That's why today's study in the New England Journal of Medicine is particularly important.

As Dr. Steven E. Nissen, chairman of the department of cardiovascular medicine at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation, told Gina Kolata at The New York Times, the study "says you can eat a nicely balanced diet with fruits and vegetables and olive oil and lower heart disease by 30 percent ... And you can actually enjoy life."

So, enjoy life, if that's what it means to you.

Of course, utilizing this knowledge doesn't just mean educating people about diet choices, but also making these foods accessible. That would necessarily involve reassessing and prioritizing how the U.S. subsidizes agriculture. You don't need to eat a ton of any one these items to see the benefits of the diet, so making them more common in U.S. culture is not at all inconceivable.

Here's how the study defined and broke down the diets it tested:

Recommended in Mediterranean diet

New England Journal of Medicine

Discouraged in Mediterranean diet

New England Journal of Medicine

Recommended in low-fat diet

New England Journal of Medicine

Discouraged in low-fat diet

New England Journal of Medicine

Sofrito is "a sauce made with tomato and onion, often including garlic and aromatic herbs, and slowly simmered with olive oil."

I note the wine as a point of interest because a lot of people ask me how much they should drink. But no one element of these diets clearly shouldered an undue share of the glory or burden. I take this as a check in the "good" column for alcohol, among the thousands of studies that look more specifically at its goods and bads.