To many younger Americans, the trendy Mediterranean diet conjures up romantic associations with the Italian countryside, the brilliant blue water of the French Riviera and the sunny beaches of Greece.

Faced with the prospect of eating more fish, olive oil and garlic, they’re likely to say, “Bon Appetit!”

But doctors have found that older American heart patients aren’t necessarily lured by these international images. After a heart attack, they’re often more comforted by the tastes of the familiar foods they’ve eaten all their lives.

That’s why Dr. Katherine Tuttle’s new report strikes us as such good news. This Sacred Heart Medical Center researcher studied 202 heart attack patients for four years. She found that the American Heart Association diet, with its moderate portions of margarine and vegetable oil, lean meats and low-fat dairy products, works just as well as the Mediterranean plan.

Last week, the whole world learned about Tuttle’s research, which she presented at an American College of Cardiology conference in New Orleans. She spent much of the week explaining her work to news reporters, and stories wound up appearing all over the United States and Canada and as far away as France, Australia and South Africa.

That’s excellent reason for celebration in the Inland Northwest. Tuttle deserves our congratulations and gratitude. This good news highlights our region and reminds us of the benefits of finding new ways to support medical research in our communities.

The study itself demonstrates one significant aspect of fighting our country’s high health care costs. It focuses on an important way heart patients can be encouraged to take responsibility for their own health.

A heart-healthy diet, whether it highlights salmon or chicken, olive oil or Canola, is both a low-cost and practical way to protect against heart disease.

As Tuttle points out, her study didn’t advocate an expensive new drug or medical device. “It’s something,” she says, “that real people can do.”

With heart disease still the No. 1 killer in the United States, Tuttle’s research is particularly valuable.

The mainstream American diet may not be one of this country’s richest cultural treasures. But for those who have eaten it all their lives, it’s linked with the comforts of family, tradition and home.

The American Heart Association’s low-fat version wisely does not try to interfere with those cultural ties.

Neither diet will endorse a double cheeseburger with fries for a heart patient’s next lunch.

But whether he’d prefer to tuck into a nice Salade Nicoise or a sliced chicken sandwich on whole wheat with a big red Washington apple on the side, Tuttle’s study should still give him a reason to smile.