nutrition helps reduce the risk of chronic conditions like hypertension, high cholesterol and cardiovascular disease. Being smart about what you eat also can affect your mood no matter your age — ultra-processed foods that include hydrogenated oils and high-fructose corn syrup, for instance, can increase the risk of depression — and some studies even suggest that healthy eating patterns can help delay or prevent developing dementia as we get older.

One way to improve your health while also eating some really wonderful foods, says Natalie Bruner, a registered dietitian and nutritionist with St. Clair Health, is to follow the Mediterranean style of eating. People are also reading.

.. Often referred to as the Mediterranean diet, it’s not so much a “diet” in the traditional sense, which is often defined by a bunch of hard-and-fast rules such as calorie counting and macro-tracking what you put in your mouth each day.

Eating Mediterranean style is more of a lifestyle. Turkey meatballs and fiber-rich brown rice cooked in chicken broth and lemon is a simple but hearty meal that's full of protein. (Gretchen McKay/Pittsburgh Post-Gazette/TNS) Patterned around the foods eaten by people who live in countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea — think Italy, Greece, Spain and Norther.