[increment_i]

It's also worth noting that Italians experience some of the lowest heart disease rates in the world - one of the major killers in North America. If you want to live long, I guess live like the Italians?

My completely unsubstantiated theory behind this goes like this:

1) A diet rich in (non-animal) oils, i.e. Olive oil

2) Live in a sunny, but not oppressively warm, country.

3) Give family time and traditions far more priority than career ambitions.

[NIL8]

Smoking is very common in Italy and I'm curious to know if the study elaborated on it's effects on these long-living Italians.

[jaclaz]

Well we are still going around by clichés, it is not like all Italians have a large family, are dark, wear a moustache, smoke heavily, sing frequently and have only warm, sunny climate.

We don't even have anymore (with some exceptions of course) restaurants with white/red checquered tablecloths ;).

More or less there are 60 millions people spread over a country that is roughly 1300 Km (that is 800 miles) from north to south, it is hard to generalize about diet, climate and social structures ...

To give you an example, there is a (invisible) line just north of Bologna, recipes from regions above it traditionally use butter or animal fat, recipes from regions below it use olive oil.

[toyg]

Well, lard is pretty popular in Bologna and Modena too ;) but I strongly agree with your overall argument. Italy is very different throughout, and changing all the time; stereotypes don't help medicine.