When it comes to eating a healthy diet, nobody’s perfect.

You might think you eat a heart-healthy Mediterranean diet, for example, but it’s more than likely that what you actually eat is a “cheat-and-allow” version.

That’s the one where you eat plenty of vegetables, fruits, beans, nuts, whole grains, yogurt, fish and moderate amounts of alcohol…but also ice cream, chips and fries, and maybe the occasional hot dog or two.

Are you fooling yourself that “somewhat healthy” is still healthy? Or should you work hard to get those chips and dips out of your life for real?

That’s exactly the question that a recent large-scale global study set out to investigate.

YOUR CHEATIN’ HEART HEALTHY DIET

Researchers asked 15,000 heart disease patients in 39 countries to fill out questionnaires about how often each week they ate certain foods associated with a Mediterranean diet such as vegetables, fruit, whole grains, fish and alcohol—as well as typical “Western” refined grains, sugary desserts, sweets, soda and deep-fried foods. The study was actually part of a clinical trial for a drug to treat atherosclerosis, funded by the manufacturer of the drug, but the focus was on nutrition.

No surprise: Those who ate Mediterranean-diet foods most frequently had the lowest incidence of heart attack, stroke or death during the nearly four years of the study—7.3% vs. 10.8% for those who ate these foods least frequently.

Big surprise: Those who ate unhealthy Western-diet foods most frequently did not have an increase in cardiovascular risk.

How can that be? The working theory is that the protective effect of the healthy Mediterranean foods outweighed any harm from less healthy food.

There’s more tasty news. A 2017 analysis of 17 studies on the Mediterranean diet published in the journal Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition found that two other foods, olive oil and legumes, should be on your shopping list, too—their heart-health benefits were on a par with fruits and vegetables.

There’s more tasty news. A 2017 analysis of 17 studies on the Mediterranean diet published in the journal Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition found that two other foods, olive oil and legumes, should be on your shopping list, too—their heart-health benefits were on a par with fruits and vegetables.

Now, these results are not carte blanche to stuff yourself with donuts and French fries—which are definitely not health foods. But they are a clear message that eating some unhealthy food doesn’t have to make you unhealthy—as long as you also include the good stuff. Doesn’t that make you feel better?