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Olive oil, nuts, beans, fish, fruit, vegetables, and red wine … not only do these ingredients sound like a recipe for a delicious meal, but as it turns out, they can also save your life.

According to new findings published in the New England Journal of Medicine, about 30% of heart attacks, strokes, and deaths from heart disease can be prevented in high-risk individuals if they switch to the Mediterranean diet. Although people in Mediterranean countries always seemed to have lower rates of heart disease, it had never been conclusively proven that it was because of their famed diet of olive oil, plenty of fresh vegetables and fruit, very little red meat, and lots of red wine.

This new report is meaningful because it used rigorous methods to prove that dietary changes can significantly lower the risk of dying from cardiovascular disease. The scientists divided almost 7,500 adults with heart disease or diabetes into two groups: one followed the standard low-fat diet, which emphasized low-fat dairy products, grains, fruits, and vegetables. The other was assigned the Mediterranean diet, where participants ate up to 4 tablespoons of olive oil or about an ounce of nuts a day, as well as plenty of fish, legumes, fruits, and vegetables. Participants were told to drastically cut down on red meat and were encouraged to drink at least seven glasses of wine a week with meals.

It’s no secret that eating nutrient-poor processed snack foods won’t keep you healthy. Laden with sugar, salt, and fat, indulging in them fill us up and take the place of foods that have the vitamins, minerals, and phytonutrients that give us energy and keep our systems running.

Though serving sizes and nutritional information are clearly labeled on packages, most people have trouble putting down snacks after eating one serving. Why is this?

The truth is that food manufacturers carefully study what makes a snack crave-worthy to make them more addictive. Researching which colors, textures, flavors and levels of sweetness or saltiness maximize the bliss point, scientists design foods to create constant cravings and boost profits for food manufacturers.