Your heart’s basically a hollow muscle that pumps blood – about five quarts a minute at rest, more if you’re exercising. The main pumping chamber is the left ventricle.
A recent study confirms what we’ve known for years: the Mediterranean diet helps prevent heart trouble.
From AJCN:
“A higher Mediterranean diet score is cross-sectionally associated with a higher LV [left ventricular] mass, which is balanced by a higher LV volume as well as a higher ejection fraction and stroke volume. Participants in this healthy, multiethnic sample whose dietary patterns most closely conformed to a Mediterranean-type pattern had a modestly better LV structure and function than did participants with less–Mediterranean-like dietary patterns.”
Advanced Mediterranean Diet 