Research

Mixed

Adherence to a Mediterranean diet supplemented with extra-virgin olive oil or nuts does not significantly reduce the incidence of heart failure compared to a low-fat control diet in high cardiovascular risk individuals, although point estimates suggest a potential benefit that requires larger trials to confirm.

For individuals at high cardiovascular risk, following a Mediterranean diet supplemented with olive oil or nuts did not statistically significantly reduce the risk of developing heart failure compared to a low-fat diet in this specific trial. However, the trend favored the Mediterranean diet, and the study may have been underpowered. It remains a heart-healthy dietary pattern for other cardiovascular benefits, but should not be relied upon as a guaranteed prevention method for heart failure based on this data alone.

GoodRefutesHIGH confidence
In this sample of adults at high cardiovascular risk, the MedDiet did not result in lower HF incidence... No significant association with HF incidence was found for the MedDiet with EVOO and MedDiet with nuts, compared with the control group [hazard ratio (HR) 0.68; 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.41–1.13, and HR 0.92; 95% CI 0.56–1.49, respectively].
Angeliki Papadaki et al. · European Journal of Heart Failure · 2017

Why this rating

High-quality randomized controlled trial (PREDIMED) with rigorous adjudication, but the study was underpowered for this specific secondary endpoint.

Source

Mediterranean Diet and Risk of Heart Failure: Results from the Predimed Randomized Controlled Trial

Angeliki Papadaki et al. · European Journal of Heart Failure · 2017

DOI 10.1002/ejhf.750

rct · n=7403Cited 97×
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DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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