A health expert wowed RTE's Brendan O'Connor on his radio show on Saturday after he pinpointed the diet that can drastically improve your health.
General Practitioner Dr Mark Rowe told Brendan that the Mediterranean diet had been scientifically proven to be the most beneficial food plan for health purposes.
Speaking on the show, Dr Rowe said: "If you look at the science, and I'm a scientist, that's an eating plan or diet, as you said, that has the most science behind it.
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"The Mediterranean approach to eating reduces your risk of heart attack by 30 per cent, reduces your risk of stroke, diabetes, dementia and lengthens your telomeres which leads to better biological ageing."
Dr Rowe also said the diet can reduce the risk of mental health conditions such as depression by a staggering 33 per cent.
Explaining to Brendan how people can incorporate the diet into their lifestyle, Dr Rowe said: "What I try encourage people to do is to be better to yourself."
He added: "Try and eat a rainbow in colour every day from beetroot and blueberries through to red peppers and everything in between because eating more colour you get thousands and thousands of health boosting vito chemicals that support your long term health."
Dr Rowe said people should aim to eat 30 different plant based foods a week.
He said: "Maybe try and eat thirty different plant based foods a week if you can.
"Now, if you eat three different types of seeds on your porridge in the morning, that's three. Humous, extra virgin olive oil, so try and eat more colour. Try and eat more variety.
"And you also support your microbiome, which are the trillions of bugs in your gut that not only help you digest food but they are involved in your immune system, in inflammation, in cellular ageing and in producing probably the majority of serotonin the positively and happiness hormone."
Dr Rowe also said that mindful eating is another hugely important factor to maintain a healthy lifestyle.
He said: "Well, the opposite of mindful eating is mindless eating, which is eating when distracted, and there's such research now, Brendan, getting back to the phone that if you're eating while you're on your phone or watching tv, you'll eat significantly more calories, not just at that meal because your not really paying attention, but you don't register what you have eaten so with the following meal you'll eat more as well."
He added: "So mindfulness is really paying attention on purpose in the present moment."
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