Other Mediterranean countries, such as Greece and France, are also high on the list, thanks to good diets and lower levels of heart disease.

ECONOMIST: European health

Some thin people exercise excessively and don't eat a balanced diet, and there are people in the overweight and obese categories who have good diets and are active, she said.

CNN: Thin is in, but fat might be better

Now it is up to the AHA, and Ornish, to prove that their diets are better than, or even as good as, the Mediterranean diet.

FORBES: The Mediterranean Diet: The New Gold Standard?

He said there were several studies supporting the idea that diets high in Vitamins C and E may be good for preventing asthma, and it might be that apples contained other antioxidants that produced the same effect.

BBC: Apples 'protect the lungs'

One demands that prisoners' diets be restricted to bread and water, as in the "good old days", another that bodybuilding should be encouraged to improve the nation's health.

BBC: E-petitions urge MPs to debate return of death penalty