Get heart healthy with a Mediterranean-style diet

If heart disease runs in your family, you need to fight back like David Haye defending his heavyweight title. Your future may depend on delivering a genetic power punch, and now research shows just how to throw it: Start eating Mediterranean-style - lots of fruits, vegetables, nuts, beans and whole grains; the heart-healthy fat in olive oil (canola's even better); fish, of course (salmon and trout - you have to get your omega-3s); some naked (skinless) poultry; very little red meat; and a glass of red wine every night.

Sound like same-old same-old to you? We spread Mediterranean's positivity nearly as often as we warn of the dangers in belly fat. The best foods for your heart (and waist) come primarily from plants: whole wheat, hummus, grape leaves, apricots, white corn, walnuts, the whole delish list. Eating like a Greek defends you from memory loss, depression, joint pain, heart disease, stroke and diabetes.

And now a new study shows the Med way of eating helps you outwit one of the biggest risk factors for a heart attack: relatives. (You get a lot more from them than your genes: the family meatloaf recipe, the smoking habit, etc.) In men with a family history of troubled tickers, the ones who ate the most foods typical of a Mediterranean diet had the healthiest hearts. Today's take-away: The more Mediterranean foods you swap for processed foods and saturated fats, the more likely you'll knock out a heart-disease history.