"We have shown how adherence to the Mediterranean per diem expensescan reduce heart attacks, strokes and cardiovascular deaths by 30%".

The Full Professor of Preventive Medicine and Public Health of the University of Navarra and head of group of CIBEROBN Miguel Á. Martínez-González was received as Honorary Academician of the Royal Academy of Medicine and Surgery of Eastern Andalusia (RAMAO). At the ceremony, held at the Office of the Executive Council of the University of Malaga, the award-winner gave a speech at lecture in which he spoke about the scientific evidence that accompanies the Mediterraneanper diem expenses , which he referred to as "the only one that can be said to be capable not only of preventing and reducing cardiovascular diseases, but also breast cancer and dementia". 

Professor Martínez-González, who has led projects such as the SUN cohort (Seguimiento Universidad de Navarra) and the PREDIMED and PREDIMED Plus trials, acknowledged that during his research career he went from being "a disbeliever and agnostic" of the Mediterranean per diem expensesto "a faithful defender of this traditional dietary patron saint".

Thanks to numerous programs of study we have been able to demonstrate that there is no per diem expenses that has more scientific evidence than the Mediterranean on cardiovascular prevention, cause issue one of death in the Western world," said the also Full Professor visitor of the TH Chan School of Public Health at Harvard. We have observed that following guidelines as simple as the '14 points of adherence to the Mediterranean per diem expenses ' of the PREDIMED study managed to reduce heart attacks, strokes and cardiovascular deaths by 30%: a revolution".

Likewise, the also researcherof the CIBEROBN maintained that "the pandemic that is now upon us is that of obesity, and not enough has been done to prevent it: we should have gone to the 'causes of the causes', tackling more distant, cultural or economic determinants". He said that "it is all very well to tax sugary drinks and other so-called 'junk food', but they should be used to make fruit, vegetables, olive oil, nuts and all those foods that have been shown to be healthy cheaper". Using the case of the US, he concluded that "much of the expenseon health could be saved if good preventive medicine was applied".

A departmentleader in scientific productivity

The ceremony was attended by, among other professionals, the academic from issueJoaquín Fernández-Crehuet, who gave the Laudatio, in which he highlighted that "the Epidemiology and Public Health Unit that Dr Martínez-González set up in 1995 is today one of the most scientifically productive groups of researchin the country". The ceremony was also attended by the General Managerof the Andalusian Health Service, Miguel Guzman, the delegate of Health of Malaga, Carlos Bautista, and the President of the high schoolof Doctors of Malaga, Pedro Navarro. The RAMAO was recognised as an Academy by Fernando VI in 1757. Until now, it had granted the distinction of Honorary Academician to 24 national or international scientific and professional personalities of renowned prestige, such as Gregorio Marañón y Posadillo (1952), Severo Ochoa (1967), Pedro Laín Entralgo (1972), Gertrude B. Elion (1993), Manuel Cruz Hernandez (1994) or Jesús San Miguel (2014), current medical director of the Clínica Universidad de Navarra and Director Scientific of the Cima.