Catherine Collins, chief dietitian at St George's Hospital, South London, indicated in London Times that the Mediterranean diet is the ultimate functional diet, with fruit and vegetables, whole-grain cereals, carbs, a modest amount of meat, olive oil and oily fish. "If pursued, there's no need for (artificially =enhanced) functional foods."

Click here for The Best Of All Functional Foods document

to check out the functional food benefits in the Mediterranean Harvest For Life dietary regimen.

With all the focus today on the health merits of "Functional Foods" -- which involve manufacturers adding "enhancements" into their foods -- it's important to know the pure Mediterranean style of eating has been assessed as the ultimate in Functional Foods. Mediterranean style of eating doesn't involve those highly processed foods found in a typical diet. It entails pure foods that, when eaten in combination, make a huge, virtually unmatched, contribution to health.

MHFL EQUALS THE BEST IN FUNCTIONAL FOODS: "A DIVINE MIX"

A contributor to the WebMD website has also noted, there's a "Divine Mix" at play with the Mediterranean dietary regimen. "Olive oil plays a central role, but it is not alone," says Dimitrios Trichopoulos, MD, PhD, of Harvard School of Public Health.

"It's among the divine mix of several factors that, when used in combination, help provide strong evidence of something that is very important -- eating the proper diet can significantly reduce your risk of early death. God knows what sorts of interactions take place within the foods, and we need further research to pinpoint them exactly," Trichopoulos told WebMD.

Independent nutrition experts have equated the value of moving to MHFL with the removal of trans fats from our food system in terms of potential health impact.